iStock/Thinkstock(GENEVA) — The World Health Organization (WHO) is one step closer to classifying obsessive video game playing as an official mental health condition.
The eleventh edition of the International Classification of Diseases is slated to be published in 2018 and will include gaming disorder as a serious health condition.
The diagnostic manual, which was last updated in 1990, defines the disorder as a pattern of digital or video gaming behavior that results in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning.
The WHO characterizes the disorder as having “impaired control” with increasing priority given to gaming, and “the continuation of escalation of gaming despite negative consequences.”
Studies suggest that gaming disorder affects only a small proportion of people who engage in digital or video-gaming activities.
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