Well, South Korean psychiatrists Han et al report that Bupropion sustained release treatment decreases craving for video games and cue-induced brain activity in patients with Internet video game addiction.They took 11 people with "Internet Game Addiction" - the game being Starcraft, this being South Korea - and gave them the drug bupropion (Wellbutrin), an antidepressant that's also used in drug addiction and smoking cessation. These guys (because, predictably, they were all guys) were seriously hooked, playing on average at least 4 hours per day.
Six were absent from school because of playing Internet video game in Internet cafes for more than 2 months. Two IAGs had been divorced because of excessive Internet use at night.They helpfully summarize Starcraft for the layperson:
As a military leader for one of three species, players must gather resources for training and expanding their species’ forces. Utilizing various strategies and alliances with other species, players attempt to lead their own species to victory.Which is all true, but it doesn't quite communicate the sheer obsessiveness that's require to win this game. As Penny Arcade said "it is OCD masquerading as recreation", and that's coming from someone who literally plays video games for a living.
Anyway, apparently the drug worked:
After 6 weeks of bupropion SR treatment in the IAG group, there were significant decreases in terms of craving for playing StarCraft (23.6%), total playing game time (35.4%), and Internet Addiction Scale scores (15.4%)They also did some fMRI and found that the addict's brains responded more strongly to pictures of Zerglings than did control people, and that the drug reduced activity a bit. But there was no placebo group, so we have no idea whether this was the drug or not.
Sadly, the point is moot, because Starcraft II has just come out, and it's more addictive than ever. I'm off to try and optimize my Terran build order, and by God I will get those 10 marines out in the first 5 minutes if it takes me all night...
Han DH, Hwang JW, & Renshaw PF (2010). Bupropion sustained release treatment decreases craving for video games and cue-induced brain activity in patients with Internet video game addiction. Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology, 18 (4), 297-304 PMID: 20695685
19 comments:
OCD responds to dual monoamine agonists.
1. Bupropion is a combined dopamine and serotonin agonist
2. Combined monoamine agonists alleviate not only craving but also obsessive compulsive disorders (1994).
3. Rothman at NIDA has been talking about dual deficit disorders in addiction for more than 10 years.
Concomitant use of the precursors levodopa and 5-HTP when used appropriately also remit craving and OCD.
Having known many gamers, 4 hours a day doesn't seem terribly like a terribly heavy gaming schedule (though I see now that it says "at least"). The guys I've known who seemed to actually have an addiction (that is, it kept them from getting other things done with their lives) were more on the order of 8-10 hours a day. It sounds like the sample had some pretty bad problems, though.
I couldn't get ahold of the full text, but I'd be interested to see how they explained away the need to have a control group. Basically, this study tells us nothing specific about bupropion. Yet it was still published. Oh, this world we live in...
Well not all, those was the worst cases. There are lots that still active in schools and healthy family even they play, you just know how to control your self. But the findings and experiment of Bupropion looks interesting.. well just hope this will be the answer of to much obsessions.
I just realized that I should have called this post "Stimpacks for Starcraft Addiction".
That's really funny if you're a psychopharmacologist Starcraft fan... hmm, that may just be me.
I took wellbutrin for a couple of weeks. After that i felt like biting the head of a bat, or machinegunning a maternityward.
Worse then meth.
Sounds a lot like a stimpack.
"a powerful mix of synthetic adrenaline, endorphins, and a psychotropic aggression enhancer. Marines on stims benefit from greatly increased speed and reflexes, but are subject to long-term side effects including and not limited to insomnia, weight loss, mania/hypomania, seizures, paranoiac hallucinations, internal hemorrhaging, and cerebral deterioration. Nonetheless, both commanders and the marines themselves stand by the use of stims as essential to their continued survival and effectiveness on the battlefield."
Well it sure helped against the depression. Just the tiny side effect it can turn you into someone with steroid rage is maybe a drawback.
Should be taken off the market imo, or relabeled. 'Caution, do not take this drug if you are strong enough to carry a gun'
It would be best if the first tests of these kind of psychoactive drugs would be done on the developers first, then by groups of physicians.
Would save the general population a lot of suffering.
LOL! Never heard of Starcraft but ha! now I know.
Petrossa are you serious? That's crazy. I have to try it now.
OMG this $h!t had me rolling on the floor.
They found that gammers brains had a heightened response to Zerglings?!
WAHAHAHAHA
They don't actually specify what stimuli they used, but they were Starcraft-based stimuli. So I guess there will have been at least one Zergling.
I assessed a young man the other day who had been referred to us by his GP distressed, tearful and having had just tried to hang himself. The young man in question was also experiencing auditory hallucinations telling him to kill himself.
