What if Video Games Could Treat You

Everyone who plays video games seeks out certain experiences and genres to satisfy what they are looking for. Just like some prefer horror movies and the adrenaline rush that comes from them, so do people seek out thrilling video games for the same purpose.

Throughout the pandemic, video games became even more popular as most were confined to their homes, and certain games such as Animal Crossing for the Nintendo Switch experienced a boom of players who were seeking a cozy and comforting experience. The game has no end, no losing, no death. It encourages kindness and developing relationships with not only the AI residents of your island but also traveling to other players’ islands to socialize and play together during a time where that was not possible in the real world. The World Health Organization recently stated “In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by a massive 25%” and urged countries to increase their mental health support for their citizens. 

The interactive medium of video games has grown so much over the recent decades and now there is real momentum in the healthcare space to tailor games towards helping individuals with their mental health as well as rehabilitation. In the age of data and tracking, we can analyze the exact impacts of games on our mental and physical health and design new applications and experiences to promote health improvements. Research is being done to analyze the impact of these custom tailored experiences which are designed to act as part of a treatment plan for various conditions and we are only seeing the beginning in regards to video games being utilized in a medicinal capacity.

Boston based Akili Interactive is the first company to gain FDA approval for their video game which is a prescription treatment for ADHD in children ages 8-12. The game, EndeavorRx, itself is styled as a type of endless runner with a space theme which tasks the players with multi-tasking by guiding the ship left and right as well as tapping when certain colored creatures appear on screen. 

Forcing the user to concentrate on multiple goals simultaneously stimulates the strengthening of that area of the brain and with their proprietary system of metrics one can see their progress as they play over time. This is only the first product developed by Akili Interactive and they are continuing to develop other styles of games tailored to other mental health conditions. By wrapping the therapy itself within the framework of a video game that the age group would be familiar with, Akili has created a treatment that a child would be excited to participate in, rather than dread due to boredom.

The company Mindmaze was founded almost 10 years ago and has pioneered treatments creating and utilizing video games as well as sensors such as the Kinect, which was developed for Microsoft game consoles, and virtual reality headsets. Their focus has been products that help facilitate specific physiotherapies that are tracked via various sensors and cameras as well as treatment for the rehabilitation of stroke victims. 

With precision monitoring, Mindmaze can follow as patients make fine motor movements raising and lowering limbs with rotation as they get feedback via a television or screen via software or game interfaces. While not as prevalently available as Akili’s app, Mindmaze treatments are no less of a breakthrough and showcase the ever growing possibilities that games offer to individuals as treatment and therapy for more and more issues. 

The flexibility to track with so many varied technologies allows Mindmaze to tailor their treatments to many different problems as well as expand to many new areas as they continue their research.

A new player in the space only recently out of hibernation is Deepwell Dtx, a company that proposes to develop, fund, and publish games backed by medical science data. Founded by medtech expert Ryan Douglas and co-founder of the games publisher Devolver Digital Mike Wilson, Deepwell Dtx is looking to create their own games as well as fund and publish games from other companies that could incorporate Deepwell’s proprietary toolkit.

Having a larger footprint into the established video game scene with Devolver’s connection, Deepwell seems well positioned to add a therapeutic framework to existing or near-future game titles already developed by other studios. 

Many techniques of therapy are based on repetition to strengthen the resilience of an individual and replayable games can slot right into that idea and look to help with a variety of mental health disorders.

These are only a few of the companies that exist in the gaming healthcare space, but many more are sure to follow as the viability and application for these treatments widens and expands. In time, being prescribed time to play certain games may become the norm, helping people deal with depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, ADHD, and more. 

With the ability to track the data as a person plays or moves via sensors, we can concretely see progress in an individual whether it is strengthening their minds or rehabilitating their bodies. We already see doctors and therapists virtually, so the leap to therapies delivered via interactive experiences is not so far away. Rather than being prescribed medication to pick up at the pharmacy, we may soon get a prescription for a game download to treat the ailments we are dealing with.