UNI

London, Feb 29: 'Addicts’ of Harry Potter suffer from same withdrawal symptoms that drug addicts do.

Psychologists claimed that at least 10 per cent fans of J K Rowling's boy wizard suffer from withdrawal symptoms while 20 per cent were on the verge of addiction.

The seventh and final book of the series, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, published last summer, sold a record 400,000,000 copies.

''An addiction to a drug is no different from an addiction to Harry Potter or the Internet or pornography,'' said Prof Rudski of Muhlenberg College, Pennsylvania.

''Some readers can become so engaged in the series and the ancillary world that grew out of it that they report behaviours that truly fit definitions of addiction or dependence,'' according to a study to be published in the Journal of General Psychology.

The study compared cravings for cigarettes to that for the book.

''After finishing the series, ten per cent of fans spent over four hours a day on Potter-related activities, experiencing interference with appetite and sleep, engaging in less physical activity, having a lower sense of well-being and being more irritable,'' it said.