A new gaming addiction centre is set to open in the UK with a group of game addicted 12 to 20 year olds chosen to be its first patients.
The group was chosen as they were found to be so addicted to gaming that it had kept them home from school and harmed their relationships with family and friends.
The aim of the program is to create a model for diagnosing and treating gaming disorders among children and young people that can be rolled out across the UK.
Clinic founder Henrietta Bowden-Jones, an addiction psychiatrist, told the Daily Telegraph the patients will be assessed to increase understanding of the disorders.
"We'll record in depth everything we can in order to develop the largest database in the country to better understand the illness," she said.
"They are different to gamblers or alcoholics. It's a younger generation. As it doesn't involve substances, the neurological processes will be different."
Dr Bowden-Jones wants to develop a rating system that can help assess how addictive a game may be.
The six-point scale would help label games for their compulsiveness, propensity to violence, capacity for sleep disruption and addictive reward mechanisms.
The system would help parents monitor what games their children are playing.
Gaming addiction and the amount of time children and young people spend online has come under increased scrutiny after reports of individuals becoming severely hooked on tech.
A 17-year-old boy told Tuesday's Daily Mirror he had been left suicidal after becoming addicted to multi-platform hit game Fortnite.
The teen, called Carl, told the paper he had turned to taking amphetamines to stay awake and play the game and felt ending his own life was the only way out.
