Dave Taylor always knew his lust for playing "Fallout" and "Total Annihilation" bordered on the pathological. The video games would hold the West Hollywood software programmer in such a vise-like grip that he'd often play for 24-hour stretches, forestalling sleep, skipping meals and twisting himself in knots to delay bathroom breaks.
"It's super unhealthy," he said. "But man, I'm just so swept away in another world and so focused on my goals that I don't care. It hurts to be away from the game."
Now some doctors are lobbying to give his condition a formal medical diagnosis -- video game addiction.
The American Medical Assn. is scheduled to debate such a proposal in Chicago on Sunday, then vote on it early next week. Backed by the Maryland State Medical Society, the proposal advocates that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, considered by many psychiatrists to be the final word for assessing mental illness, include video game addiction.
The proposal also would have doctors exhort parents to curb their children's use of the Internet, television and video games to two hours a day. In addition, it would have the AMA, the influential physician organization with 250,000 members, lobby the Federal Trade Commission to improve the current system for rating video game content.
Getting the AMA to deem video game addiction a psychiatric disorder is the first step in a long process required to create a new mental health diagnosis. The ultimate arbiter is the American Psychiatric Assn., which publishes the authoritative DSM guide on mental disorders, currently in its fourth version. Getting APA approval could take years.
Executives in the $30-billion game industry are already on the defensive. They say the measures are not supported by scientific evidence.
"The American Medical Assn. is making premature conclusions without the benefit of complete and thorough data," said Michael Gallagher, president of the Entertainment Software Assn., a trade group that represents video game publishers.
But doctors in favor of the proposal say the condition exists and needs to be recognized by the medical establishment so it can be properly treated.
It's already happening in South Korea. In 2005, government officials there sent psychologists into Internet gaming cafes to warn players of addiction dangers after a man died of heart failure brought on by exhaustion and dehydration after a 50-hour binge playing "World of Warcraft." A spokesman for Blizzard Entertainment, the game's Irvine-based creator, declined to comment on the case.
