“Video game addiction” to be classified as mental illness by WHO in 2018

According to information from New Scientist, “video game addiction” should be officially classified as a disease by 2018. The World Health Organization (WHO), a UN arm focused on global standardization of health-related practices and policies, explained that the new disease will be part of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) review, which will be updated next year and should include news beyond addiction to video games.

The last ICD review was carried out in 1992 and in 2018 will receive renewed attention from WHO. This means, therefore, that the new definitions of diseases will still be debated by experts in order to facilitate diagnosis by doctors around the world. In the case of video game addiction, however, it is already predicted that the final text will delimit some symptoms such as:

  • Patient prioritizes video games to the point where playing becomes more important than other life interests
  • Patient's inability to control how many hours or how often they play
  • Ignore the growing negative aspects of video game addiction

Technically, the new disease is expected to be categorized as a “disorder caused by addiction behavior, ” just as gambling addiction is seen today. We do not know, however, whether there is a possibility of any change in this aspect to the final definition.

Good or bad?

In South Korea, the vicious video game disorder is already officially recognized as a disease and there are methods for treating the problem. Still, the inclusion of this in the ICD is not being widely accepted by the global medical community.

Billions of people worldwide are caffeine addicts, but this rarely causes any issues worth considering.

An American psychiatrist named Allen Frances, consulted by IFLScience, sees no benefit in including gambling addiction on the WHO list. For him, millions of people could be considered sick unnecessarily depending on how the definition is published in the ICD.

"Billions of people around the world are addicted to caffeine, but this rarely causes any problems worth considering, " he argued. He also recalls that experts have also been refusing to formalize "internet addiction" as a disease for the same reasons: in the vast majority of cases, health damage does not justify formal medical treatment.

"Video Game Addiction" to be classified as mental illness by WHO in 2018 via TecMundo