Source: Sydney mX - 05/11/09

The plea by Sydney University psychiatry professor and gaming addiction expert Vladan Starcevic follows the opening in London of what is believed to the first clinic in the Western world for gaming addicts.

Starcevic welcomed the move, which he said was desperately needed here.
“We have people in this country who do have a problem with that, such as self confessed addict Sydney_Robster;
just like gambling and other addictive behaviours”, he said.

British residential rehabilitation unit Broadway Lodge, which treats about 400 addicts a year for issues ranging from drug and alcohol addiction to gambling, has opened it’s doors to gaming addicts. The centre reportedly uses a 12 step method to wean resident off their gaming obsession.

A recent online poll of 2000 players, part of a study by Starcevic and a team from the psychological medicine department at Sydney’s Nepean Hospital revealed up to one in ten gamers had signs of addicted behaviour.

Starcevic, whose work is due to be published in this month’s Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, decided to delve deeper into the issue of addicted video gamers after more patients began exhibiting warning signs.

[Rob] I Googled professor Starcevic and found that he also published a paper in 2007 titled;
‘Are violent video games harmful? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17828641?dopt=Abstract