Korean Scientists Use Anti-Smoking Drugs to "Treat" Video Game Addiction

• BobYoMeowMeow wrote on 2010-08-23 08:34
  Forgot to post this
  
  

  [Image: http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2010/08/340x_blizzkorea.jpg]

  
  
  

  South Korean psychiatrists claim to have successfully reduced video game addiction by plying the addicts with antidepressant drug Bupropion.
  
  The study was conducted by Han, Hwang and Renshaw from the Department of Psychiatry at Chung Ang University, College of Medicine.
  
  Eleven participants had been categorised as having "Internet Game Addiction", because they played Starcraft on average for at least four hours per day, which actually seems quite modest. However, six of them had been absent from school for more than two months because of their dirty little habit, while two of them had actually been divorced because they played so much.
  
  The group was given Bupropion, an antidepressant and smoking cessation aid for six weeks. After the trial period, their group’s cravings to play Starcraft apparently decreased by 23.6 percent and total playing time decreased by 35.5 percent.
  
  They also performed some MRI scans and discovered that the addicts’ brains responded to pictures of Zerglings – the six-limbed raptor popular in Starcraft -- less strongly after taking the drug.
  
  With the advent of Starcraft II, however, the participants have a whole new hurdle to overcome. Perhaps this time Bupropion just won’t be enough.
  
  Video game addiction is a serious problem in Korea. According to their government, about two million South Koreans -- nearly one in 10 online users -- are addicted to the internet.
  
  In a bid to protect children from addiction, the government has put measures in place to disable internet connections for six hours per night for underage gamers (starting at midnight, 1.00am or 2.00am), affecting only a "blacklist" of 19 specific games.

  
  
  Treating Starcraft addiction with antidepressants
  
  Apparently, video games infuse us with nicotine so anti-smoking drugs work
  
  It's not like we don't have NEETs in America right?
  /sarcasm
• Serathx wrote on 2010-08-23 08:39
  I play about 4 hours a day during summer...
  o.o
• Shirayuki wrote on 2010-08-23 09:15

  Quote from Serathx;134543:

  I play about 4 hours a day during summer...
  o.o

  
  
  Article said they only played Starcraft for 4 hours though. probably a bunch of other games they play too. Dunno how a anti-smoking drug can lessen video game addiction owo
• abc33kr wrote on 2010-08-23 09:35

  Quote from Shirayuki;134556:

  Article said they only played Starcraft for 4 hours though. probably a bunch of other games they play too. Dunno how a anti-smoking drug can lessen video game addiction owo

  
  
  I heard the brain part that deals with gaming addiction is same as smoking addiction.
• Hiccup wrote on 2010-08-23 09:56
  drugs pl0x.
• emomutt wrote on 2010-08-23 10:57
  its not a freaking addiction
  its a result of bad parents who dont set limits on there kids and ENFORCE them!
• Shirayuki wrote on 2010-08-23 11:19

  Quote from emomutt;134583:

  its not a freaking addiction
  its a result of bad parents who dont set limits on there kids and ENFORCE them!

  
  
  Yes because all smokers are people who have bad parents.
• Zid wrote on 2010-08-23 14:21
  Addictions all deal with the same part of the brain, the pleasure zone. Usually, when your pleasure zone likes something after being exposed to it a number of times (like Starcraft or MMORPGs), it will develop that addiction for you to keep coming back to it and continue to pleasure your conscious. Basically, a "need" for it for pleasure.
  
  This anti-smoking/depressant drug seems to target that pleasure zone of the brain.
• Cucurbita wrote on 2010-08-23 17:49
  4 Hours?
  
  Addiction?
  
  Uh oh...
• Lonesky wrote on 2010-08-23 20:14
  Funny how they never treat people who work too much...
• Piko wrote on 2010-08-23 20:33
  Play Starcraft for four hours straight? You dun goofed, you're addicted!
• BobYoMeowMeow wrote on 2010-08-23 23:31

  Quote from Margatroid;134794:

  4 Hours?
  
  Addiction?
  
  Uh oh...

  
  
  The South Korean government seems very paranoid.
  "IT DO MATTER, FOUR HOURS OF PRODUCTIVITY GONE"
• Piko wrote on 2010-08-24 00:50
  Those four hours could have been productively spent working on awesome manhwa such as Witch Hunter and Yureka.
• Chillax wrote on 2010-08-24 00:50

  Quote from Pikablu;135067:

  Play Starcraft for four hours straight? You dun goofed, you're addicted!

  
  
  That's only 4 decently-long games :/
• Piko wrote on 2010-08-24 00:51

  Quote from Chillax;135295:

  That's only 4 decently-long games :/

  
  
  Four hours is usually how long it takes for me to play just two games o3o;