Gaming Disorder To Be Named A Mental Health Condition For First Time

The International Classification of Diseases, a diagnostic manual published by the World Health Organization, is set to be updated in 2018 and gaming disorder is to be listed as an official mental health condition.

The manual has not been revisited since 1990, 27 years ago, and it's getting an overhaul in 2018 but the wording of the gaming disorder has not been revealed yet. New Scientist says the draft outlines the criteria needed to determine whether someone can be classified as having "gaming disorder."

Vladimir Poznyak of the WHO’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse praise move to official recognize gaming disorder saying, "Health professionals need to recognize that gaming disorder may have serious health consequences.

"Most people who play video games don’t have a disorder, just like most people who drink alcohol don’t have a disorder either. However, in certain circumstances overuse can lead to adverse effects," Poznyak continued.

Researchers at the University of Oxford’s Internet Institute conducted a study to investigate the percentage of gamers who could be considered "addicted" to video games medically.

The study was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry and it revealed only 2 to 3 percent of the 19,000 men and women surveyed in the UK, US, Canada, and Germany admitted they experienced five or more of the symptoms of addiction.

The survey questioned gamers about symptoms from the American Psychiatric Association checklist of health symptoms. The list of 9 standard symptoms was created a few years ago to determine "internet gaming disorder." Symptoms include antisocial behavior, anxiety and withdrawal symptoms.

Dr. Andrew Przybylski was the lead author in the Oxford study and he says, "To our knowledge, these are the first findings from a large-scale project to produce robust evidence on the potential new problem of ‘internet gaming disorder."

"Contrary to what was predicted, the study did not find a clear link between potential addiction and negative effects on health; however, more research grounded in open and robust scientific practices is needed to learn if games are truly as addictive as many fear," Dr. Przybylski continued.

In contrast to what the study showed, a poll of 500 gamers by ESET found 10 percent admitted to spending between 12 and 24 hours playing video games. Surely, these extreme cases must be few and far between since most regular people have to work for a living, there will always be the extreme cases.