Just when you think that videogames couldn’t be blamed for anything else, along come those famous experts to identity a skin condition caused by gaming. “PlayStation palmar hidradenitis” is the name of the “new” disorder, which is identifiable as a series of sores on the palm of each hand.
Researchers are backing up their claims with the case of a 12-year-old girl who ended up in a Swiss hospital with painful sores on her hands. She recovered after ten days away from a console, and it is said that her intense gaming sessions caused the problem.
The actual condition is known as idiopathic eccrine hidradenitis, and usually affects the feet of joggers and others who may be prone to heavy use of the feet. Of course, even though it already has a name, it’s much snappier to name the disorder after PlayStation, because then people pay attention.
My problem here comes not from videogame vilification, which doesn’t seem to be the case, but simply from the fact that the name is rather stupid, and seems to be named after PlayStation just to give the media something to cluck about. I’m sure if you were able to wank for a week straight, you’d get sores on your hands and elsewhere, but nobody ever took “Sterling Handycocknasty Disease” seriously, did they? They didn’t listen!
Before this post went live, Sony responded to the story itself. Here’s an official statement:
“We firmly believe that video gaming is a legitimate entertainment pastime like watching movies, listening to music, or reading books. As with any leisure pursuit there are possible consequences of not following common sense, health advice and guidelines, as can be found within our instruction manuals. PlayStation was launched in 1995 and has sold hundreds of millions of consoles over the last 13 years. We would not wish to belittle this research and we will study the findings with interest, but this is the first time we have ever heard of a complaint of this nature.”
