When playing video game becomes addictive disorder

Too much of video game can do more harm to children than was thought to be, some doctors say.

How much of video game is too much for kids? There are telltale signs – teens holing up in their rooms, ignoring friends and family and even food and a shower, falling grades and rising belligerency. The culprit need not be alcohol or drugs but a surfeit of video games which for certain kids can be as powerfully addictive as heroin.

The Council on Science and Public Health of the American Medical Association (AMA) has now officially classified this behavior as a psychiatric disorder with a view to raising awareness and enabling sufferers to get insurance coverage for treatment.

The AMA is lobbying for the disorder to be included in a widely used mental illness manual created and published by the American Psychiatric Association.

Makers of video game hate the notion that their products can cause a psychiatric disorder. Even some mental health experts say that labelling the habit a formal addiction is going too far.

Blizzard Entertainment’s teen-rated, monster-killing World of Warcraft is among the most popular. A spokesman of the company declined to comment on whether the games can cause addiction.

Dr James Scully, medical director of the American Psychiatric Association, says the group will consider seriously the American Medical Association’s stand in the process of revising the diagnostic manual. The current manual was published in 1994. The next edition is to be completed in 2012.

Though the American Medical Association’s recommendations would not immediately change existing laws or the official listing of psychiatric diagnoses, a tough stand from America’s largest doctor group eventually could have a big impact on everything from how games are rated to how doctors respond when patients or their parents complain about the effects of overuse of video game.

The AMA, noting that most research on media violence and children has focused on television, music and movies, has explored a growing body of evidence about the physical, behavioral and psychological and social effects of excessive playing of video game.

Epileptic seizures, for example, have been associated with certain video games including Nintendo’s Pokémon and Super Mario. Some studies also have linked violent video games with aggressive behavior.

Nearly 90% of youngsters in the United States play video games and 15% of them – that is, over 5 million children – may be addicted, according to data collected by the American Medical Association.

A support group named On-Line Gamers Anonymous has numerous postings on its website from gamers seeking help. Liz Woolley of the United States created the website after her 21-year-old son fatally shot himself in 2001 while playing an online game which she says destroyed her son’s life.

In a posting in February 2007, a 13-year-old identified only as Ian writes of playing video games for nearly 12 hours straight and that he felt suicidal and wondered if he was addicted. The boy also said he thought he needed help.

The On-Line Gamers Anonymous website also has postings from adults, mostly men, who say video game addiction has cost them jobs, family lives and self-esteem.

According to the report prepared by the American Medical Association’s Council on Science and Public Health Science, based on a review of scientific literature, “dependence-like behaviors are more likely in children who start playing video games at younger ages.”

Overuse most often occurs with online role-playing games involving multiple players.

Dr Karen Pierce, a psychiatrist at Children’s Memorial Hospital, Chicago, says she sees at least two children a week who play video games excessively. She says she treats it like any addiction and that creating a separate diagnosis is unnecessary.

Dr Michael Brody, head of the TV and media committee at the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, has praised the American Medical Association for having brought the problem to public attention. Excessive playing of video-game, Dr Brody adds, could be a symptom for other things, such as depression or social anxieties that already have their own diagnoses.