When is too much...well, too much?

When it comes to children's video game use, this question is not easy to answer, but a recent article in U.S. News and World Report highlights the importance of asking by stating that 8.5 percent of 8-to-18-year-old gamers can be considered pathologically addicted.

Although the American Psychiatric Association does not yet recognize game addiction, recent research out of the Stanford University School of Medicine has shown that "areas of the brain responsible for generating feelings of addiction and reward are activated during game play." And plenty of parents have the anecdotal evidence to prove it.

See CMCH's February Parent Perspective for one parent's experience with her daughter's gaming addiction.

**Update** 05/15/08:  One of our readers noted that the President of the American Medical Association recently issued a commentary on video game overuse.

Comments

[David]

Everyone always throws around the word "addiction" when talking about electronic media. It's good to see some actual research taking a scientific approach to this concept.