Video game addiction is not a mental disorder
- — 26 June, 2007 20:29
The American Medical Association (AMA) has chosen not to classify video-game addiction as a mental illness, stating that further research into the problem is necessary before conclusions can be made.
Some experts have suggested that video-game addiction, which affects 10 percent of players, is the same as drug or alcohol addictions where users indulge in an activity excessively without recognizing that there's a problem.
Doctors in the US had originally considered including 'excessive gameplay' in the American Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, before deciding the issue should be investigated by psychiatrists over the next five years.
The AMA also opposed the inclusion of video game addiction in the 2012 Manual, which is used by the American Psychiatric Association.
It has not yet been proven whether video games are addictive but it has been seen to interfere with other activities even including eating and sleeping, according to Dr Louis Kraus of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
