Games & Mental Health

Washington, D.C. – October 26, 2021 – The Higher Education Video Game Alliance (HEVGA) and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) today released a new report highlighting the benefits of using video games in K-12 settings. Based on an extensive review of decades of academic literature, the report, Benefits of Video Games in K-12 Education, discusses […]

As researchers concerned with careful, evidence-based recommendations, we note that no definitive evidence has yet been published that links video games as a medium to a disorder deserving of its own classification.Without sufficient evidence, WHO will only repeat a cycle of media scares that we’ve seen before in books, music, radio, and television. In our opinion, WHO should first demonstrate the proposed disorder is not due to other underlying evidence-based disorders or diagnoses, as opposed to video games as a medium, before including it in the ICD-11. Not to do so has the potential to cause great harm to individuals in true need of other substantiated and effective mental health diagnoses and treatments.

Proposed inclusion in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) stigmatizes billions of players worldwide, is based on little scholarly evidence, and proposes no treatment or prevention WASHINGTON, D.C. – January 4, 2018 – It is with great dismay that during the holiday season we read about the proposal at the World Health Organization (WHO) to […]