Edav Nomad

We all know that obsessively playing video games can potentially lead to a variety of problems, but can it also be bad for your skin?

Skin specialists in the U.K. think so. The BBC reports that a new condition stemming from excessive gaming has been noted in the British Journal of Dermatology.

Swiss doctors first identified the condition -- dubbed Playstation palmar hidradenitis -- after examining a 12 year-old girl afflicted with painful bumps on the palms of her hands. Thinking it was related to sweating, the docs eventually reached the new diagnosis after being told that she was playing a whole lot of Playstation, which further explains why the condition occurred only on her hands and not her feet. Even more incriminating is the fact that after 10 days away from gaming, her condition disappeared.

Having a disorder named after their primary gaming brand is certainly a bummer for Sony, but the company might find comfort in longtime rival Nintendo, who have had to contend with various reports of gamers developing tendonitis -- renamed "Wiiitis" -- from overuse of their flagship Wii console.

Similar in a sense to tennis elbow, Wiiitis first made waves back in 2007 when a Boston physician found himself suffering from a severely sore shoulder the morning after a rigorous match of Wii Sports. Apparently, he wasn't the only one. In December of 2008, British doctors actually issued a warning after noting a serious rise on the number of hospital patients complaining of the condition.

But while Wiiitis is bound to strike more gamers, "Playstation Palm" is just as fascinating to physicians.

"This is an interesting discovery and one that the researchers are keen to share with other dermatologists, should they be confronted with similar, unexplained symptoms in a patient," said Nina Goad of the British Association of Dermatologists.

To their credit, Sony showed restraint in their response.
"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, " said a spokesperson for Sony Computer Entertainment of Europe. "We do not wish to belittle this research and will study the findings with interest. This is the first time we have ever heard of a complaint of this nature."

Game console linked to skin disorder - Video Game Feature - Yahoo! Video Games

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Lianne Marten

The Wii thing makes sense, since you have to have the damn remote pointed at the screen at all times for most games, and that keeps your arm in a tensed position rather than at rest with most other controllers.

The Playstation thing i've never experienced... is it just with the PS3? Maybe to do with the plastic they use in construction, since I haven't had any skin problems from the 360 or Wii controllers. That is weird though... and if it's not the plastic, instead linked to holding the controller tightly and your hands sweating... why haven't we heard about this before now?

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Verkin Raven

Excessive use of the Xbox360 controller is perfectly fine, evidently.

It was pretty funny how the article never mentioned these possibilities despite targeting the PS3 specifically.

Controller geometry? Plastic material? Rubber material? Vibration motor? Anything specific other than "zoe noes it's teh ps3 omg?"

Jessica Robertson

Oh, no, there is a much simplier explination Verkin.

The XBox isn't worth playing for long enough periods of time for the rash to develop!

Edav Nomad

I think its the shape of the PS3 controller that is the problem. I've never liked the Playstation controllers it just doesn't feel right in my hands. The Xbox 360 controller has always felt right in my hands even when I first got one it just felt much better.

Lianne Marten

There have been tons of uncomfortable video game controllers though. The N64 was awkward at best, the original behemoth controllers they had for the xbox, that weird c-stick on the gamecube... hell, the NES controller was just a rectangle with buttons.

With such a huge user base over all systems going back for however many years and how we've never heard of something like this, I can't believe that playing the PS3 was the sole reason for her problem ... however much i'd like to

Richie Waves

Ive never used a control pad that didn't hurt my hands...

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