There is a history of depression in his family with his father, brother and sister all affected and a family history of suicide attempts. The young man in question’s only brush with mental illness was ten years previously when he had been treated for depression with antidepressants which he had long since stopped taking.
The only factors in his presentation which might explain the sudden and unexpected deterioration in his mental state, apart from the death of his Grandmother the previous month, was that for 6 months prior to being referred to our team he had been playing “ Call of Duty” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Duty ) an online shoot em up video game for up to 18 hours a day.
E, did the patient also do any of the following?
Drink unusual amounts of caffeine
Drink unusual amounts of alchohol
Eat unusual amounts of twinkies
Eat irregularly or insufficiently
Eat food
Have limited or disruptive sleep patterns
Sleep
Go outside
Stay inside
Go to school
Talk to people
Not talk to people
Fuel a car
Ride in a car
Enter puberty
Become sexually aroused
Be romantically rejected
Breathe
@ Morgan,
I am not sure what point you are trying to make but to answer your question(s)
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes but irregularly (frequently going for 48 or 72 hours without sleep)
Yes
Yes
No (age 24 stopped going to school aged 16)
No
Yes
No
Possibly
No
yes
More interestingly and perhaps more to the point when I saw him again today he was completely recovered from his brief psychotic episode which HE attributes entirely to his excessive gaming activity. (His auditory hallucinations were the voice of the "game" telling him to "kill" "kill" "kill")
As he puts it he lost the distinction between reality and make-believe. He would go to bed (when he went to bed) thinking of "Call of duty" dream of "Call of duty" when he was asleep and wake up thinking of "Call of duty" before getting back on the computer.
Everyone is familiar with the term addiction which can also be directly related to common problems such as drugs, alcohol and even gambling. Guess what, there is a new name on this list and your name? Not surprisingly, World of Warcraft.
online mahjong
On a similar note I found this today
“Addicted gamer sues game-maker
A US federal judge is allowing a negligence lawsuit to proceed against the publisher of the online virtual-world game Lineage II, amid allegations that a Hawaii man became so addicted he is “unable to function independently in usual daily activities such as getting up, getting dressed, bathing or communicating with family and friends.”
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-08/20/addicted-gamer-sues-game-maker
The plaintiff one Craig Small wood is suing the makers of Lineage II for not informing him of the safe and proper method of using the game.
E. What I want to know is how to approach my 19 year old son who in my opinion, is addicted to vgaming, and has been for years. He's absoutely brilliant, but had to drop out of college after the first year because he just couldn't get his work done...hmmm. He's back home now, barely holding down a job, probably will lose it soon. Why? because he stays up so late to play Starcraft he can't function. Psych eval coming next month. I'm devastated, not just as his mom, but as a human, to see such talent being wasted.
@ serenesoul
I should perhaps say that I am not a psychiatrist I am in fact a psychiatric nurse in the UK and while this is not my particular area of expertise I would have thought that in line with most other addictive forms of behaviour a CBT (Cognitive behavioural therapy) approach coupled with an SSRI antidepressant would probably show the best efficacy.
It might be worth running this article past the psychiatrist who is doing the psych evaluation on your son, Wellbutrin is (I think) a class of anti depressant known as an SSNRI which is similar to an SSRI and I notice it is licensed in the US as an aid to smoking cessation which is why it might be thought useful in treating other (non chemical) forms of addiction.
As for your personal approach to your sons “problem” I would first be sure that he sees it as a problem, until he does nothing is likely to work because any treatment will require his active participation. If he accepts he has a problem then you are probably half way there and I would then suggest a negotiated reduction in his gaming activity. Limit when and where he plays (only between certain hours and on certain computers) help him find alternatives, and then keep pushing the boundaries when he plays back to what you (and he) agree is an acceptable level.
Remember though that he is probably extremely embarrassed by his behaviour and will feel very self-conscious discussing it and if you come on too strong he will go into instant denial. It might be worth showing him this article as a way of proving that internet gaming addiction is a recognized problem in some people at least. It is probably worth considering that the roots of all addictive behaviour (behavioural or chemical) have a similar impact on the individuals brain chemistry and so have a common treatment plan.
All the best E
I'm pretty much addicted to both Starcraft 1 and 2, but that doesn't affect my choirs, I go to college and work full time as a journalist and don't change any of these with playtime. Only on sundays, I usually play from midday to 1-2AM straight.
But there are some signs, like I get up in the morning and come home from work, the first thing I need to do is play one single match or at least look at the opening screen.
I'd say 90% of the times I go to sleep, I dream about playing Starcraft. But I'm improving in International Cyber Cup.
Addiction to drugs taken for taking any medication without supervision as Vicodin. The purchase of drugs online without a prescription is not negative because it facilitates the acquisition of the drug but the dose should consult your doctor.
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