‘Gaming disorder’ now a mental ailment

GENEVA: The World Health Organisation (WHO) may classify “gaming disorder” as a mental health condition in its 2018 manual on diseases, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.

In a draft of WHO’s 11th update of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), gaming disorder has been included in the category of “mental, behavioural or neurodevelopmental disorders”.

To warrant a diagnosis of such a disorder, one shall have “impaired control over gaming” and give “increasing priority to gaming to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other life interests and daily activities” and continue gaming “despite the occurrence of negative consequence,” according to the draft.

Such a behaviour pattern is of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, f a mily, s oci a l , e ducational, occupational or other important areas of functioning, said the ICD11.

The ICD i s used by health professionals globally and serves as an i nternational standard f or defining health conditions and diseases.

Sudden deaths and physical symptoms linked to online gaming have been on the rise in recent years.

In 2014, a 27-year-old Chinese woman suffered sudden death after playing video games for over 10 consecutive hours.

In 2015, a 17-year-old Russian boy was rushed to hospital and died after falling into a coma while playing video games al most continuously for 22 days, only stopping to sleep and eat. – Bernama