Video Game Addiction - Possible Disorder

Possible Disorder

Video game addiction is not included as a diagnosis in either the DSM or the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems.

However, some scholars suggest the effects (or symptoms) of video game overuse may be similar to those of other proposed psychological addictions. Video game overuse may be like compulsive gambling, an impulse control disorder.

According to Griffiths"all addictions (whether chemical or behavioural) are essentially about constant rewards and reinforcement". Griffiths believed that addiction has six components: salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict, and relapse. Some scholars suggest that psycho-social dependence, if it occurs, may revolve around the intermittent reinforcements in the game and the need to belong. Some scholars claim that the social dependence that may arise from video games occurs online where players interact with others and the relationships "often become more important for gamers than real-life relationships". However this is not a view which is generally accepted among all scholars. In fact, one of the most commonly used instruments for the measurement of such addiction, the PVP Questionnaire (Problem Video Game Playing Questionnaire; Tejeiro & Bersabe, 2002) was presented as a quantitative measure, not as a diagnostic tool.

In 2007, the American Psychiatric Association reviewed whether or not video game addiction should be added in the new DSM to be released in 2012. The conclusion was that there was not enough research or evidence to conclude that video game addiction was a disorder.