WHO claims gaming disorder is a mental health issue

James Delahunty
19 Jun 2018 6:08

According to the World Health Organization, 'Gaming disorder' is now a condition like gambling or hoarding.
Gaming disorder has been included in the organization's eleventh edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). The ICD is used by medical professionals worldwide as a baseline for the classification and identification of diseases and disorders.

It characterizes 'Gaming disorder' thus:

Gaming disorder is characterized by a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behaviour ('digital gaming' or 'video-gaming'), which may be online (i.e., over the internet) or offline, manifested by: 1) impaired control over gaming (e.g., onset, frequency, intensity, duration, termination, context); 2) increasing priority given to gaming to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other life interests and daily activities; and 3) continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences. The behaviour pattern is of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning. The pattern of gaming behaviour may be continuous or episodic and recurrent. The gaming behaviour and other features are normally evident over a period of at least 12 months in order for a diagnosis to be assigned, although the required duration may be shortened if all diagnostic requirements are met and symptoms are severe.

Plenty of experts disagree with defining it as a condition along with hoarding and other mental conditions. In 2016, a collection of experts wrote a letter to the WHO arguing against including Gaming disorder in the 11th edition of the ICD. The experts said that while problematic gaming behaviors deserved attention, "we claim that it is far from clear that these problems can or should be attributed to a new disorder."
"Our main concerns are the low quality of the research base, the fact that the current operationalization leans too heavily on substance use and gambling criteria, and the lack of consensus on symptomatology and assessment of problematic gaming," the abstract reads.

Sources: WHO, Research Gate