South Korean psychiatrists treating StarCraft 'addiction' with drugs
A study recently conducted by the Department of Psychiatry at South Korea's Chung Ang University has found that StarCraft "addiction" can be treated with Bupropion, an antidepressant and anti-smoking aid. According to Wired, the study found that individuals who took the drug for six weeks saw their average StarCraft playtime decrease by 35.5 percent. Also -- we swear we're not making this up -- MRI scans showed that participant's brains reacted less strongly to pictures of Zerglings after the treatment.
Treating someone's obsessive behavior towards a video game with real-life pharmaceuticals is a fairly heavy prescription. Then again, out of the survey's eleven participants, six had dropped out of school for two months due to the amount of time they put into StarCraft every day. Two participants were divorced due to their demanding StarCraft schedules. Isn't it possible these people are suffering from depression because of their obsession with a video game? Or, rather, couldn't they have become obsessed with a video game because they were depressed? In either case, doesn't it kind of make sense to treat them with antidepressants?
