Death and disease has come a long way since the time of Jacques Bertillon. In the late 19th century, the French statistician and demographer started compiling the Bertillon Classification of Causes of Death, an exhaustive litany of maladies including scarlet fever, cholera and syphilis.
Bertillon’s morbid opus eventually became the International Classification of Diseases, the comprehensive global encyclopedia of fatal and non-fatal diseases that defines healthcare today. And what a difference a century makes: gaming disorder has been added to the ICD’s 11th edition, released this week.
This follows years of controversy about whether excessive game-playing (usually online) qualifies as a mental health condition. Being listed is the route to clinical legitimacy: inclusion in the ICD, which is published by the World Health Organization, can kick-start programmes for prevention, diagnosis and treatment. The move is likely to pave the way for other internet-related disorders, such as an addiction to social media, to become recognised as distinct health problems.