Gamers need not worry about their favorite video games becoming crime and misbehavior scapegoats... for now. Doctors specializing in addiction and mental disorders attest that video games do not necessarily cause any form of addiction, saying that more research is needed before making such an assumption.

"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," Dr. Thomas Allen of the Osler Medical Center commented about formally recognizing video games as a possible cause of addiction. Listing video games as one possible cause of acute addiction would pave the way for insurance against video game addiction.

But addiction experts beg to differ. "There is nothing here to suggest that this is a complex physiological disease state akin to alcoholism or other substance abuse disorders," said Dr. Stuart Glow, echoing the statements of other doctors who didn't share the American Medical Association's (AMA) sentiments regarding video games being the cause of mental illness. Psychiatrists also add that it wasn't clear whether video games are addictive. "It's not necessarily a cause-and-effect type issue. There may be certain kids who have a compulsive component to what they are doing," said Dr. Louis Kraus of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

It is interesting to note that that committee who made the proposal eventually backed away from its position, instead asking the American Psychiatric Association to consider adding "video game addiction" to the next edition of its diagnostic manual, "American Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders", due to be published in 2012.

Actions against video games are getting stronger - even the American Medical Association (AMA) is making a move. However, this isn't all about banning games branded as murder simulators or preventing games from defiling church grounds. Video game addiction is now being seriously considered to be categorized as a formal diagnostic disorder.

First of all, what's considered a gamer? Mohamed K. Khan's "Report of the Council on Science and Public Health: Emotional and Behavioral Effects, Including Addictive Potential of Video Games" reads:

Historically, a gamer was someone who played role-playing games or war games, but more recently the term has come to include computer and video game players. Although the term technically includes those who do not necessarily consider themselves gamers (ie, casual gamers), it is a commonly used colloquial term to identify persons who spend as much of their leisure time as possible playing or reading about games.

Furthermore, the report defines the "prototype gamer" as a 30-year-old male who averages between 6.8 and 7.6 hours weekly playing video games. Hardcore MMORPG players are included too (WoW and them 7-hour raids), though research shows that they only make up 9% of the population. It also added that "75% of heads of households played video games, while 35% of gamers were under age 18 years"

More on this after the jump!