WHO Gaming Disorder Listing a 'Moral Panic', Say Experts (bbc.com)

The decision to class gaming addiction as a mental health disorder was "premature" and based on a "moral panic," experts have said. From a report: The World Health Organization included "gaming disorder" in the latest version of its disease classification manual. But biological psychology lecturer Dr Peter Etchells said the move risked "pathologising" a behaviour that was harmless for most people. The WHO said it had reviewed available evidence before including it. It added that the views reflected a "consensus of experts from different disciplines and geographical regions" and defined addiction as a pattern of persistent gaming behaviour so severe it "takes precedence over other life interests." Speaking at the Science Media Centre in London, experts said that while the decision was well intentioned, there was a lack of good quality scientific evidence about how to properly diagnose video game addiction.

Comments

Moral panic:

[Narcocide]

My God! They've stopped watching television commercials. Something must be done! Think of the childrens' revenue!!

The real issue:

[Futurepower(R)]

When children play role-playing games, they aren't learning about real life.

Most children don't have fully competent parents, apparently. So there is no one to teach them.

Re:The real issue:

[ShanghaiBill]

When children play role-playing games, they aren't learning about real life.

Children also are not learning about real life when they listen to pop music, watch sitcoms on TV, or play with Legos. Nothing in real life is as simple and logical as Legos.

Most children don't have fully competent parents, apparently.

Competent parents don't join in moral panics. There is no evidence that video games are particularly harmful. I use "positive parenting", so my kids have a list of required things (homework, chores, enrichment activities) and not a list of prohibited things. Their free time is their own.

Re:The real issue:

[Kjella]

When children play role-playing games, they aren't learning about real life. Most children don't have fully competent parents, apparently. So there is no one to teach them.

You could say the exact same thing about TV, most series and shows aren't exactly realistic and deadbeat parents certainly isn't new so I don't see how this generation is worse off than the last. If you're gaming you're at least thinking a bit for yourself rather than mindlessly watching a show, so I think you're slightly better off than before even though playing Overwatch isn't exactly important life skills. The problem is more that through modern gaming metrics it's a finely tuned addiction machine with levels, gear, achievements, daily challenges, special events, loot boxes, XP bonuses and various tricks to poke and prod you into playing more. And now I'm old enough to see through it that I'm being manipulated, but not at 15 and probably not in my 20s either. One more round, one more level, one more trinket. We are kinda simple beings though when they tickle the brain's reward centers.

Re:The real issue:

[mapkinase]

The problem is that gaming takes much more of your "real" life as a kid: learning physics and mathematics and programming and biology: you know, stuff that matters.

I am old and I do not have time for gaming and, oh, boy, isn't that a time sucking activity. When I binge Frasier in upteenth time I can do it in background. Have you ever tried playing game in the background?

Books and gaming are 100% time sucking activity while music and TV/movies are more tolerant to that.

We went from hard hitting heroin escapism of books to soon to become (with advent of Internet streaming on your side second screen) light ganja addiction to movies and TV to the heroin on steroids: gaming.

Back to childhood. Childhood is not supposed to be "happy". It is supposed to be very difficult and demanding, stressful and painful and if you are under delusion of giving your kids happy childhood, good luck suing your 30-year old son out of your basement. In the past people brought kids because they really needed them as a base for a quiet dignified childhood, now people make kids as pets, to groom them and play with them.

Kids are not pets. Stop spoiling them with bullshit activities, be tiger dads and helicopter moms.

And there bloody is no such thing as "teenage rebellion", it's a Western invention of degenerate lousy parents.

Experts

[manu0601]

The decision to class gaming addiction as a mental health disorder was "premature" and based on a "moral panic," experts have said.

This is a misleading sentence suggesting WHO had no experts working on it./p

Isn't this just like any other addiction?

[ISayWeOnlyToBePolite]

Why would this be so hard to diagnose compared to for example the diagnostic criteria from the DSM-IV for 312.31 (Pathological Gambling)?

