A Reno, Nev couple who were apparently obsessed with the internets and video games have plead guilty to child neglect. The couple, Michael and Iana Straw, have a 22 month boy and and 11 month girl who were severely malnourished and near death last month when doctors examined them at a hospital. The couple, according to prosecutors, were so obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons Online they neglected their children. Guess it's true what they say about bad games and addiction. The couple faces a potential 12 year prison sentence each.

"They had food; they just chose not to give it to their kids because they were too busy playing video games," said the prosecutor to the Reno Gazette-Journal. Now would be a good time to stop reading if you don't want the bad details. Police say hospital staff had to shave the girls head because it was matted with cat urine and the boy had to be treated for a "genital infection." Apparently Michael Straw, an unemployed cashier, received a $50,000 inheritance, which he spent on computer equipment and a plasma TV. Allegedly the couple was simply addicted to video games and there was no drug abuse. Maybe it's time the AMA got cracking on trying to figure out what the real deal is with video game addiction.

Apparently the doctors from the American Medical Association (AMA) who were looking to have video game addiction classified as a disease have backed away from their decision. They now recommend the American Psychiatric Association, who would have had the final word on the matter anyway, consider doing more research into the issue and possibly add the diagnosis to their revision of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) in 2012. The AMA doctors who believe video game addiction exists say it affects approximately 10% of players, but say more study is needed.
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"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. But Dr. Thomas Allen of the Osler Medical Center says, "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." But is that addiction, compulsion or just playing really bad games? That's the question.

Dr. Louis Kraus who deals in child and adolescent psychiatry says it's not such cause-and-effect issue. He says certain kids just have a more "compulsive component" in what they do. Kinda sounds like the same argument about kids who play video games and kill. The AMA will make its final recommendation on the issue later this week.

The American Medical Association will decide later this month whether "Internet/video game addiction" will be added to the Bible of crazy: The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). The proposal comes in a 10-page document prepared by the AMA's Council on Science suggesting that video game addiction is similar to the pattern of behavior observed in pathological gambling.

Now remember, they aren't saying that all video game players are addicts. They're merely saying that video game addiction, like gambling addiction, does affect some members of the gaming population and they need help. The armchair psychologist might say that if you know well enough to eat, sleep, go to work/school, kiss your significant other and/or children goodnight, chances are you aren't an addict. Then again, you could just be in denial. After the AMA votes on the matter, it'll still be up to the American Psychiatric Association to decide whether it goes in the DSM. So, for those who think people dying in front of their computers playing games are crazy, this decision by the AMA at the end of the month would put that on the record.