Diagnosis of internet gaming disorder: issues, impact, and recommendations

Abstract

With the development of the Internet in the 21st century, video gaming became available for the public. However, with the increasing popularity of gaming, issues regarding gaming addiction are unveiled. In response to these problems, the American Psychiatric Association classified Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) as a psychological disorder in 2013 and created diagnostic criteria for it. However, the criteria for IGD have received a lot of criticism since its creation. This paper aims to explore the issues and impact of the current diagnostic criteria for IGD and come up with recommendations to revise the criteria based on the information. The major approach this paper employs to analyze the diagnostic criteria of IGD is through literature review of existing articles regarding IGD. The results show that the diagnostic criteria of IGD are vague and inaccurate and fail to distinguish between high-engagement gamers and addictive gamers. To resolve these issues, this paper provides recommendations on revising the diagnostic criteria of IGD such as adding defining information, prioritizing crucial information, and searching for underlying causes to increase the accuracy of IGD’s criteria. This information will be helpful for diagnosing potential patients of IGD and distinguishing between high-engagement gamers and addictive gamer.