Study Confirms We Cannot “Gamify” Mental Health Treatments.

We must “medicinalize” the most compelling media.

At www.immersivemedicine.org we have amassed over 200 studies that highlight the amazing benefits of commercial video games for treating mental health.

In these studies we saw effects sometimes 400% and often at least 2x greater than those of traditional therapeutics and “serious games”.

This new study confirms that games specifically designed to treat ADHD and other mental health concerns have minimal impact.

“The research team’s analysis found that video games designed for patients with ADHD and depression provided a modest reduction (both with an effect size of .28) in symptoms related to ADHD and depression…”

The take away here is that without engagement, flow state, a true sense of agency and feeling of accomplishment (traits in well built commercial video games), traditional therapeutic games just don’t measure up.

The effective games, like Call of Duty, Animal Crossing, and Tetris, have one very important thing is common: they were designed by the masters. In the end, it is only through amazing game design that we can deliver amazing digital therapy.

Source: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-specially-video-games-benefit-mental.html