INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Compulsively playing video games now qualifies as a new mental health condition
(Representational)Geneva: The World Health Organization (WHO) has now included "gaming disorder" as a mental
health condition in its International Classification of Diseases (ICD).The ICD, a diagnostic manual published by the WHO, was last updated
in 1990 and its new edition, ICD-11, has included gaming disorder as a serious health condition that needs to be monitored. "Gaming
disorder has been added to the section on addictive disorders," the WHO said in a statement.This classification means health professionals
and systems will be more "alerted to the existence of this condition" while boosting the possibility that "people who suffer from these
conditions can get appropriate help", Vladimir Poznyak, a member of the WHO's Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, was quoted as
telling the CNN. "Millions of gamers around the world, even when it comes to the intense gaming, would never qualify as people suffering
from gaming disorder," he said, adding that the overall prevalence of this condition is "very low"."And let me emphasise that this is a
clinical condition, and clinical diagnosis can be made only by health professionals which are properly trained to do that," he noted.The new
ICD-11 is also able to better capture data regarding safety in healthcare, which means that unnecessary events that may harm health -- such
as unsafe workflows in hospitals -- can be identified and reduced, the statement said.It also includes new chapters, one on traditional
medicine: although millions of people use traditional medicine worldwide, it has never been classified in this system. Another new chapter
on sexual health brings together conditions that were previously categorised in other ways (e.g
gender incongruence was listed under mental health conditions) or described differently. ICD-11 will be presented at the World Health
Assembly in May 2019 for adoption by member states, and will come into effect on January 1, 2022. "ICD is a cornerstone of health
information and ICD-11 will deliver an up-to-date view of the patterns of disease," said Lubna Alansari, WHO's Assistant Director-General
(Health Metrics and Measurement).The ICD is the foundation for identifying health trends and statistics worldwide, and contains around
55,000 unique codes for injuries, diseases and causes of death. It provides a common language that allows health professionals to share
health information across the globe.
