An interesting, if excessively alarmist, article on addiction to gaming, something I think I can speak on. I'm not addicted to gaming but I know how it can draw a person in. Well, I may suffer a temporary "addiction" aound November 9th.The article focuses on what the therapist in the article, Kim McDaniel, calls "the God effect"."You're the center of the universe" in more addictive role-playing games, McDaniel says. "Which is very attractive for teenagers without a lot of power, psychologically, in the world.""God effect" is a misnomer, though. The cause, while it can manifest as a power complex, is biological.Video games cause a significant release of the neurotransmitter dopamine- a "feel-good" hormone - and also affect serotonin and norepinephrine. Norepinephrine (adrenaline) is an excitatory neurotransmitter. Serotonin is a calming neurotransmitter. One of Dopamine's effect is a feeling or sense of reward (or expectation of reward). Of course, I'm grossly oversimplifying the explanation of the three and their interlocking roles and effects. But people with mood disorders (depression, bipolar, etc.) and psycoses have the these chemicals all out of whack. Video games, as well as narcotics, opiates, canabanoids, alchohol all elicit a strong release of one or more of these hormones. Except that video games don't destroy your body or brain (in moderation). People with mood disorders are drawn to video games (or drugs or alchohol), not the other way around. These things can worsen depression (almost always with drugs) if abused, but they do not cause depression. Indeed, moderate gaming may be beneficial, if controlled. Unlike chemical stimulation, it does not attack the body or brain.Study on Dopamine Release in Video Games (PDF)Are Video Game Players Better at Laparoscopic Surgical Tasks? (PDF)This one helps illustrate the fact that moderate gaming (a few hours per week) might actually aid in learning, spatial reasoning, and hand-eye coordination.Oh boy!