“Addiction experts say video games not an addiction” (url)
from http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070624/tc_nm/addiction_videogames_dc_1&printer=1;_ylt=AtaXCrGaowz9GvVrnObpxQJU.3QA
By Julie Steenhuysen
Sun Jun 24, 7:55 PM ET
Doctors backed away on Sunday from a controversial proposal to designate video game addiction as a mental disorder akin to alcoholism, saying psychiatrists should study the issue more.
Addiction experts also strongly opposed the idea at a debate at the American Medical Association’s annual meeting.
They said more study is needed before excessive use of video and online games — a problem that affects about 10 percent of players — could be considered a mental illness.
“There is nothing here to suggest that this is a complex physiological disease state akin to alcoholism or other substance abuse disorders, and it doesn’t get to have the word addiction attached to it,” said Dr. Stuart Gitlow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
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