Who is the average video gamer? Most of us think of gamers as teenage boys, but that stereotype is wrong! In reality, the average age of players is 35. About half of all gamers are over the age of 18, and 25 percent of them are over 50.
Until now, research on the health risks associated with playing video games has focused almost exclusively on children and teen gamers. A new study from the American Journal of Preventive Medicine is one of the first to investigate the effects of gaming on the adult population.
According to the researchers, adult gamers face many of the same health risks as their younger counterparts. Female gamers reported greater depression and lower health status than nonplayers, and male gamers were more likely to be overweight or obese than nonplayers. Both male and female players indicated a higher incidence of introversion and less social support from family and friends.
These sad results mirror the studies conducted on younger players. One recent study of younger players revealed poorer relationships with friends and family.
There is one bright light in the research on video game playing. A study in the Archives of Surgery reported that surgeons with video game-playing skills performed better in a simulated surgery course. Of course, most of us are not surgeons, so do not use this as an excuse to spend more time gaming.
I treat a lot of people — children, teens, and adults — who are hooked on video games, and I can tell you that their brains typically don’t look like the picture of health. With SPECT imaging, we see that video games work in the same area of the brain as cocaine and methamphetamine.
Excessive video game playing is detrimental to brain health so I usually recommend limiting game playing to no more than 30 minutes a day.
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13 Comments
This is off-topic, but I need to ask a question after scouring your website for info. about the damage that seizures have on the brain. My husband, at 62 years old now, has been getting small seizures which consist of him numbing out and not remembering how to get home, or how to do his job, etc. He doesn’t remember any Brain Trauma until this happened. These symptoms were misdiagnosed, after many tests, back in 1999 at Loma Linda Medical Center, as his response to stress(??). Then, two weeks ago, he had two Grand Mal seizures within the same hour-one at the ER. He is still reeling from the impact those two seizures had on his brain. He didn’t remember how to play the computer solitaire that he has played approximately a thousand times over the last couple of years, he feels very lethargic still, and has his “fog” moments. This has both of us concerned(scared).
I have looked at your supplements, but we can’t get them until one of us gets a job(he was laid-off in Feb. 2009 [and I have suffered from Major Depression, Multiple Sclerosis, and Fibromyalgia for the last 13 years(I used to teach)and am on disability, but looking for a job-I was sent to your clinic by Earl Henslin, whom I was seeing for counseling, back in 1996].
Do you recommend anything specific for the electrical damage that has been done to his brain?
Video gaming described above has been referred to as a behavioral or soft addiction. I would like to know more about what is happening in the brain with these people. They are tuning out of thier life and relationships to pursue these “behavioral addictions”. I have had clients read 1 romance novel a day, watch hours of TV, garden and many other under the radar addictive patterns. And there are often multiple addictions at the same time. Self soothing is one theory. What is the brain science to explain these soft addicitions?
Dr Amen does not mention the effects of participating in violent video games which have been shown to desensitize people creating a loss of empathy from a deadening of a certain area of the brain.
I would argue that television and other video technologies have rendered the American populace “brain-dead” and watching simulated violence is particularly troubling.
The more consistent the correlation between two or more event streams, then the more indication that one _is_ affecting the other, but we must remember that this affecting could be going in the opposite direction from what we’d assumed. Thus, in this case, the introversion & depression might be the cause of increased gaming, instead of what most, even reputable psychiatric associations, have so unthinkingly assumed.
(I guess I can’t just let so many wrong conclusions pile up so high in such a crucial aspect, for so many people’s health, cogency, & longevity. So, …)
Look, what if the fat-fed rats simply weren’t as hungry, & so explored more &/or hurried less during the mazes & exercises (both of which they were probably incited to do by being fed at the end)?
& what if the fat was the cheaper trans-fat type, which debilitates neurons anyway?
& then, what if the substantial starch still in the high-fat diet suppresses (as it does in humans) the full functioning of many processes (perhaps to save energy during famines, when usually only starchy foods are still available?), including suppressing cells’ proper assimilation of fats from the blood, thus leaving the fat to clog up the arteries (with these clogs thickening by becoming infected by bacteria spreading from the teeth where starch promotes their growth), thereby reducing blood to the brain (as well as to other organs), & making the heart pump harder & thus get enlarged?
Re the violent video games affecting the player’s ‘empathy’ areas pf the brain, how else would one explain the horribly violent attacks on people and animals by boys, young men and, disturbingly, girls/young women? The age range of these merciless offenders is also getting younger. You can’t tell me that ultra violent games, “torture-based’ horror movies and violent music videos don’t have something to do with this ‘trend’.
I,too, am very interested to know more about the brain science behind soft addictions.
Also, I’d love to be able to show my 12 year old son images of a brain on games versus reading or doing another activity. Kids and other gamers need to see this.
Is this the case when playing brain-teaser games, such as memory games, sudoku, etc.? If so, the advertising of helping your brain re-charge is basically untrue.
Correlation does not prove causation. The presence of a correlation can certainly indicate that research should be done.
“video games work in the same areas of the brain as cocaine and methamphetamine” Ok, what does this mean? That that video game playing increases norepinephrine levels in the decision=-making areas of the brain, thus being a good thing for ADD patients? That gaming depletes norepinephrine? That gaming requires the use of the ‘higher’ brain functions?
You used to do research. What to the data actually show? What do they merely indicate the possibility of?
No, I’m not a gamer, and I have a friend who is addicted. I just think it is sufficiently important that we need to use scientific rigor in coming to conclusions.
I’ve noticed that I play more computer games when my depression is worse or my depression is worse when I spend more time playing computer games. I find myself holding my breath more when playing some games. Other games cause my heart rate to increase. Sometimes playing solitare is almost meditative. If I am angry with someone, I play until I am concentrating on the game and not my anger. As with all things, balance is the key.
Our son who is 14 and has Asperger’s when he plays video games for more than 30 minutes – it both raises his blood pressure and his blood sugar. We have tested it multiple times just being on the computer or playing PS2. This cannot be healthy. So we set a timer, but unfortunately how these games addict people is you can’t stop because you just got to the next level and if you don’t keep going, the next time you have to start over!
I really would like to challenge this a bit. I first of all, would like to know if these studies had been done on schooled people – as adults, did they go to school, were they homeschooled or better yet – were they unschooled? I have found over the years, just anecdotal of course, that those folks who “use” video games as a way to numb out vs those that are allowed free play time with them and don’t have restrictions, don’t use the games to gel out as many unschoolers are allowed to do). I’m curious of there is a way to see the brains of different types of video game users. It’s the same theory as allowing a child to choose their own foods – it’s been shown they can and do chose a wide and healthy variety, when allowed and able to do so. In other words, are these that were looked at checking out to play, or are they checking in. (TV too, can be a way to check out, or one can actually use TV and not use it to disappear). I hope this question came out right!
Thanks!
As a clinical psychologist I too have concerns about the distinction between correlation and causation in interpretation of the data. I would very much like to see a response in this regard. Let me also say that I have respect for the fact that you have posted comments which highlight such cautionary comments.
I am also unclear about why you are utilizing SPECT scans at this point in time when other brain imaging formats can provide the same data plus considerable information on many more variables of brain functioning? I presume that when you started costs or availability of the equipment may have been a factor. It may also be that developing a normative data base has intrinsic value. Nevertheless, the research on non SPECT formats is considerable and it would seem to me that expanding the information available for patient care and case management would be of great practical use.