IS VIDEOGAME ADDICTION A MENTAL DISORDER?

[soloist]

The American Medical Association will be deciding this month whether or not to recommend that video game and Internet addiction should be included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, reports the Wall Street Journal on its Health Blog.

The House of Delegates, the AMA's decision-making body, will vote on the issue later this month. If it decides that excessive gaming constitutes a mental disorder, the decision will then be passed upward to the American Psychiatric Association, which has the final say on these matters.

The decision to vote on the issue comes from a recommendation made by Mohamed K. Khan--chairman of the Council on Science and Public Health--in a 10-page report entitled "Emotional and Behavioural Effects, Including Addictive Potential, of Video Games."

Khan writes that "although video game overuse can be associated with any type of video game," the most common to exhibit signs of addiction were players of massively multiplayer online role-playing games, such as World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI, or EverQuest. He stated, "Current data suggest these individuals are somewhat marginalised socially, perhaps experiencing high levels of emotional loneliness and/or difficulty with real-life social interactions. Current theory is that these individuals achieve more control of their social relationships and more success in social relationships in the virtual reality realm than in real relationships."

The report states that video game overuse most closely resembles the behaviours associated with pathological gambling. Alongside adults, dependence-like behaviours were also said to be found in children, although it was unclear whether gamers experienced traditional "withdrawal symptoms" when unable to play. The report reads, "Some excessive users do not exhibit any 'cravings' for the games if they are unavailable, while other users insist they cannot reduce the time they spend on the games."

-GT-

[Roemello]

Not sure if it's the gaming that causes the 'disorder' or the individuals themselves in these extreme cases who are really just whacked out in the head to begin with... I tend to think it's more a case of the latter

[soloist]

Difficult it is for me to see gaming addiction as a disorder. It would
seem the Medical Association can benefit from excessive game
playing to be categorized as an addiction because they ca-
n now prescribe medication for it, which in terms me-
ans more money for both generic and standard ve-
ersions of the medication since the same compa-
nies usually owns both. Think of any other f-
orm of addiction and the "remedies" avail-
able for treating them and notice the s-
uccess rate being less than stellar o-
r. Also, notice how much each m-
ethod costs? In my opinion, th-
is idea is just another mon-
ey-making scheme for t-
he MA in an attempt
to capitalize off of
"uncharted w-
aters" or an
untappe-
d reso-
urc-
e.

[TStodden]

Pretty much the solution to everything that medical associations usually diagnose is more drugs...

I think it's going to be EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to come to such conclusions. While I do have a tendency to go a little heavy on the gaming (say, blow off a Saturday playing like GTA:SA for 4-6 hours), but I tend to compensate with lighter gaming afterwards (like Snood or Bejeweled 2 for a few minutes) or do some reading.

When I do take a gaming bender, they'd probably say that I'm addicted... but the other times, I'd probably seem normal.

Probably the safe bet is to agree that I'm normal... with a bit of "Crazy" mixed in.

[soloist]

With that being the case, consider my
place of residence quarantine (la-
ughs) - for I too have played
numerous titles for hou-
rs at a time. Even th-
ough I have had
a bit of a dro-
ught rece-
ntly, I
do
game
rather of-
ten... but I se-
e gaming as a me-
ans to avoid troubling
scenarios. A pleasant distr-
action and an enjoyable hobby!