Byron: 'Game addicts are like heroin users'

The government's gaming advisor Dr Tanya Byron has told television viewers that gaming addicts are comparable to people with a reliance on cocaine or heroin.

The child psychologist, who fronted BBC2 documentary Am I Normal? earlier this week, also stirred up controversy after branding acclaimed PC game World of Warcraft a "childish computer fantasy game".

During the TV documentary, Byron told viewers: "It might seem ludicrous to compare a childish computer fantasy game with hard drug addiction. But addiction counsellors offering treatment to gamers argue that there are key similarities in the way that the consumer gets hooked into coming back for more."

Byron then spoke to recovering gambling addict Stephen Noel-Hill, adding that he "believed computer gaming has become an addiction every bit as pernicious as more conventional drugs”.

In Holland, Noel-Hill claims the families of games addicts are paying “as much as £2,500 a week for treatment in Amsterdam.”

Byron also spoke to a biological psychiatry scientist, who made the link between dopamine produced during game playing and users inhaling cocaine.