25 June 07 - 16:30AMA Backs Down From Video Game Addiction
Prominent doctors and addiction experts have strongly opposed the idea of classifying video games as a formal disorder during a debate at the American Medical Association's annual meeting. The debate is a prelude to an upcoming vote which will see the AMA committee deciding whether to include video game addiction in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).It's just a bad habit, like smoking. So just stop it already!
Never before had the A.M.A. taken such a strong stand against such a powerful antagonist; indeed, for decades the association had served as a loyal ally of the tobacco industry. When the Surgeon General's report condemning smoking was published in 1964, the A.M.A. refused to endorse it, saying instead that
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