Patient background of the Pokemon phenomenon: questionnaire studies in multiple pediatric clinics

Many children in Japan developed various neuropsychological problems, including seizures, while watching the program Pocket Monster, televised on 16 December 1997. To examine the basis for this incident, we have performed a survey of volunteering children and their parents who visited our pediatric clinics for other reasons from 8 January to 28 February 1998. Children and their parents filled out questionnaires. Among the total of 662 children surveyed, the great majority (603, 91.1%) was found to have watched the Pocket Monster program and 30 individuals (5.0% of viewers) complained of variable degrees of neuropsychological abnormalities. These included seizures (two cases), headache (nine cases), nausea (eight cases), blurred vision (four cases), vertigo (two cases), dysthymia (two cases) and vomiting (one case). Nearly half (14) of these children developed symptoms during or immediately after watching the program, while the remainder did so later. Representative cases are reported and other statistical aspects are discussed.