The American Medical Association today tabled a controversial proposal that would have classified excessive video game playing as an addiction akin to alcoholism or drug use. Members of the AMA who are specialists in addictions spoke out strongly against the proposal, which they say needs more time for study. Their voices apparently won out at the AMA conference today.

The committee studying the issue opted for more time, and will send its recommendation to the full AMA board later this week.

The movement to classify games in such a manner was started by a group of physicians who wanted such an illness added to the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, a guide used by the American Psychiatric Association in diagnosing mental illness. That group said that excessive gameplay could affect as many as 10 percent of the game-playing population, leading to problems in school such as poor grades and also social problems such as forgetting to eat or take regular showers.

But other doctors at the AMA annual meeting said that no cause and effect relationship had been established, and that even if 10 percent of the game playing public was being negatively affected by excessive play (a number that has never actually been proven) that the root causes of such addictive play may lie elsewhere. They argued that the excessive gameplay might actually be another disorder simply manifesting itself in too much gaming.

Even though the issue is being tabled, doctors at the conference said the matter would likely get further study. Today's action does not mean that video games can't be classified as an addiction when the Manual of Mental Disorders is next edited in 2012.