Umeå University's logo

umu.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Scholars' open debate paper on the World Health Organization ICD-11 Gaming Disorder proposal
Show others and affiliations
2017 (English)In: Journal of Behavioral Addictions, ISSN 2062-5871, E-ISSN 2063-5303, Vol. 6, no 3, p. 267-270Article in journal, Editorial material (Other academic) Published
Abstract [en]

Concerns about problematic gaming behaviors deserve our full attention. However, we claim that it is far from clear that these problems can or should be attributed to a new disorder. The empirical basis for a Gaming Disorder proposal, such as in the new ICD-11, suffers from fundamental issues. Our main concerns are the low quality of the research base, the fact that the current operationalization leans too heavily on substance use and gambling criteria, and the lack of consensus on symptomatology and assessment of problematic gaming. The act of formalizing this disorder, even as a proposal, has negative medical, scientific, public-health, societal, and human rights fallout that should be considered. Of particular concern are moral panics around the harm of video gaming. They might result in premature application of diagnosis in the medical community and the treatment of abundant false-positive cases, especially for children and adolescents. Second, research will be locked into a confirmatory approach, rather than an exploration of the boundaries of normal versus pathological. Third, the healthy majority of gamers will be affected negatively. We expect that the premature inclusion of Gaming Disorder as a diagnosis in ICD-11 will cause significant stigma to the millions of children who play video games as a part of a normal, healthy life. At this point, suggesting formal diagnoses and categories is premature: the ICD-11 proposal for Gaming Disorder should be removed to avoid a waste of public health resources as well as to avoid causing harm to healthy video gamers around the world.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
AKADEMIAI KIADO RT , 2017. Vol. 6, no 3, p. 267-270
Keywords [en]
gaming disorder, ICD-11, DSM-5, diagnosis, moral panic, negative implications
National Category
Psychiatry
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-140918DOI: 10.1556/2006.5.2016.088ISI: 000411876000001PubMedID: 28033714Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85031668702OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-140918DiVA, id: diva2:1153474
Available from: 2017-10-30 Created: 2017-10-30 Last updated: 2023-03-24Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(124 kB)612 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 124 kBChecksum SHA-512
bab775e73431a5479cbbf3101ea943f33d2181e46674ec8352d23fe9cf45d3b1ac3ee57bb2dea5606b6fa1e2f722ce13f201b6b9e6625e8043bc059a5edfda7e
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full textPubMedScopus

Authority records

Dunkels, Elza

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Dunkels, Elza
By organisation
Department of applied educational science
In the same journal
Journal of Behavioral Addictions
Psychiatry

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 612 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn
Total: 2704 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf