New at Reason: Greg Beato on Internet Addiction

July 26, 2010

In February, the American Psychiatric Association announced that its coming edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the first major revision since 1994, will for the first time classify a behavior-related condition—pathological gambling— as an “addiction” rather than an “impulse control disorder.” Will “Internet addiction” make the next edition? As Greg Beato writes in our August-September issue, what sounds like a parody could result in something darkly comic. Picture a world where the health care system goes bankrupt because insurers have to pay for millions of people determined to kick their World of Warcraft addictions once and for all.

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