World Health Organisation says it’s official: video gaming addiction is a disease
World health experts have revealed the new mental health disorder that is sweeping the world.
Experts are finally recognising what parents of “Fortnite” fans and other games have long feared: video game addiction is a mental health disorder.
The New York Post reports the World Health Organisation has officially added video game addiction — characterised by “a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behaviour” that “takes precedence over other life interests” — to their International Classification of Diseases (ICD) database.
Shekhar Saxena, the WHO’s expert on mental health and substance abuse expert, says only a small fraction of video game players will develop “gaming disorder.”
But he has seen some extreme cases, such as gamers who played for 20 hours straight, missing sleep, meals, work, school and other typical activities. He says early warning signs could help prevent a disorder.
“This is an occasional or transitory behaviour,” says Mr Saxena. Only if such behaviour continues for about a year, he says, can an addiction diagnosis be made.
In Australia, Fortnite gaming addiction has seen a growing number of psychologists now specialising in treatment for gaming addiction, and gaming rehabilitation and treatment centres have been established in Sydney and Melbourne.
MORE: Mum force feeds game-addicted son
The Video Games Coalition, an industry lobby group, tells NBC News in a statement that the products they represent are “enjoyed safely and sensibly by more than 2 billion people worldwide.”
The group is calling for the WHO to re-examine their assessment, adding that studies have shown video games could have “educational, therapeutic, and recreational value.”
For the past decade, the ICD has been used by physicians, researchers and health insurers as a reference work of some 55,000 diseases, injuries and causes of death.
This latest version — the ICD-II — will be presented to member states at their annual World Health Assembly this month, and will go into effect officially in January 2022.
The World Health Organisation says “gaming disorder” is “as a pattern of gaming behaviour characterised by impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities, and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences”.
“For gaming disorder to be diagnosed, the behaviour pattern must be of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning and would normally have been evident for at least 12 months.”
Originally published in the New York Post and reprinted here with permission.
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