The World Health Organization to Add 'Obsessive Gaming Disorders' to Its Classification of Diseases

The World Health Organization (WHO) will be adding "obsessive gaming disorders" to its International Classification of Diseases in 2018. The diagnostic manual will be published sometime in 2018, the first update since 1990. "Health professionals need to recognize that the gaming disorder may have serious health consequences." said Vladimir Poznyak, member of WHO's Mental Health and Substance Abuse panel. 

This does not, of course, implicate everyone who plays games. Rather, the current draft (Section 6 "Disorders due to substance use or addictive behaviors"; subsection 6D11) of the description states that to be classified as suffering from the ailment, a person places gaming over all "to the extent that it takes precedence over other life interests" and can include "symptoms" such as lack of sleep or lack of adequate nutrition. This behavior will need a year's observation prior to making a confirmed diagnosis.

Not all are sold on the idea, however, with dissenters saying that such a classification can lead to a misdiagnosis of a mental disorder with people being mislabeled and "overtreated". Allen Frances, former chair of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders compared "gaming addition" to those who enjoy a lot of coffee, "Billions of people around the world are hooked on caffeine for fun or better functioning, but only rarely does this cause more trouble than it's worth". 

In fact, multiple studies have been carried out asking whether or not a wide variety of subjects from shopping to love to sugar to suntanning can be officially described as addictive. Whether they too will one day be recognized as official conditions remains to be seen.