Playing Tetris might treat PTSD

Tetris has certainly come a long way, from being a single player title that allowed you to challenge yourself, it has grown to such an extent where you are able to play with a few other people over the Internet. This puzzle game certainly has its fair share of devoted fans, and it seems that researchers presented the possibility of using Tetris to treat PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) at the British Psychology Society Annual Conference. This could very well be due to the fact that when one focuses on a highly engaging visual-spatial task, with video games as the perfect example, it will go its way to reduce the occurrence of flashbacks, including mental images that are associated with a traumatic experience in the past.

Right now, follow-up work needs to be done to determine whether Tetris has a place in medical folklore when it comes to assisting trauma sufferers even after the memory has been sealed into long-term storage. Perhaps playing too much Tetris has caused me to forget more than just flashbacks, but everything else in life as well, ending up as a Tetris zombie in front of the computer. I wonder if playing Tetris on a building will have a more effective outcome…

Edwin Kee
Categories: Gaming, Medical
Tags: tetris