Boston (SmartAboutHealth) - According to a new study, roughly 10% of teens in the U.S. are addicted to video games.  Should this be something to worry about, or simply ignore?

Researchers led by Doug Gentile from Iowa State University carried out their work on a group of 1,200 kids between the ages of 8 and 18.

The idea behind the study was to see what type of addiction, if any, they had to video games.

To gauge the addiction, they treated it just like an addiction to gambling or something of that nature.

What researchers ended up finding was that roughly 10% of teens in the U.S. have an addiction to video games.

When they were not able to play, they would become irritable, and show withdrawal symptoms.

On average, a gaming addict was found to play video games for 24 hours each week.

So is this something to worry about?  Researchers say it is, as video game addiction has been linked to an increased risk of violent behavior, ADHD, and other social problems.

Not only that, but they found a direct correlation between video game addiction, and lower school grades.