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Toddlers becoming so addicted to iPads they require therapy
May 12, 2013 for Telegraph
Experts have warned that parents who allow babies and toddlers to access tablet computers for several hours a day are in danger of causing "dangerous" long term effects. Children as young as four are becoming so addicted to smartphones and iPads that they require psychological treatment.
Children with Autism more prone to video game addiction
By Ashik Siddique on April 17, 2013 for Medical Daily
Children and teenagers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) spend longer on screen-based media like television and video games than their neurotypical siblings, according to a recent study, and are more likely to develop video game addiction.
Children and teens with autism more likely to become preoccupied with video games
April 17, 2013 for Science Daily
Children and teens with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) use screen-based media, such as television and video games, more often than their typically developing peers and are more likely to develop problematic video game habits, a University of Missouri researcher found.
Virtual Gaming Addiction - Presentation by Dr. Andrew Doan to Regional Family, Youth and Health Task Force in Temucula, California on April 29, 2013 (start video on 20:00 min.)
Neuroscientist, Ophthalmologist and Author of Hooked on Games, Dr. Doan provides startling research on the impact of violent media content on child and youth aggression.
Gray matter and white matter abnormalities in online game addiction.
By CB Weng et al for the European Journal of Radiology on Mar 4, 2013. pii: S0720-048X(13)00073-9. doi: 10.1016/j.ejrad.2013.01.031
Compared with healthy subjects, Online Gaming Addicts (OGA) individuals showed significant gray matter atrophy in the right orbitofrontal cortex, bilateral insula, and right supplementary motor area. According to tract-based spatial statistics analysis, OGA subjects had significantly reduced FA in the right genu of corpus callosum, bilateral frontal lobe white matter, and right external capsule.
New Jersey ignores Supreme Court in pushing for violent game legislation
By Kyle Orland for ARS Technicia on April 24, 2013
New Jersey governor Chris Christie put his political weight behind restrictions on selling video games to minors.
The effect of family therapy on the changes in the severity of on-line game play and brain activity in adolescents with on-line game addiction.
By DH Han et al for Psychiatry Research on 2012 May 31;202(2):126-31. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2012.02.011.
With evidence of brain activation changes in response to on-line game playing cues and images depicting parental love, the present findings suggest that family cohesion may be an important factor in the treatment of problematic on-line game playing.
'I killed my mom with my .22. I don't know why I did it': Chilling 911 call reveals 13-year-old boy admitting he tried to rape and then shot dead his mom 'for taking away his Call of Duty video game'
May 12, 2013 for Mail Online
Noah Crooks, 14, is accused of shooting dead his mother, Gretchen Crooks, last March. His father testified that Gretchen Crooks was the one who bought their son the .22 caliber Ruger used in the slaying.
Pornography rewires boys' brains, research says
By Julie Baumgardner for Times Free Press on April 28, 2013
Dr. Phil Zimbardo, a psychology professor at Stanford University, discussed the demise of guys, stating that boys are flaming out academically and wiping out socially with girls and sexually with women. Of all the activities on the Internet, porn has the most potential to be addictive. Everything in the porn user's life is boring except porn. As a result of watching porn, boys' brains are being digitally rewired into a never-ending desire for change, constant arousal, novelty and excitement. This creates real issues when it comes to romantic relationships that grow gradually and subtly.
Diagnosing the Wrong Deficit
By Vatsal Thakkar for New York Times on April 28, 2013.
For some people - especially children - sleep deprivation does not necessarily cause lethargy; instead they become hyperactive and unfocused. Researchers and reporters are increasingly seeing connections between dysfunctional sleep and what looks like A.D.H.D., but those links are taking a long time to be understood by parents and doctors.
Forget your gadgets at 'digital detox' camp
By Vignesh Ramachandran for Mashable on May 7, 2013
This four-day summer camp for adults in a 1970s-style Boy Scouts camp atmosphere brings together 232 campers who must follow some special rules: no technology use, no cell phones allowed and no talking about work. "We really hope people reconnect with themselves," said Ben Hanna, a partner at The Digital Detox,
NIMH Withdraws Support for DSM-5 - Latest development a humiliating blow to the APA
By Christopher Lane, Ph.D. in Psychology Today on May 4, 2013
Just two weeks before DSM-5 is due to appear, the National Institute of Mental Health, the world's largest funding agency for research into mental health, has indicated that it is withdrawing support for the manual. In a humiliating blow to the American Psychiatric Association, Thomas R. Insel, M.D., Director of the NIMH, made clear the agency would no longer fund research projects that rely exclusively on DSM criteria.
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) will be re-orienting research away from the DSM categories toward a new system called the Research Domain Criteria
By Thomas Insel on April 29, 2013 for NIMH
Insel states the weakness (of the DSMV) is its lack of validity. Unlike our definitions of ischemic heart disease, lymphoma, or AIDS, the DSM diagnoses are based on a consensus about clusters of clinical symptoms, not any objective laboratory measure. NIMH has launched the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project to transform diagnosis by incorporating genetics, imaging, cognitive science, and other levels of information to lay the foundation for a new classification system. | 
I had the opportunity to meet with a wise and sage pediatric neurologist Dr. Fred Baughman at a conference in New York who enlightened me on the historical origins of mental illness. Dr. Baughman revealed that up to the mid-1940's, neurologists treated both physical and mental illness. Due to the absence of any biochemical, anatomical or genetic evidence for mental illness at that time, neurologists split off from treating mental illness, and psychiatry was born. Fast forward to today, nothing has really changed........
