The World Health Organization includes “Gaming Disorder” in the new International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems.
Video game addiction officially enters the World Health Organization (WHO) list of diseases. During the General Assembly in Geneva, the member countries voted in favor of the adoption of the new update of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (whose acronym is Icd-11), which contains for the first time the “Gaming Disorder”.
The new text, which will be effective from January 1, 2022, contains definitions and codes for over 55,000 diseases and pathological conditions, and is used to standardize diagnoses and classifications around the world. Gaming disorder is defined as «a series of persistent or recurring behaviors related to gaming, both online and offline, manifested by: a lack of control over the game; an increasing priority given to the game, to the point that it becomes more important than daily activities and the interests of life; a continuous escalation of gaming despite negative personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas ». To be considered pathological, continues the chapter dedicated to the problem, the behavior must be repeated for 12 months, “Although the duration may be shorter if all diagnostic requirements are met and the symptoms are severe” Among the other innovations introduced in the manual there are also the introduction of a chapter on traditional medicine and the reorganization of sexual diseases, which were previously divided into various parts of the manual, under a single chapter.
The awareness of the WHO on the issue of video games comes after a series of alarms from experts, who have long considered video game addiction as a pathology to the point of creating detoxification clinics, now also present in Italy. On the percentage of gamers who become pathological, the estimates are very different. Recent research on Cyberpsichological Behavior, for example, estimated that 7% of online gamers can be defined as addicts, while in other published studies the number ranges from 1.5% of the most optimistic to as much as 20%. In any case, impressive numbers if you consider that in Italy, for example, according to an Aesvi-Gfk research, there are 29.3 million gamers. And according to some estimates,
