Anne Brus

A weak scientific basis for gaming disorder: Let us err on the side of caution

We greatly appreciate the care and thought that is evident in the 10 commentaries that discuss our debate paper, the majority of which argued in favor of a formalized ICD-11 gaming disorder. We agree that there are some people whose play of video games is related to life problems. We believe that understanding this population and the nature and severity of the problems they experience should be a focus area for future research. However, moving from research construct to formal disorder requires a much stronger evidence base than we currently have. The burden of evidence and the clinical utility should be extremely high, because there is a genuine risk of abuse of diagnoses. We provide suggestions about the level of evidence that might be required: transparent and preregistered studies, a better demarcation of the subject area that includes a rationale for focusing on gaming particularly versus a more general behavioral addictions concept, the exploration of non-addiction approaches, and the unbiased exploration of clinical approaches that treat potentially underlying issues, such as depressive mood or social anxiety first. We acknowledge there could be benefits to formalizing gaming disorder, many of which were highlighted by colleagues in their commentaries, but we think they do not yet outweigh the wider societal and public health risks involved. Given the gravity of diagnostic classification and its wider societal impact, we urge our colleagues at the WHO to err on the side of caution for now and postpone the formalization.

Asserting the right to play – women's football in Denmark

In 1970 the Danish Football club Boldklubben Femina (BK Femina) became unofficial world champions. The success of BK Femina womens football team was not a coincidence and should be placed in the context of a ten-year struggle to have football accepted as a sport for women in Denmark. This essay examines three consecutive periods in Danish womens football: the establishment of womens football in Denmark before 1970; the time of womens admission to the Danish Football Association (DBU) in 1970–72; and finally, the development of womens football in the DBU from 1972 to 2002.

A young people's perspective on computer game addiction

In this article, I examine computer game addiction as a social phenomenon, analyzing the consequences of using the term in order to express a concern about high frequency consumption or even a problematic usage of computer games. I argue that while it is obviously very important to take seriously these concerns about young people “at risk,” there is a gap between the phenomenon as a suggested psychiatric diagnosis and young peoples reflections on the matter. Following the work of Goffman and Becker, computer game addiction is not necessarily something negative in the eyes of the player and other young people. It is shown that the classification can be a positive element in young peoples identity work. On the other hand, a high consumption of computer games is also considered as “culturally unacceptable.” From this perspective, computer game addiction becomes a question of how to construct the boundaries between normality and deviance and how prejudices are governing and controlling young peoples lives. All this suggests more caution in classifying frequent and problematic computer game play as a disorder in itself. We need a more complex understanding of computer game addiction than research so far has offered us.