Often cast as a contributor to the mental health crisis, video games can also be part of the solution.
“There are so many things that [video] games can achieve,” said Ashley Elliott, PsyDopens in new window, a psychologist in private practice in Arlington, Virginia, and workshop consultant for Take Thisopens in new window, a mental health nonprofit that serves the gaming community. “They can increase your level of self-awareness and self-efficacy as you’re going through levels or progressing in a storyline.”
Many video games also have great teaching and skill-building tools that research has shown can, for example, reduce surgeons’ error rates (Rosser Jr., J. C., et al., Archives of Surgery, Vol. 142, No. 2, 2007opens in new window) and build empathy and improve cooperation in children (Harrington, B., & O’Connell, M., Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 63, 2016opens in new window).
Games can especially benefit people with neurodiversity and social anxiety, Elliott has found. Indeed, a 2022 research review found that game-based therapeutic interventions are generally effective in boosting cognitive function and reducing attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms (Peñuelas-Calvo, I., et al., European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Vol. 31, No. 1, 2022opens in new window).
Neurodiverse players are “making a community, making connections, and learning to communicate in a way that’s safe for them,” Elliott said. “They can use these cues and experiences to translate to the real world.”
[Related: Gaming to excess]
Health care professionals and developers are capitalizing on that concept, building games that don’t just happen to support people with brain differences but expressly treat them. In 2020, the company Akili Interactive, where Duke adjunct professor Scott Kollins, PhD, serves as the chief medical officer, released the first Food and Drug Administration-approved video game to help kids manage symptoms of ADHD, and more recently, it put out a version for adults.
The games, EndeavorRx and EndeavorOTC, challenge users to multitask and ignore distractions by navigating courses, collecting targets, and avoiding obstacles—building the skills that people with ADHD struggle with.
Meanwhile, psychologists and others continue to work behind the screens of just-for-fun games to make them inclusive and ethical. As founder and CEO of Glow Up Gamesopens in new window, Mitu Khandaker, PhD, and colleagues work to build games and technology that feature and celebrate Black and Brown characters and storylines. For instance, the company partnered with HBO to launch Insecure: The Come Up Game, based on the hit TV show, in 2021.
“I think a lot about gender representation and race representation and queer representation and how we make games that are truly welcoming to everybody, and also express stories that we don’t traditionally see in games,” said Khandaker, who served on a panel APA hosted at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
“There are so many professionals, whether they’re gamers, developers, psychologists, or researchers, who are working to make [the gaming experience] safe” from issues like trolling, racism, and excessive screen time, Elliott added. “So don’t think that [gaming] is infiltrating the population and being a damning problem and no one cares. We are aware of the negatives, and we’re working actively to combat them.”
