Docs Say No To Gaming As Addiction
The American Medical Association's annual meeting resulted in an argument against moving to classify video game addiction as its own unique mental disorder, like alcoholism or the wearing of sweater vests. This happened not because the AMA is a bunch of frag-happy gamers, but because they feel the subject needs more study by psychiatric professionals.
While adding "video games addiction" to the DSM (AKA American Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, AKA the Tiny family history) was proposed, the debate seemed minimal, and the AMA meeting concluded that the American Psychiatric Association should not consider a change to the DSM until the manual scheduled revision in five years.
Dr. Stuart Gitlow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York had this to say about the much-hyped and very hypothetical condition of gaming addiction:
"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..."
But the AMA and the APA aren't dismissing the idea at all, and are in fact taking the study of gaming's impact on the mind very seriously. The APA:
"If the science warrants it, this proposed disorder will be considered for inclusion in DSM-V, which is due to be published in 2012. Revising DSM requires a years-long, rigorous process – one that is transparent and open to suggestions from our colleagues in the medical and mental health communities and the public...
"Psychiatrists are concerned about the wellbeing of children who spend so much time with video games that they fail to develop friendships, get appropriate outdoor exercise or suffer in their schoolwork... Certainly a child who spends an excessive amount of time playing video games may be exposed to violence and may be at higher risks for behavioral and other health problems..."
This won't stop the yammering, but it's a good foundation to have our scientific minds thinking, well, scientifically, rather than hysterically.
Doctors Refuse To Classify Game Addiction As Disorder [Gamasutra]
tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff, Miscellany on 26 June 2007
· Comments (5)
Other stuff like this: ama, apa, dsm, gaming addiction
There's no way that gaming qualifies as an addiction unless indeed, the wearing of sweater vests does too.
Gaming can certainly fall under OTHER psychological disorders as the focus of obsessive activity or other behavior, but there's no way it meets the qualifying criteria as its own disorder.
Opening the issue to peer review should kill it, hopefully.
The thing is though, anything can qualify as an addiction, if you're addicted to it. In California I know there's a Gaming Clinic somewhere for MMORPG players trying to get off, seriously.
A Softer World! Nice! Whoever put that graphic up, I salute you.
Well yeah it wont be put in there for now because revisions are annoying. They've already revised the DSM-IV once now with the DSM-IV-TR. But in 5 years we will see it put in there most likely with the coming of the DSM-V.
While I am no advocate for the DSM with its vague afflictions that can easily be misdiagnosed not to mention the democratic nature of the supposedly scientific tome, I still think there is something to this idea of gaming being a potential avenue of dependency. If we consider gambling and shopping addictive even though it is not a chemical being directly introduced to the brain (like say, cocain), then why not gaming?
The way I see it, people can and do have gaming addictions and should have people available to try and help them if they want it. The fact that it was rejected at this conference does not mean it is not a problem people need help with, so I think it is problematic when people use this article as some kind of vindication for gamers. Should it be added to the DSM? I don't know since I don't think the DSM should be used by mental health professionals. Frankly, i think doctors should be more concerned with helping patients than diagnosing them, which is what the DSM tends to promote. But that does not change the fact that gaming is still potentially a problem for some people.