Public service announcement

[Bungleau]

Too much PlayStation can cause painful lumps?

LONDON (Reuters) – Gamers beware: Keeping too tight a grip on the console and furiously pushing the buttons can cause a newly identified skin disorder marked by painful lumps on the palms, Swiss scientists said Tuesday.

Called "PlayStation palmar hidradentitis" by the scientists, the skin disorder can cause painful lesions on the palms similar to patches found on the soles of children's feet after taking part in heavy physical activity, they said.

"The tight and continuous grasping of the hand-grips together with repeated pushing of the buttons produce minor but continuous trauma to the (palm) surfaces," Vincent Piguet and colleagues at University Hospitals and Medical School of Geneva reported in the British Journal of Dermatology.

A spokesman for Sony Corp, which makes the PlayStation, noted the study involved one person and said the company had sold hundreds of millions of the consoles since the product was introduced in 1995.

"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," Sony spokesman David Wilson said.

"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."

Excessive gaming is already seen as a public health issue, sparking addictive behavior that can lead to a range of psychological problems, the researchers said.

Other researchers have identified acute tendonitis from playing too much of Nintendo Co Ltd's Wii, and now a disorder related to the PlayStation can be added to the list, the team said.

Their study described the case of a 12-year-old girl who attended the Geneva hospital with intensely painful lesions on her hands, which she had developed four weeks earlier. She had no other lesions anywhere else on her body.

After questioning, the doctors discovered that several days prior to the appearance of the lesions the girl had started to play a game on her PlayStation for several hours each day.

The researchers suspected that grasping the console's hand-grips together with repeated pushing of the buttons produced minor but prolonged injury to the palm of the girl's hands, which can be made worse by sweating during a tense game.

The doctors recommended the girl stop playing and she recovered fully after 10 days, the researchers said.

"If you're worried about soreness on your hands when playing a games console, it might be sensible to give your hands a break from time to time, and don't play excessively if your hands are prone to sweating," Nina Goad of the British Association of Dermatologists said in a statement.

(Reporting by Michael Kahn, Editing by Will Dunham)
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I feel that on a gaming site, this is a public service announcement... take a break, people!

(me too!)

[SpiritWarrior]

I saw this too, I thought this was a given. They may have just named it, but many of us have been well aware of this from the time of the atari 2600 and it's not-so-joy stick. I find that gamepads which have the rubber grips on the sides (like the PS) can hurt the most after time.

[Firestormalpha]

Wow, that brings back some memories of playing Area 51 in the arcades. Had a tendency to develop blisters from pulling the trigger too much.

But yeah, seriously, there is life away from the glowing rectangular screens.

[Bungleau]

Anyone else ever have a dent in the palm of their hand from an Atari Joystick? Or physically wear one out from gameplay?

I thought I was among my peers...

I used to hold the joystick in one hand, with my thumb on top controlling it. After I broke the second one, Mom said I had to hold it in two hands instead.

Man, did my scores suffer

And boy, oh boy... could that be taken the wrong way

Sadly, I'm staring at *two* glowing electronic screens as I write this... :

[Melirune]

Hmm.... I have been playing video games since I was born (pretty much), and haveyet to develop these lesions. Although, I do have a few callouses.

[Kakero]

Kinda think of it, I do notice I have a hard time holding anything after a long session with my PS2, like I have no energy. A small section of the skin will have blisters.

I don't notice this problem with my snes controllers however.

[ElfBane]

Good Goddess people!!! They're called callous's. Let's all go out and chop some wood (the man who chops his own wood, warms himself twice!), I think we will find 'lesions' and 'sore spots'. Wait a couple days, they will go away, and gaming can resume. Unless of course we're all TOOOO busy waiting on the Nanny to make a decision for us!!!!!!!!!!!

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

..just soak 'em in some water with some fish in there. They'll eat 'em all away!

[Felix The Assassin]

Just use said PS whatever for shotgun pattern sampling. Adjust choke, check pattern. Once the pattern is just right, both out of pattern and PS issues will be resolved.