They warn against troubles related to the excessive use of video games – ElSol.com.ar – Diario de Mendoza, Argentina

Specialists warn about the consequences of excessive use of online games for children and adolescents. Among the effects include sleep disorders, children who miss school, who do not eat and who have high blood pressure. Also parents in couple therapy because the situation has come to affect them.

In a report published by Infobae Pediatrician Lynne Karlson, of Tufts Medical Center, Boston, explains that she began noticing that some patients had adult problems, such as carpal tunnel syndrome or obesity due to a sedentary lifestyle.

And Michael Rich, director of the Interactive Media and Internet Disorders Clinic at the Boston Children's Hospital, observed a increased absences at school and abandonment of social and sports activities.

Most of the people affected are little men with a common pbadion: Fortnite online gambling"It interferes with the dream," Karlson told WSB TV. "They often play late at night or get up early and do not sleep enough."

And Epic Games, the company that has developed the popular game – a platform in which participate more than 200 million users, most of them between 6 and 10 hours a week – features a forum on his site to take care of people suffering from hypertension while playing.

Although the video game disorder is known – as the World Health Organization (WHO) has called it when it was recognized as a mental health problem ", cases like Fortnite have something special. "A handful of factors combine to make it more difficult to abandon games today," the Boston paper said.

"Better technology has made the games more interactive, more participative and more artistic," said Douglas Gentile, professor of psychology at Iowa State University and author of the book "The Effects of Violent Video Games on Children and Women." teenagers ".

"And, what is more insidious, the designers have drawn lessons from slot machine makers and have begun using a variable rewards program, according to Ofir Turel, a computer professor at California State University in Fullerton. "

The expert explained to the Globe that psychological manipulation is combined with the variety of possible arguments in Fortnite and their social interaction. "Children are particularly vulnerable to this variable reward mechanism"he said.

Psychologist Kate Roberts told WSB TV that she had noticed a increase in the number of children treated for Fortnite abuse. "They are starting to want it," he said. "If they play more than two hours, they enter this state of dependency.

Dopamine in their brain starts to react to the game and, when they leave, they experience a crisis related to the lowering of dopamine levels. They get angry, irritable or close. "

Technology, however, is not all the problem. Rich said that all patients suffering from Fortnite abuse also have another underlying problem.

"In fact, we are currently using the expression Problematic Interactive Media Use (IUAP) as a syndrome: a group of diagnostic symptoms ranging from attention deficit disorder to distress and depression. depression, pbading manifest in the interactive media environment ".

A year and a half after the launch of the game that has become a worldwide phenomenon, pediatricians and psychologists describe paintings in which "The stress of the family is so intense that parents go into couples therapy and discuss the responsibility of allowing Fortnite to enter the home", illustrated by the newspaper.

Sometimes, the demonstrations are confusing. At the Boston Children's Hospital, cases of children with such acute weight loss have been described. Pediatricians then prescribed numerous laboratory tests to find a physical cause causing this loss.

Karlson recommended early intervention, for example by always limiting video games to a maximum of two hours and becoming aware of the manifestations of isolation or depression, which are often the first signs of problems.