A. Persistent and recurrent maladaptive gambling behavior as indicated by at least five of the following
1. is preoccupied with gambling (e.g., preoccupied with reliving past gambling experiences, handicapping or planning the next venture, or thinking of ways to
get money with which to gamble)
2. needs to gamble with increasing amounts of money in order to achieve the desired excitement
3. has repeated unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop gambling
4. is restless or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop gambling
5. gambles as a way of escaping from problems or of relieving a dysphoric mood (e.g., feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety, depression.
6. after losing money gambling, often returns another day in order to get even (“chasing” one’s losses)
7. lies to family members, therapist, or others to conceal the extent of involvement with gambling
8. has committed illegal acts, such as forgery, fraud, theft, or embezzlement, in order to finance gambling
9. has jeopardized or lost a significant relationship, job, or educational or career opportunity because of gambling
10.relies on others to provide money to relieve a desperate financial situation caused by gambling
B. The gambling behavior is not better accounted for by a Manic Episode.

Re:Isn't this just like any other addiction?

[Anonymous Coward]

So, I was involved with DSM-5 (you could look up my name but I'm not telling).

You're right that this could probably lumped in with gambling, because in terms of learning schedules they're very much the same (e.g., both have variable reinforcement schedules). Many games are essentially gambling.

The DSM (and ICD) to some extent tends to be horribly conservative though. Some of this is maybe well-founded, because of real concerns over overpathologizing, but some of it has to do with the scientific culture in formal institutions of psychiatry and clinical psychology, which tends to be focused on superficial aspects of behavioral patterns.

There's lots of aspects of this that are messed up, though. "Addiction" probably isn't quite the right word for either gambling or gaming problems though, because the neurobiological pathways are different from those involved in drug use problems. They're probably their own thing. There's a history of people in the field of behavioral sciences and out of the field making well-meaning models or metaphors, and then taking them very literally. E.g., there are some things about gambling and pathological gaming that are like drug addictions, and other things that are different, and other things that are probably more like compulsions. It can both be a problem and sort of like and sort of not like any of those things. People need to start being comfortable with any given behavioral phenomenon being its own thing, while having elements in common with other things.

It's pretty clear that some people do have gaming-related behavioral problems. Do you need a separate disorder for it in the DSM or ICD though? Maybe or maybe not, but I'm not sure that the answer to that question is entirely scientific. It's sort of scientific and sort of not. There are an quasi-infinite number of ways for someone to have mental illness, but we don't specifically label them all, for example.

Subcategories include...

[tlambert]

Subcategories include...

Leeroy Jenkins syndrome

Ganking

Camping respawn points ...

difference between use and abuse

[goombah99]

What they are saying is not that gaming leads to addiction but rather some addicable people make gaming their addiction.

This is unquestionably true.

You can say the same thing about cleaning your ears with a Q-tip or sucking on a lollypop.

People who use drugs are not neccessarily addicts. People who abuse drugs often are addicts.

And so we need a category to describe, Q-tip fixation, drug addiction, and gaming addiction.

Unwanted compulsive behaviour is also different than compulsive behaviour. If it's unwanted but not under control it is a problem and so they classify it as such.

okay everybody can calm down now.

"takes precedence over other life interests."

[Shemmie]

That can be called a 'hobby', depending on how extreme we're talking.

Hobby?

[sjbe]

defined addiction as a pattern of persistent gaming behaviour so severe it "takes precedence over other life interests.

That's the definition of a hobby. I have several hobbies in my own life that I strongly prioritize over other things I could be doing but that doesn't make them harmful. Quite the opposite actually. For it to be an addiction, with the negative implications one thinks of when using the word addiction, there needs to be some sort of measurable harm beyond mere opportunity cost.

I'm sure there are people who have a pathological interest in playing video games to the point where they start neglecting health, hygiene, relationships, work, bills, etc. Once you get to that sort of point then we can talk about addictions and mental health disorders. Not really different than any other sort of addiction in that regard. I'm not sure video game addiction is really measurably different from someone who simply watches WAY too much TV so I wonder if it is a pointless distinction.