Video Game Addiction to go in DSM?

[Anasazi23]

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It's possible.

Now I can finally go on disability for playing LOTRO.

APA to consider adding video game addiction to DSM.
The Washington Times (7/16, Goff) reported that "[f]or the vast majority of video game enthusiasts, games are just...a high-tech" pastime. But, for some, video games make it "tough to separate the needs of reality from the needs of the game." For that reason, "the American Psychiatric Association (APA) is considering adding video game addiction to its next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)," due out in 2012. According to an American Medical Association (AMA) report, "about nine percent of gamers take part" in "massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) such as...World of Warcraft." Because MMORPGs "never end," addiction "symptoms, such as experiencing withdrawal symptoms and jeopardizing relationships, most often are found among those who intensely play" them. Psychiatrist Jerald Block, M.D., "says the majority of people who have an issue with gaming also have other disorders, such as depression, anxiety, or AD/HD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder)." But, addiction psychiatrist Stuart Gitlow, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., said at AMA's 2007 meeting, "There is nothing here to suggest that [excessive video game playing] is a complex physiological disease state akin to alcoholism or other substance-abuse disorders."

 

[HCE]

It's possible.

Now I can finally go on disability for playing LOTRO.

Wondering if it has reached that point whereby you are a danger to yourself or others, requiring involuntary commitment....

 

[OldPsychDoc]

Wondering if it has reached that point whereby you are a danger to yourself or others, requiring involuntary commitment....

Or perhaps requiring an referral to his state's HSP for physician impairment?

 

[Anasazi23]

Last night I finally achieved level 50 on my Loremaster, and obtained the lesser eagle pet which will provide +1 in-combat power regeneration in addition to in-battle rez should I die.

Took me months to get there. It only goes up from here. Soon the Mines of Moria expansion will be released, where I shall wreak my havoc upon the unsuspecting goblin population whilst I make the long journey to Helm's Deep.

No, I do not have a problem.

 

[HCE]

Last night I finally achieved level 50 on my Loremaster, and obtained the lesser eagle pet which will provide +1 in-combat power regeneration in addition to in-battle rez should I die.

Took me months to get there. It only goes up from here. Soon the Mines of Moria expansion will be released, where I shall wreak my havoc upon the unsuspecting goblin population whilst I make the long journey to Helm's Deep.

No, I do not have a problem.

I'm neither a psychiatrist nor a medical student, but I'm concerned....

 

[OldPsychDoc]

I'm neither a psychiatrist nor a medical student, but I'm concerned....

For our moderator, or for the unsuspecting goblin hordes? 😀

 

[HCE]

For our moderator, or for the unsuspecting goblin hordes? 😀

actually both, which probably puts me right into a DSM slot....

 

[Doc Samson]

Last night I finally achieved level 50 on my Loremaster, and obtained the lesser eagle pet which will provide +1 in-combat power regeneration in addition to in-battle rez should I die.

Took me months to get there. It only goes up from here. Soon the Mines of Moria expansion will be released, where I shall wreak my havoc upon the unsuspecting goblin population whilst I make the long journey to Helm's Deep.

No, I do not have a problem.

Wow... really... just wow. Would say more, but I've written entire threads about comic books so it's a little bit of a pot/kettle situation.

 

[Faebinder]

As a long time DND champion and self declared king of Geeks I reject this diagnosis. Yes I have survived 3 days on nothing but pizza and mountain dew to get a few levels in a multi-user dungeon... back in the days when it wasnt even video animated and all text on the internet.

I hate you DSM V!🙁

 

[Solideliquid]

We actually had a lady on our inpatient unit for playing World of Warcraft so long she neglected her infant, and had second degree burns on her thighs from placing her hot laptop there too long.

The attending on her team discharged her the next morning because he thought she didn't really belong on the inpatient unit. His decisions have, on the other hand been kind of paternalistic, so it's an interesting pattern.

 

[Jesus DO]

It's possible.

Now I can finally go on disability for playing LOTRO.

