A man plays a PlayStation 3 video game at an electronics shop in Tokyo April 13, 2007.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

    BEIJING, June 26 (Xinhuanet) -- A report recommending that internet and video gaming addiction be considered a mental disorder was watered down after a heated debate broke out among delegates at the American Medical Association's annual convention in Chicago, media reported Tuesday.

    Some of the delegaes said more study is needed before excessive use of video and online games -- a problem that affects about 10 percent of players -- could be considered a mental illness.

    "There is nothing here to suggest that this is a complex physiological disease state akin to alcoholism or other substance abuse disorders, and it doesn't get to have the word addiction attached to it," said Dr. Stuart Gitlow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

    While occasional use of video games is harmless and may even help with some disorders like autism, doctors said in extreme cases it can interfere with day-to-day necessities like working, showering or even eating, they added.

    "Working with this problem is no different than working with alcoholic patients. The same denial, the same rationalization, the same inability to give it up," said Dr. Thomas Allen of the Osler Medical Center in Towson, Maryland.

    Researchers in Britain found that 12 percent of gamers are "addicted" according to World Health Organization criteria, and researchers in the United States found that as many as 10 to 15 percent of gamers are affected by "overuse," the report said. 

    "However, as with findings on long-term aggression, there is currently insufficient research to conclude that video game overuse is an addiction," the report concluded.

    (Agencies)