By Gavin Boyle
A new study revealed underlying mental health issues may be to blame for video game addiction, a finding that could have a profound impact on the future of the industry.
“We’ve known for some time that gaming disorder exists, but we’re also known that not every gamer develops the disorder,” said Kylie Falcione, a brain scientist at UC Santa Barbara who worked on the study. “So the question that a lot of researchers have been asking about is what drives people to develop a gaming disorder. Is it the addictive nature of all these rewards and punishments of the video games themselves? Or is it that some people have preexisting conditions or personal core characteristics that are leading them to develop a gaming disorder?”
Falcione’s study provides evidence for the latter as children suffering from mental health problems turned to video games as an unhealthy coping mechanism. This caused them to experience a negative spiral as psychopathy reinforced the video game addiction, while the video game addiction reinforced the psychopathy.
Related: Teen Video Game Addiction May be Linked to Psychosis Risk, Study Finds
This revelation could have major implications for those working to treat video game addictions, as treating the base mental health issues could be more productive than working to remove video games from a person’s life.
“Based on our research, the best step towards treatment would be to start at the psychopathy level – identifying the underlying issues. That’s a big takeaway,” Falcione said. “Many parents think that simply taking away video games will solve the problem. But without addressing what’s really going on, parents will not only be contending with their child’s withdrawal symptoms, their child may relapse into more addictive gaming behaviors or find another outlet.”
The results of this study may also have a profound impact on the future of the industry as multiple lawsuits have been launched in recent years trying to hold major games studios accountable for making their games extremely addictive. However, based on the results of this study, the games companies could now argue their products are not overly addictive, rather it is a child’s health that determines whether a game is addictive or not.
“Each Defendant is aware that its video games are harmful to minors and young adults because Defendant specifically designed their games to addict,” one lawsuit states. “To this avail, each Defendant employs behavioral psychologists and/or neuroscientists in order to develop games that will best utilize psychological tactics to keep players engaged for longer periods of time.”
Whether or not this is true is still up for debate, but this study makes this argument harder to make. Nonetheless, it is still a positive step towards being able to help those struggling with gaming disorder as understanding the root cause of the problem allows it to be properly addressed.
Read Next: Can You Beat a Gaming Addiction?
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