Interesting!

I wonder what the criteria will be like?

 

[josehernandez94]

my buddies and i recently accrued over 12 days of playing time on call of duty 4... that doesn't include down time or intermission between matches, it's 12 full days just of playing! i wouldn't call it an addiction though, i'd call it fourth year of med school.

incidentally, i was LETHAL with a silenced mp5, frags x 3, uav jammer, and extreme conditioning. 43 kills in one match!

 

[whopper]

I did my grand rounds on this subject. The AMA asked the APA to investigate this matter more for consideration after a specfic group (I'm not recalling which one) presented data to the AMA that video game playing can reach levels that are pathological.

The use of the word "addiction" though we all know what its referring towards can be inappropriate because addiction implies the use of a substance. Its a reason why Pathological Gambling is not called Gambling Addiction.

MMORPGs have been found to be the most "addicting" (yes I know I'm not using the term properly). In other countries, its already considered an "addiction" with video game clinics opened in China, S. Korea & Amsterdam.

 

[Solideliquid]

Now I know what I'm going to present for grand rounds 🙂

 

[whopper]

Not to brag but I was told my grand rounds was excellent. Actually my graduating class had a number of excellent grand rounds.

Some issues of relevance presented in my ground rounds...

+MMORPGs (mentioned above).
+the current state of the research into pathological video gaming (what I called it because the DSM calls gambling "Addiction" Pathological Gambling
+studies showing the relationship of dopamine release with video games
+cases of people with enough criteria to meet an Impulse Control DO as a direct result of playing video games & the pathological effects it created on their lives
+health effects (Playstation Thumb, metabolic problems)
+What the AMA & APA was presented when they were asked to consider video gaming as "addictive"

But also--
+beneficial aspects of video games: cognitive benefits
+new generation video games may have some health & excercise benefits (e.g. Wii sports, reduction of chronic pain)
+use of video games to treat PTSD & ADHD (effective in studies).

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

Last night I finally achieved level 50 on my Loremaster, and obtained the lesser eagle pet which will provide +1 in-combat power regeneration in addition to in-battle rez should I die.

Took me months to get there. It only goes up from here. Soon the Mines of Moria expansion will be released, where I shall wreak my havoc upon the unsuspecting goblin population whilst I make the long journey to Helm's Deep.

No, I do not have a problem.

You seriously have a problem man...you really spent that much time on your loremaster when everyone clearly knows that the Burglar is better for soloing Elite Mobs? I mean you get solid damage plus evade, and if you chose man as your race you get your 3000 morale heal....

Jeez, I figured after med school one would be wiser at choosing his/her class.

 

[Anasazi23]

You seriously have a problem man...you really spent that much time on your loremaster when everyone clearly knows that the Burglar is better for soloing Elite Mobs? I mean you get solid damage plus evade, and if you chose man as your race you get your 3000 morale heal....

Jeez, I figured after med school one would be wiser at choosing his/her class.

I'm not denying the awesomeness of the burg...a burg and I solo'd almost the entire book 12 the other day. You can imagine the time investment and difficulty in getting a loremaster to level 50 though, compared to a burgler.

Looking forward to trying the new warden or runemaster class.

Which server you on? I play on Brandywine.

 

[Ollie123]

Not surprised in the least that they are considering it. Its becoming a very serious problem and its only going to continue to grow since there are several entire generations where only a small subset of the population has been exposed to games and therefore had the opportunity to develop a problem.

I actually looked into this when I was researching graduate schools, but couldn't find anyone that really fit my interests - I'm settled on tobacco research for now, but hopefully I'll branch out to do some work in this area in the near future.

Does anyone know who the major players researching this are right now? I only know of the Stanford lab.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

I'm not denying the awesomeness of the burg...a burg and I solo'd almost the entire book 12 the other day. You can imagine the time investment and difficulty in getting a loremaster to level 50 though, compared to a burgler.

Looking forward to trying the new warden or runemaster class.

Which server you on? I play on Brandywine.

