| Doctors backed away from a controversial | | | | A committee of the influential physicians' group |
| proposal to designate video game addiction as a | | | | had proposed video game addiction be listed as a |
| mental disorder akin to alcoholism, saying | | | | mental disorder in the American Diagnostic and |
| psychiatrists should study the issue more. | | | | Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, a guide used |
| Addiction experts also strongly opposed the idea | | | | by the American Psychiatric Association in |
| at a debate at the American Medical Association's | | | | diagnosing mental illness. Such a move would ease |
| annual meeting. They said more study is needed | | | | the path for insurance coverage of video game |
| before excessive use of video and online games - | | | | addiction. |
| a problem that affects about 10% of players - | | | | Even before debate on the subject began, the |
| could be considered a mental illness. | | | | committee that made the proposal backed away |
| "There is nothing here to suggest that this is a | | | | from its position, and instead recommended that |
| complex physiological disease state akin to | | | | the American Psychiatric Association consider the |
| alcoholism or other substance abuse disorders, | | | | change when it revises its next diagnostic manual |
| and it doesn't get to have the word addiction | | | | in five years. The psychiatrist group has said if |
| attached to it," said Dr Stuart Gitlow of the | | | | the science warrants, it could be considered for |
| American Society of Addiction Medicine and Mt | | | | inclusion in the next diagnostic manual, which will |
| Sinai School of Medicine in New York. | | | | be published in 2012. |