#TIC104 Summary: “Internet gaming disorder and the DSM-5″

Almost ten years after the last incarnation was published in 1994, the newest version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders was published in 2013. One of the many changes in the new DSM was the addition of Internet Gaming Disorder to the manual.

The article describes the process that the people writing the manual went through to recategorize abuse disorders such as substance abuse disorders, gambling disorders and Internet Gaming Disorder.

The article mentions that there is very little information available about IGD at the moment and poses that its inclusion into the DSM-5 was in order to encourage more studies into peoples’ internet use habits and when they may become unhealthy. An interesting thing that the article notes is that the criteria in psychological studies relating to internet use vary wildly, some coming to the conclusion that only 0.1% of participants may be affected by unhealthy internet habits, and other studies put that number at 50%.

I find this paper very interesting, as it is a great example of how psychology must adapt to the movement of technology and, by extension, how the human mind also adapts to it, as something like Internet Gaming Disorder would either have not existed in 1994, when the DSM-4 was released, or would be so rare that it would likely have been completly unheard of.

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