Question of the Fortnight
Should PC gaming addiction be treated on the NHS?
Thefirst person in the UK to be diagnosed with gaming addiction used to prefer activities in the real world. He was the captain of his cricket and rugby teams, and was described by his mother as the most sociable of her five children.
But that changed when the 15-year-old became hooked on the video game Fortnite, in which 100 players fight each other in mass brawls. His mother, Kendal Parmar, told ITV’S This Morning that his condition became so bad he was hospitalised for eight weeks, and has spent a year off school. She battled for three years to have his addiction recognised by the NHS, and therefore avoid paying £350 a session for private therapy.
The reason the NHS agreed to treat the boy’s condition is that the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently added gaming addiction to its International Classification of Diseases (ICD). This guide, last updated in 1992, lists symptoms that doctors can use to diagnose diseases.
The 2018 version of the ICD classifies gaming addiction as a mental disorder. There are two types: ‘hazardous gaming’, which “increases the risk of harmful physical or mental health consequences to the individual”, and ‘gaming disorder’, which is “characterised by a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behaviour”. A symptom of the latter is gaming “taking precedence over other life interests and daily activities”.
According to Dr Vladimir Poznyak of the WHO’S Mental Health and Substance Abuse department, up to six per cent of adolescents and young people may be addicted to gaming.
Unsurprisingly, the games industry disagrees. The Entertainment Software Association – which represents the US game industry – said that “common sense and objective research prove video games are not addictive”. It called for the WHO to reverse its decision, claiming the move “recklessly trivialises real mental health issues like depression and social anxiety disorder”.
Even if games are addictive, many people would say the NHS’S stretched resources shouldn’t be used to treat a self-inflicted condition. Thousands of people attacked the decision on social media, while some psychiatrists warned that enthusiastic gamers would be misdiagnosed with addiction, distressing parents.
This fear seems misplaced, though, because the WHO states that before being diagnosed addicts must show symptoms for 12 months – or shorter if the symptoms are “severe”.
Many medical experts insist recognising gaming addiction was overdue. Mark Griffiths, Professor of Behavioural Addiction at Nottingham Trent University and a member of the WHO working group, said being hooked on gaming is “no different to gambling or other addictions”.
He added: “Video gaming is like a non-financial kind of gambling from a psychological point of view. Gamblers use money as a way of keeping score whereas gamers use points”.
Some specialists have called for the NHS to fund a dedicated unit to treat patients addicted to technology, similar to the National Problem Gambling Clinic in Fulham. Dr Richard Graham, a leading adolescent consultant psychiatrist, said: “We are going to be living with devices around us, on and in us for the foreseeable future so the formation of this centre can’t wait”.
However, the WHO rejected calls to recognise addiction to social media and the internet, saying there’s not enough evidence to classify it as a disorder. This stance may seem contradictory, but it must have come as a relief to NHS bosses under increasing pressure to make every penny count.
One young addict became so bad he was hospitalised for eight weeks, and spent a year off school