Gaming junkies get no diagnosis: AMA report on video game "Addiction"

www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/467/csaph12a07.doc

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-addict28jun28,0,6082192.story?coll=la-home-center
Gaming junkies get no diagnosis
By Alex PhamLA Times Staff WriterJune 28, 2007
Video-game buffs might feel hooked on their favorite titles, but theywon't be officially addicted anytime soon.Saying the issue needed more study, the American Medical Assn. onWednesday scaled back a controversial proposal that sought to declareexcessive video-game playing a mental disorder akin to pathologicalgambling.The association also decided against urging parents to limit to twohours a day the amount of time their kids play video games, watchtelevision and surf the Internet."While more study is needed on the addictive potential of video games,the AMA remains concerned about the behavioral, health and societaleffects of video-game and Internet overuse," Dr. Ronald M. Davis, theassociation's president, said in a statement from its annual meeting inChicago. "We urge parents to closely monitor their children's use ofvideo games and the Internet."The 250,000-member physician organization drew national headlines lastweek by pressing forward on a proposal to "strongly encourage" thatvideo-game addiction be labeled a formal disorder. The proposal wouldhave asked the American Psychiatric Assn. to consider including"video-game addiction as a formal diagnostic disorder" in the Diagnosticand Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, considered by experts to bethe authoritative handbook on mental illness.Instead, the medical association Wednesday removed the word "addiction"and decided to simply forward its report expressing concerns about"video-game overuse" to the psychiatric group, which is revising itsmental-health manual.Maressa Hecht Orzack, director of the computer-addiction studies centerat McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., said the word choice wasirrelevant."The fact is, it's a behavior that's out of control," Orzack said,noting that some of her patients have trouble with school, work andtheir relationships because of their game-playing habits. "Whether youcall it addiction, overuse or excessive use, it's the same thing. It's acondition that interferes with a person's mental health."But some in the video-game industry, including the EntertainmentSoftware Assn., were pleased with the toned-down language. The tradegroup for the $30-billion game industry "supports mental-health experts,the APA and others within the AMA who agree that it would be prematureto conclude that video-game 'addiction' is a mental disorder," saidMichael Gallagher, its president.Industry executives were less happy with another recommendation in thereport approved Wednesday: The physicians' organization plans to lobbythe Federal Trade Commission to improve the current voluntary video-gamerating system, which is now run by the industry-funded EntertainmentSoftware Rating Board."We would like to see a ratings system that better alerts parents to thecontent of the video game and recommended age of the player, so they candecide whether or not their child should be playing it," the AMA's Davissaid.The board defended its system, which assigns ratings based on the levelof violence or sexual innuendo in games.The medical group's proposal to review the ratings system "seems todisregard the fact that the vast majority of parents are satisfied withthe ESRB ratings and use them regularly to choose games for theirchildren," ratings board President Patricia Vance said in a statement.