Ben-DutkaSee? That's what you get for playing so much PlayStation!
According to a recent article at Yahoo Games, it appears that having a PlayStation controller in your hands for an extended period of time can produce something called "PlayStation Palm." As reported by the BBC, skin specialists in the UK have mentioned a certain condition in the British Journal of Dermatology, and the cause is "excessive gaming." Called "PlayStation palmar hidradenitis," it was first identified after Swiss doctors examined a 12-year-old girl who suffered from "painful bumps on her hands." The doctors concluded that it was a result of sweating, but as it wasn't occurring on her feet, they connected it to her PlayStation playing. The girl went 10 days without gaming…and lo and behold, the bumps disappeared. This may remind you of what became a commonly spoken term – "Wiiitis" – which appeared back in 2007; it was similar to tennis elbow and afflicted those who swung that Wii-mote about a little too often. Sony's response to these new findings was quite diplomatic:
"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. 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."
Well, we don't wish to belittle it either, but we're hoping that someone will soon point out the obvious fact that it wouldn't just be the PlayStation controller that causes this condition. We're figuring any controller will cause this to happen; the hands tend to sweat when playing, right? So perhaps it's not ridiculously far-fetched, and maybe even some of you have noticed it… But it certainly doesn't sound dangerous. If you have those bumps, maybe it's just a sign you should put the gamepad down and do something else for a little while, eh?
