Tech
WHO set to officially classify video game addiction as a mental disorder
Addiction to video games will soon be classified as an official mental disorder, courtesy of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Falling under the same umbrella as gambling addiction, “Gaming Disorder” was added to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems.
Better known as ICD-11, the classification serves as the international standard for diagnosing health-related issues. According to USA Today, the updated list will go into effect starting January 2022.
Read also: Laptop with world’s most dangerous malware sells for $1.35m
The organization first added “Gaming Disorder” to its ICD-11 beta list back in 2017, having looked at research on the topic as far back as 1990. However, not everyone agrees with the WHO’s most recent assessment.
Last June, the American Psychological Association stated that there wasn’t “sufficient evidence to determine whether the condition is a unique mental disorder.” Similarly, a team of researchers published a paper last year that also cited a lack of conclusive scientific evidence on the matter. One of the authors, Isabela Granic, took to Twitter to reiterate why the disorder “should not be diagnosable.”
Join the conversation
Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism
Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.
As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.
If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.
Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.
INVESTIGATION: In Kwara, multimillion-naira milk processing plant is abandoned, converted to a chicken outlet
After the government spent millions of naira to establish a milk processing plant in Kwara State that would provided jobs...
SPECIAL REPORT: For Sokoto communities, promise of healthcare is akin to death sentence
In this story, ABDULRASHEED HAMMAD delves into the dire realities of Primary Health Care services in Sokoto State, shedding light...
ICYMI…SPECIAL REPORT: NNPCL hides behind PIA to frustrate disclosure, accountability
Nigeria’s major oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), in what appears to be a common practice of disregard...
INVESTIGATION: Multi-million naira Ekiti resort center remains uncompleted a decade after
The multimillion-naira project, expected to comprise recreational buildings, now consists of cassava farmland, a bush used for excretion, and a...
SPECIAL REPORT: Torturous experiences of students with disabilities in Oyo tertiary institutions
For students with disabilities in Oyo state-owned tertiary institutions, learning is a torturous and distressing experience, considering the building structures...