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Too Much Playstation Causes Skin Condition
25-Feb-2009
Written by: Yong Lee
You’re not a hard-core gamer until you’ve got sores on your palms.
BBC News reports that when a 12-year-old girl was diagnosed at the Genenva University Hospital in Switzerland with a condition known as ‘idiopathic eccrine hidradenitis,’ doctors were perplexed with the nature of the symptoms. In most cases, the skin disorder causes red, sore lumps on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. With this particular patient, the only afflicted areas were the palms of her hands. Her parents told doctors that she had been spending large amounts of time on her PlayStation recently.
After 10 days, with a prescribed break from video games, the girl’s palms were completely healed. The prognosis? Playing video games in excess can now cause PlayStation palmar hidradenitis, or “PlayStation Palm.”
Doctors believe the sores were caused by “tight and continuous grasping of the console’s hand grips and repeated pushing of the buttons, alongside sweating caused by the tension of the game.” Nina Goad of the British Association of Dermatologists said it was “an interesting discovery and one that the researchers are keen to share with other dermatologists.”
Many gamers have reported tendinitis caused by playing too much Nintendo Wii, or “Wiiitis.” Doctors say that there have been reported addictions to video games but the symptoms were thought to be primarily psychological.
According to Yahoo Games, Sony released a “reserved” statement in response to the girl’s condition, saying “as with any leisure pursuit there are possible consequences of not following common sense, health advice and guidelines, as can be found within our instruction manuals. We do not wish to belittle this research and will study the findings with interest. This is the first time we have ever heard of a complaint of this nature.”
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