A proposal filed by the Maryland State Medical Society to label video games addiction as a mental illness was ruled out by AMA (American Medical Association) after a heated debate.

Dr Martin Wasserman, executive director of the Maryland State Medical Society, who was responsible for the report said video game addiction is real, has "a profound impact on the lives of individuals" and that the question is not whether the disorder exists, but how many people are affected by it.

Wasserman’s report quoted the findings of researchers in Britain who discovered that 12 percent of gamers were "addicted" according to World Health Organization criteria. A similar study undertaken in the United States has found that as many as 10 to 15 percent of gamers are affected by "overuse".

But at the American Medical Association's annual convention in Chicago, the experts refused to label video game addiction as psychiatric disorder.

"There is nothing here to suggest that this is a complex physiological disease state akin to alcoholism or other substance abuse disorders, and it doesn't get to have the word addiction attached to it," said Dr. Stuart Gitlow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

In conclusion, AMA said more studies are needed in order to declare video games addiction as mental disorder.

"Addiction is a complex disease," the committee declared, "formal recognition of problem gaming via online/video sources as representing true addictive illness is premature."