We are seeing the damaging effects of excessive video gaming and electronic screen time in children in their meibomian glands and eyes. The American Psychiatric Association have included Internet Gaming as a new diagnosis worthy of treating.
It can be addicting and needs to be treated due to its damaging effects on multiple aspects of a youth’s body and life, particularly the risk of long term severe dry eye pain.
SLC
Front Psychiatry. 2019; 10: 336.
Published online 2019 May 10. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00336
PMCID: PMC6524313
PMID: 31133904
Internet Gaming Disorder in Adolescents With Psychiatric Disorder: Two Case Reports Using a Developmental Framework
Background
Internet Gaming Disorder
In 2013 the American Psychiatric Association included the Internet gaming disorder (IGD) in the research appendix of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) recommending that further studies be conducted (1). Following DSM-5 suggestions, gaming disorder (GD) was recently included as a formal diagnostic entity in the 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (2) referring to both offline and online games and drawing a distinction between GD and hazardous gaming. The prevalence of IGD/GD is estimated between 1.2% and 5.5% in teenagers, and a problematic gaming use would concern about 1 out of 10 adolescents playing video games (3).