Current status and future perspectives of clinical practice for gaming disorder among adolescents in Japan: A preliminary survey in Sapporo

[...]of the popularity of online gaming, excessive gaming has become a major social problem among adolescents. Because the 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) includes gaming disorder (GD) as a psychiatric disorder, it is expected that more people will pay attention to problems related to excessive gaming. With regard to the locus of this study, Sapporo is in northern Japan and its population is approximately 1.95 million. Since child and adolescent psychiatry is not a separate specialty in Japan, the clinician certified by the Japanese Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JSCAP) is regarded as a child psychiatrist. [...]none of the respondents provided specialized treatment to GD. [...]we urgently need to develop guidelines to provide a standardized treatment to GD. According to a national school survey, the rate of school refusal/absenteeism in junior-high schools was reported to be 3.9%. In Japan, it has been reported that many adolescent patients visiting medical institutions regularly had neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and appearance on the autism spectrum. Because NDD is known to be a risk factor for GD, it is important to recognize the early signs of excessive gaming and to provide preventive interventions such as lifestyle guidance and familial psychological education from an early stage.