Posted by Jacob Goldstein
Later this month, the American Medical Association’s policy-setting body will decide whether to recommend including “Internet/video game addiction” in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (a.k.a. DSM), the standard-setting catalog of mental illness.
A 10-page document prepared by the AMA’s Council on Science and Public Health (complete with three pages of footnotes) suggests that addiction may be present in those whose excessive time in front of the video screen leads to “social dysfunction/disruption.” “The DSM-IV disorder most similar to the pattern of behaviors observed with overuse of video games is pathological gambling,” the report says. Video game addiction is most commonly associated with massively multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPGs, of course) — think Dungeons & Dragons, with thousands of players tromping through an online universe.
Do video game addicts suffer withdrawal? Hard to say: “Some excessive users do not exhibit ‘cravings’ for the games if they are unavailable, while other users insist they cannot reduce the time they spend on the games,” the report says.
The Health Blog got Mohamed K. Khan, chairman the Council on Science and Public Health, on the phone this afternoon. He explained why listing in the DSM matters: “Once you begin to classify the patients, you can do better research into the disease. You can tailor therapies . . . . It can affect reimbursement because insurers will recognize it as a disorder.
The panel’s recommendations will be voted on the AMA’s House of Delegates, the group’s policy-setting body, at a meeting later this month. But even if it votes in favor of recognizing video game addiction, the final decision will be up to the American Psychiatric Association, which oversees the DSM.
Jeszcze w tym miesiącu Amerykańskie Towarzystwo Medyczne (AMA) zadecyduje, czy zarekomendować "uzależnienie od gier/Internetu" Amerykańskiemu Towarzystwu Psychiatrycznemu do klasyfikacji jako DSM-IV.

10-stronnicowy dokument przygotowany przez AMA sugeruje, że to uzależnienie może prowadzić do "dysfunkcji społecznej". W raporcie czytamy: "Zaburzenia DSM-IV, bardzo podobne do wzorców zachowania związanego z uzależnieniem od gier, to patologia”. Uzależnienie od gier komputerowych jest najczęściej wiązane z grami MMORPG.