Multiple reports are indicating that the World Health Organization will finalize its draft in preparation for a diagnostic manual that will be published in 2018. The draft includes a new International Classification of Diseases under the ICD-11 category that will feature video game addiction as one of the newly added disorders.

The update about the addition for the 2018 publication was reported on by the New Scientist on December 20th, 2017. The report indicates that the manual was last updated way back in 1990, and the newest manual will make its re-debut in 2018.

The addition of video games as a disorder will be used to help clinicians to determine if someone’s monthly, weekly, daily, or hourly gaming habits are an addiction and may need treatment. Vladimir Poznyak, from WHO’s Department of Mental Health and Substance, told New Scientist…

“Health professionals need to recognise that gaming disorder may have serious health consequences,”

 

“Most people who play video games don’t have a disorder, just like most people who drink alcohol don’t have a disorder either. However, in certain circumstances overuse can lead to adverse effects.”

According to IFL Science, the draft for gaming as an addiction in the ICD-11 Beta Draft is still “not final” and is being updated on a daily basis. The symptoms include forfeiting sleep, daily activities or “other life interests” to pursue gaming.

Various other researchers contested the inclusion of gaming as an addiction into the WHO’s ICD-11 database due to the vagueness of the disorder, which included 26 scholars rebutting the entry via an open letter on Research Gate.

The World Health Organization proposed adding video game addiction to the disorder database back in February, 2017.

Some gamers who have been following the trends are probably already aware that the inclusion of video games as an addiction in the international WHO database has been lobbied for by Asian countries.

China and South Korea have been especially strict on video game regulation, so it’s not surprising that they’re behind getting this label in place for the 2018 WHO manual.