Compulsive game playing is now a mental health condition, the World Health Organization announced Monday in the latest edition of its disease classification manual.
The WHO defines a "gaming disorder" as having three major characteristics that experts say are similar to substance use disorders and gambling disorder.
"One is that the gaming behavior takes precedence over other activities to the extent that other activities are taken to the periphery," Dr. Vladimir Poznyak, of the WHO’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, told CNN.
The other two are impaired control over gaming and continuation or an increase in gaming despite negative consequences like "disturbed sleep patterns, like diet problems, like a deficiency in the physical activity," Poznyak said.