Brandywine as well, gotta stay on the server with the highest population. My old server "Firetree" was dead 80% of the time I signed on. I was just joking, LMs are of course great, and even when you're soloing since you have a pet so it isn't quite as lonely.
Hmm...do you think if we ran a rift raids together I could count that as shadowing on my app?

Sorry to hijack the post, I did find the part about ADHD and video game addiction quite close to home. I knew depression went hand in hand with it, but knew I wasn't depressed. Good info.

 

[RaistlinMajere]

Last night I finally achieved level 50 on my Loremaster, and obtained the lesser eagle pet which will provide +1 in-combat power regeneration in addition to in-battle rez should I die.

Took me months to get there. It only goes up from here. Soon the Mines of Moria expansion will be released, where I shall wreak my havoc upon the unsuspecting goblin population whilst I make the long journey to Helm's Deep.

No, I do not have a problem.

Awesome. Simply awesome.

 

[Anasazi23]

Brandywine as well, gotta stay on the server with the highest population. My old server "Firetree" was dead 80% of the time I signed on. I was just joking, LMs are of course great, and even when you're soloing since you have a pet so it isn't quite as lonely.
Hmm...do you think if we ran a rift raids together I could count that as shadowing on my app?

Sorry to hijack the post, I did find the part about ADHD and video game addiction quite close to home. I knew depression went hand in hand with it, but knew I wasn't depressed. Good info.

Shadowning? Sure, why not. We all have to stick together. You gonna play a runemaster or warden next?

Awesome. Simply awesome.

Indeed. 😎

 

[HCE]

So, what started out as a discussion about Video Gaming addiction and its possible inclusion in DSM has become a discussion about everyone's gaming accomplishments....yikes....😱

 

[whopper]

Only game I'm allowing myself to play is KumaGames. You can download it. Its free--its good & its military which I like. I've actually considered using Kumagames as a type of exposure therapy for PTSD patients. Haven't done it yet but there's studies backing use of military computer games for PTSD tx.

I won't get on a MMORPG because I know I will get "addicted" to it. I get "addicted" enough as it is to 4x Strategy games, but the thing with those games is once I've won them a few times, I get it out of my system because the random reward intervals become fixed. That takes about 2-4 weeks, during which I'm behind the computer every free moment & my wife is ticked off with me.

Remember that the random reward intervals are the ones that are the hardest to break?

(as you learn more about the game, the reward intervals are randome because you are still learning it, as you master it the reward intervals become fixed).

MMORPGs per studies--well those random reward intervals tend to stay random because the other players being controlled by humans--they're harder to predict that computer AI.

 

[Faebinder]

Only game I'm allowing myself to play is KumaGames. You can download it. Its free--its good & its military which I like. I've actually considered using Kumagames as a type of exposure therapy for PTSD patients. Haven't done it yet but there's studies backing use of military computer games for PTSD tx.

I won't get on a MMORPG because I know I will get "addicted" to it. I get "addicted" enough as it is to 4x Strategy games, but the thing with those games is once I've won them a few times, I get it out of my system because the random reward intervals become fixed. That takes about 2-4 weeks, during which I'm behind the computer every free moment & my wife is ticked off with me.

Remember that the random reward intervals are the ones that are the hardest to break?


(as you learn more about the game, the reward intervals are randome because you are still learning it, as you master it the reward intervals become fixed).

MMORPGs per studies--well those random reward intervals tend to stay random because the other players being controlled by humans--they're harder to predict that computer AI.

HAHAHHA sounds like you didnt get to play your graduation gift yet. 😉

 

[whopper]

Don't worry, you think someone with 2 Master Replicas lightable lightsabers, modified to carry military strength Luxeon LEDs to light up those babies isn't going to play a Star Wars game that was rated best of the year?

Just can't afford to right now--with me being new to my job, still getting used to the system, having to write forensic reports for the first time & getting the feeling like I'm a first year resident all over again.

Though I think I'm in the right field. I'm actually loving it--just getting home real tired.