Almost 10 percent of American teens are video game addicts

The result of a latest study has shown that almost 10 percent of American teenagers are suffering from video games addiction.

The research conducted by Dr. Douglas Gentitle, Assistant Professor in Psychology at the Iowa State University revealed that this so called video games addiction, which is termed as a pathological disorder has already, affected the normal activity of the involved teenager. Gentile based his assessment on the January 2007 Harris Poll survey of 1,178 randomly selected American youths aged from eight to 18. In his study, Gentile also found out that 8.5 per cent of the survey respondents were showing symptoms that would be classified by the manual as pathological if they had been gambling instead of playing video games. The behaviour is classed as pathological if it exhibits at least six of 11 symptoms.

Gentile said he was surprised that so many youngsters were showing pathological symptoms of video game playing. He started studying video game addiction in 1999 because he did not believe it existed, he said. He assumed parents called it "addiction" because they just did not understand why their kids played video games so much. He added that now we know the condition exists, and the evidence is there, we need more research to work out how best to treat it.

There is still a lot to discover, he explained:
He said many disorders are part of a complex pattern with other disorders and illnesses. For example, pathological video gaming could be a symptom of depression, so it is important to understand the underlying patterns in order to treat them.

Gentile is now working on longitudinal and clinical studies into the risk factors and symptoms of pathological video gaming in children and teenagers.