Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33449441›Full record

ArticleAddiction (Abingdon, England)2021

Expert appraisal of criteria for assessing gaming disorder: an international Delphi study.

Jesús Castro-Calvo, Daniel L King, Dan J Stein, Matthias Brand, Lior Carmi, Samuel R Chamberlain, Zsolt Demetrovics, Naomi A Fineberg, Hans-Jürgen Rumpf, Murat Yücel and 30 more

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Addiction (Abingdon, England), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 98 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
98citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

98 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Trial
  5. Trial
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Review
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Rethinking Gaming Disorder Prevention: A Socio-Ecological Model Based on Practitioner Insights.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026
    Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article

38 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

40 authors.

Jesús Castro-CalvoDepartment of Personality, Assessment, and Psychological Treatments, University of Valencia, Spain.
Daniel L KingCollege of Education, Psychology, and Social Work, Flinders University, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-1762-2581
Dan J SteinSAMRC Unit on Risk and Resilience in Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience Institute, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
Matthias BrandGeneral Psychology: Cognition and Center for Behavioral Addiction Research (CeBAR), University Duisburg-Essen, Germany.
Lior CarmiThe Data Science Institute, Inter-disciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel.
Samuel R ChamberlainDepartment of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
Zsolt DemetrovicsInstitute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
Naomi A FinebergUniversity of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK, Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, Welwyn Garden City, UK.
Hans-Jürgen RumpfDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Luebeck, Luebeck, Germany.
Murat YücelBrainPark, School of Psychological Sciences, Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health and Monash Biomedical Imaging Facility, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-4705-452X
Sophia AchabSpecialized Facility In Behavioral Addictions, ReConnecte, Department of Psychiatry, University Hospitals of Geneva, Generva, Switzerland.
Atul AmbekarNational Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.ORCID 0000-0002-1116-7741
Norharlina BaharDepartment of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Hospital Selayang, Ministry of Health, Malaysia.
Alexander BlaszczynskiFaculty of Science, Brain and Mind Centre, School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Henrietta Bowden-JonesNational Centre for Gaming Disorders, London, UK.
Xavier CarbonellFaculty of Psychology, Education and Sports Sciences Blanquerna, Ramon Llull University, Barcelona, Spain.ORCID 0000-0002-9714-1568
Elda Mei Lo ChanSt John's Cathedral Counselling Service, and Division on Addiction, Hong Kong.
Chih-Hung KoDepartment of Psychiatry, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.
Philippe de TimaryDepartment of Adult Psychiatry, Institute of Neuroscience, UCLouvain and Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium.
Magali DufourUniversité du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Marie Grall-BronnecCHU Nantes, Department of Addictology and Psychiatry, Nantes, France.ORCID 0000-0003-0722-7243
Hae Kook LeeDepartment of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, South Korea.
Susumu HiguchiNational Hospital Organization, Kurihama Medical and Addiction Center, Japan.ORCID 0000-0002-3241-4756
Susana Jimenez-MurciaDepartment of Psychiatry, Bellvitge University Hospital-IDIBELL, Barcelona, Spain.ORCID 0000-0002-3596-8033
Orsolya KirályInstitute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
Daria J KussInternational Gaming Research Unit, Psychology Department, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK.
Jiang LongShanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Astrid MüllerDepartment of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Germany.
Stefano PallantiNeuroscience Institute, University of Florence, Italy.
Marc N PotenzaDepartments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience and the Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine and Connecticut Mental Health Center, New Haven, CT, USA.
Afarin Rahimi-MovagharIranian National Center for Addiction Studies, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
John B SaundersCentre for Youth Substance Abuse Research, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Adriano SchimmentiFaculty of Human and Social Sciences, Kore University of Enna, Enna, Italy.
Seung-Yup LeeDepartment of Psychiatry, Eunpyeong St Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, South Korea.ORCID 0000-0001-5635-8958
Kristiana SisteDepartment of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia.
Daniel T SpritzerPostgraduate Program in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Vladan StarcevicFaculty of Medicine and Health, Sydney Medical School, Nepean Clinical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Aviv M WeinsteinDepartment of Behavioral Science, Ariel University, Israel.ORCID 0000-0002-9465-9943
Klaus WölflingOutpatient Clinic for Behavioral Addictions, Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany.
Joël BillieuxInstitute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0002-7388-6194

Funding

Wellcome Trust 110 049/Z/15/Z
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND

aimsFollowing the recognition of 'internet gaming disorder' (IGD) as a condition requiring further study by the DSM-5, 'gaming disorder' (GD) was officially included as a diagnostic entity by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). However, the proposed diagnostic criteria for gaming disorder remain the subject of debate, and there has been no systematic attempt to integrate the views of different groups of experts. To achieve a more systematic agreement on this new disorder, this study employed the Delphi expert consensus method to obtain expert agreement on the diagnostic validity, clinical utility and prognostic value of the DSM-5 criteria and ICD-11 clinical guidelines for GD.

methodsA total of 29 international experts with clinical and/or research experience in GD completed three iterative rounds of a Delphi survey. Experts rated proposed criteria in progressive rounds until a pre-determined level of agreement was achieved.

resultsFor DSM-5 IGD criteria, there was an agreement both that a subset had high diagnostic validity, clinical utility and prognostic value and that some (e.g. tolerance, deception) had low diagnostic validity, clinical utility and prognostic value. Crucially, some DSM-5 criteria (e.g. escapism/mood regulation, tolerance) were regarded as incapable of distinguishing between problematic and non-problematic gaming. In contrast, ICD-11 diagnostic guidelines for GD (except for the criterion relating to diminished non-gaming interests) were judged as presenting high diagnostic validity, clinical utility and prognostic value.

conclusionsThis Delphi survey provides a foundation for identifying the most diagnostically valid and clinically useful criteria for GD. There was expert agreement that some DSM-5 criteria were not clinically relevant and may pathologize non-problematic patterns of gaming, whereas ICD-11 diagnostic guidelines are likely to diagnose GD adequately and avoid pathologizing.

Indexed as

Behavior, AddictiveDisruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct DisordersVideo GamesDelphi TechniqueDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental DisordersHumansInternetDelphidiagnosisDSMgaming disorderICDinternet gaming disorder

Identifiers

PMID33449441
PMCPMC8451754

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.