Normally I completely laugh and disregard stuff like this, but I have been personally affected by a very similar disorder. Singleing out Sony for this is pretty dumb though I play Xbox and it happened to me too.

Feb 24, 2009

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.

Shortcut To Injury?

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."