NHS has treated 327 gaming addicts including children over the last year

More than 300 people have been treated by the NHS for gaming addictions over the last year, including children who attacked their parents when a console was taken away.

Since opening in October 2019, the first NHS centre for gaming disorders has treated 745 patients, The Times reports.

Some problem gamers told doctors they would ‘rather be dead than not game’.

Others have dropped out of school, neglected eating, and missed out on family holidays so they can play.

Many patients also stole money from their parents so they could buy in-game rewards such as ‘loot boxes’.

The majority of patients are teenage boys, and the average patient age is 17.

Addictions were exacerbated during lockdown, when youngsters ‘took refuge in online friendships’.

Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones, a psychiatrist and the founder of the NHS gaming disorders centre, said teachers and GPs should be trained to spot the signs.

Symptoms include gaming ‘taking a precedence over other interests and daily activities’ for at least a year, and also a lack of control.

The clinic has also helped families who’ve had to call the police on their aggressive child.

Ms Bowden-Jones said: ‘By the time they see us, parents have tried everything.

‘Their immediate response is to take everything away – take the gaming console, the laptop, the phone – which leads to aggression and violence, both in terms of the child to the parents and the child to siblings.

‘Once violence takes place, it’s a traumatised family.’

Of the 327 treated last year, 150 were gamers and 177 were affected family members.

Ms Bowden-Jones also treated one ‘very young’ child who got up in the middle of the night to go to his grandma’s house as he knew her internet was not turned off.

Both children and parents are offered therapy at the clinic, and the aim is to get gaming time down to two hours a day, rather than completely cut it off.

The clinic has recorded 68 games which patients play on, but there was no single one which stood out as the most addictive.

But problems often develop when gamers are part of live online ‘teams’ with strangers from across the world.

An Ofcom report revealed 31% of children had played against or with strangers online – or people they had never met in real life.

One parent, called Lisa, who visited the clinic concerned for her 14-year-old son said: ‘Ryan became very aggressive; he would get very angry with the person he was gaming against online.

‘Through both the group and individual sessions I felt listened to and I also learnt some invaluable strategies for helping my child which has made a real difference.’

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