Craving as a Nexus Of Gaming Disorder, its Assessment Scarcity and Role in Therapy Response: a Case Series

Abstract

Gaming disorder (GD) is a recently recognized mental health disorder and has been garnering international attention. It shares core concepts with other addiction disorders and arguably the craving criterion. Craving has been well studied in substance and gambling addiction, with specific instruments for more objective measurement and distinctive contextual variables pertaining the craving. We present, for the first time, a series of four cases from the Indonesian national addiction clinic that demonstrated certain levels of craving might impede therapeutics response, the difficulty in assessing craving level on distinct scenarios, and the various variables influencing craving. The first two cases displayed low improvement and poorer prognosis compared to the two latter cases. Overall, these cases posited a great need of focus to measure, monitor, and manage craving among GD patients.