An article from the website MedicalXpress was published on Facebook Monday and quickly flagged by users as possibly containing misinformation. “Compulsive video-game playing could be mental health problem,” the article told readers.
The article comes from the Associated Press and was re-posted on the MedicalXpress website.
The truth?
“Gaming Disorder” was included in the draft of the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) in December 2017 and was published in the final version of the ICD-11 this week. It’s defined “as a pattern of gaming behavior (‘digital-gaming’ or ‘video-gaming’) characterized 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.”
When diagnosing this disorder, the ICD-11 states that “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.”
(TWS Fact Check reached out to WHO for clarification of the difference between the two gaming types as well as what behavior qualifies as “significant impairment” but did not hear back.)
As the AP pointed out, many health professionals warn against this new mental health designation, as it may “cause unnecessary concern among parents.”
“People need to understand this doesn’t mean every child who spends hours in their room playing games is an addict, otherwise medics are going to be flooded with requests for help,” spokeswoman for the British Psychological Society Dr. Joan Harvey told the AP.
WHO’s director of the department for mental health and substance abuse, Dr. Shekhar Saxena, says that the disorder may affect an estimated 2 or 3 percent of “gamers,” an figure that, according to some studies, could include upward of 4 million people in the United States.
The American Psychiatric Association, however, does not recognize “gaming disorder” as a formal disorder nor does it register as a mental health problem.
TWS Fact Check cannot weigh in on the validity of WHO’s classification — our curmudgeonly prejudice would quickly betray any objectivity on the matter — but the article from MedicalXpress and the Associated Press is accurate.
If you have questions about this fact check, or would like to submit a request for another fact check, email Holmes Lybrand at [email protected] or the Weekly Standard at [email protected]. For details on TWS Fact Check, see our explainer here.
