US man first to be treated for Google Glass addiction

Washington: Doctors have reported the first case of Google Glass addiction after a 31-year-old man in US exhibited withdrawal symptoms and was having a hard time functioning without the wearable device.

In a paper published in the journal Addictive Behaviours, doctors described the case of the patient, an enlisted service member who checked in to the US Navy's Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Programme (SARP) for treatment of alcoholism. He was exhibiting withdrawal symptoms that doctors initially thought were solely related to alcohol. But they found he was having a hard time functioning also because of his withdrawal from Google Glass, 'NBC News' reported.

The man had been wearing Glass for up to 18 hours a day, using it at work and taking it off when he went to sleep or bathed, said Dr Andrew Doan, head of addictions and resilience research at Naval Medical Center San Diego and a co-author of the paper. The man told his treatment providers that the withdrawal symptoms from Glass were "much worse" than withdrawing from alcohol, Doan said. When the therapist would ask the patient a question, he would repeatedly place his index finger to the right side of face, similar to trying to turn on the Glass.

The man even began experiencing his dreams as if they were viewed through the eyeglass-like smart headset. The patient successfully completed the 35-day residential treatment programme and is experiencing fewer withdrawal symptoms, Doan said.