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Including gaming disorder in the ICD-11: The need to do so from a clinical and public health perspective

Rumpf HJ 1 , Achab S 2 , Billieux J 3 , Bowden-Jones H 4 , Carragher N 5 , Demetrovics Z 6 Show all authors , Higuchi S 7 , King DL 8 , Mann K 9 , Potenza M 10 , Saunders JB 11 , Abbott M 12 , Ambekar A 13 , Aricak OT 14 , Assanangkornchai S 15 , Bahar N 16 , Borges G 17 , Brand M 18 , Chan EM 19 , Chung T 20 , Derevensky J 21 , Kashef AE 22 , Farrell M 23 , Fineberg NA 24 , Gandin C 25 , Gentile DA 26 , Griffiths MD 27 , Goudriaan AE 28 , Grall-Bronnec M 29 , Hao W 30 , Hodgins DC 31 , Ip P 32 , Király O 6 , Lee HK 33 , Kuss D 27 , Lemmens JS 34 , Long J 30 , Lopez-Fernandez O 27 , Mihara S 7 , Petry NM 35 , Pontes HM 27 , Rahimi-Movaghar A 36 , Rehbein F 37 , Rehm J 38 , Scafato E 39 , Sharma M 40 , Spritzer D 41 , Stein DJ 42 , Tam P 43 , Weinstein A 44 , Wittchen HU 45 , Wölfling K 46 , Zullino D 2 , Poznyak V 5

Affiliations 

  • 1 1 Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Lübeck , Lübeck, Germany
  • 2 2 Department of Mental Health and Psychiatry, Service of Addictology, Geneva University Hospitals , Geneva, Switzerland
  • 3 4 Addictive and Compulsive Behaviours Lab, Institute for Health and Behaviour, University of Luxembourg , Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
  • 4 5 Central North West London NHS Trust, Division of Brain Science, Imperial College London , London, UK
  • 5 6 Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, WHO Headquarters , Geneva, Switzerland
  • 6 7 Institute of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) , Budapest, Hungary
  • 7 8 National Hospital Organization Kurihama Medical and Addiction Center , Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan
  • 8 9 School of Psychology, The University of Adelaide , Adelaide, SA, Australia
  • 9 10 Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg , Mannheim, Germany
  • 10 11 Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Child Study Center, The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, Connecticut Mental Health Center, Yale University School of Medicine , New Haven, CT, USA
  • 11 12 Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research, The University of Queensland , Brisbane, QLD, Australia
  • 12 13 Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology , Auckland, New Zealand
  • 13 14 Department of Psychiatry, National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, All India Institute of Medical Sciences , New Delhi, India
  • 14 15 Department of Psychology, Hasan Kalyoncu University , Gaziantep, Turkey
  • 15 16 Epidemiology Unit and Centre for Alcohol Studies, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University , Hat Yai, Songkhla, Thailand
  • 16 17 Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Hospital Selayang , Selangor, Malaysia
  • 17 18 National Institute of Psychiatry , Mexico City, Mexico
  • 18 19 General Psychology: Cognition Center for Behavioral Addiction Research, University Duisburg-Essen , Duisburg, Germany
  • 19 21 Integrated Centre on Addiction Prevention and Treatment, Tung Wah Group of Hospitals , Hong Kong SAR, China
  • 20 22 Department of Health, Hong Kong SAR, China
  • 21 23 Applied Child Psychology and Department of Psychiatry, McGill University , Montreal, Canada
  • 22 24 National Rehabilitation Center , Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
  • 23 25 National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales , Randwick, NSW, Australia
  • 24 26 Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust , Hertfordshire, UK
  • 25 28 National Centre on Addiction and Doping, National Observatory on Alcohol, Italian National Institute of Health , Rome, Italy
  • 26 29 Department of Psychology, Iowa State University , Ames, IA, USA
  • 27 30 International Gaming Research Unit, Psychology Department, Nottingham Trent University , Nottingham, UK
  • 28 31 Department of Psychiatry, Academic Medical Center, Mental Health Care, University of Amsterdam , Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • 29 32 Addictology and Psychiatry Department, CHU Nantes , Nantes, France
  • 30 33 Mental Health Institute of the Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University , Changsha, Hunan, China
  • 31 34 Department of Psychology, The University of Calgary , Calgary, Alberta, Canada
  • 32 35 Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, Department of Paediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, The University of Hong Kong , Hong Kong SAR, China
  • 33 36 Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea , Seoul, South Korea
  • 34 37 Center for Research on Children, Adolescents, and the Media, Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam , Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  • 35 38 Department of Psychiatry, University of Connecticut School of Medicine , Farmington, CT, USA
  • 36 39 Iranian National Center for Addiction Studies, Tehran University of Medical Sciences , Tehran, Iran
  • 37 40 Criminological Research Institute Lower Saxony , Hannover, Germany
  • 38 41 Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, Centre for Addictions and Mental Health , Toronto, Canada
  • 39 44 National Observatory on Alcohol, National Institute of Health , Rome, Italy
  • 40 45 National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences , Bengaluru, India
  • 41 46 Study Group on Technological Addictions , Porto Alegre, Brazil
  • 42 47 Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, SA MRC Unit on Risk & Resilience in Mental Disorders, University of Cape Town , Cape Town, South Africa
  • 43 48 Network for Internet Investigation and Research in Australia, The Delta Clinic , Sydney, NSW, Australia
  • 44 49 Department of Behavioral Science, University of Ariel , Ariel, Israel
  • 45 43 Epidemiological Research Unit, Institute of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Technical University Dresden , Dresden, Germany
  • 46 50 Outpatient Clinic for Behavioral Addiction, Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center, Johannes Gutenberg University , Mainz, Germany
J Behav Addict, 2018 09 01;7(3):556-561.
PMID: 30010410 DOI: 10.1556/2006.7.2018.59

Abstract

The proposed introduction of gaming disorder (GD) in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) has led to a lively debate over the past year. Besides the broad support for the decision in the academic press, a recent publication by van Rooij et al. (2018) repeated the criticism raised against the inclusion of GD in ICD-11 by Aarseth et al. (2017). We argue that this group of researchers fails to recognize the clinical and public health considerations, which support the WHO perspective. It is important to recognize a range of biases that may influence this debate; in particular, the gaming industry may wish to diminish its responsibility by claiming that GD is not a public health problem, a position which maybe supported by arguments from scholars based in media psychology, computer games research, communication science, and related disciplines. However, just as with any other disease or disorder in the ICD-11, the decision whether or not to include GD is based on clinical evidence and public health needs. Therefore, we reiterate our conclusion that including GD reflects the essence of the ICD and will facilitate treatment and prevention for those who need it.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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