Approximately six percent of the population will experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at some stage in their lives. Treatment usually consists of psychotherapy, medications, or a combination of both. A new study from Uppsala University in Sweden has validated a different kind of therapy – video games — specifically, Tetris. The standard treatment options typically involve psychotherapy, medication, or a combination of both. However, a recent study conducted by Uppsala University in Sweden has validated an alternative form of therapy – video games, specifically Tetris.
Emily Holmes, now a professor at Uppsala, conducted a small 2009 study that indicated that playing Tetris reduced flashbacks from trauma. Now, together with other researchers from the University, Holmes has concluded a more extensive study with striking results.
Holmes had previously hypothesized that Tetris could "disrupt dysfunctional mental imagery (e.g., imagery-based intrusive memories of adverse events)" by taxing your visuospatial memory. That was realized in her earlier studies, where people played Tetris shortly after being exposed to traumatic material.
This recent study goes further, and proves that the game can prevent the reoccurrence of intrusive memories over longer periods of time.
So how does it work? Tetris requires you to exercise a spatial reasoning skill called mental rotation, where you rotate the visual image of an object to see it from different angles in your head.
When playing Tetris, your brain devotes cognitive resources to mental rotation instead of visualization of the traumatic images. The study found that just twenty minutes of playing Tetris significantly reduced flashbacks. The Tetris effect or syndrome, not to be confused with the game Tetris Effect, is a phenomenon where repeated gameplay causes a player to experience altered reality outside the game. Psychologists have studied the effect for some time, but now it seems it can be used as an easily accessible and inexpensive therapy for PTSD.
Previously: How old is Tetris, really?
