Tetris thought to help traumatic stress...

[Zulu Romeo]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7813637.stm

Playing the computer puzzle game Tetris can help reduce the effects of traumatic stress, UK researchers say.

Volunteers were exposed to distressing images, with some given the game to play 30 minutes later, the PLoS One journal reported.

Players had fewer "flashbacks", perhaps because it helped disrupt the laying down of memories, said the scientists.

However, another specialist said no study could match the intensity of a real-life traumatic experience.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), often associated with experiences during conflict, can affect anyone who has suffered a sudden and shocking incident.

One of its main features is the "flashback", in which the distressing sights, sounds or smells of the incident can return in everyday life.

One question, though: what if the traumatic event was a building site accident, or a frightening experience with a Nintendo Game Boy?

 

[ITL]

Playing Tetris gives me stress. It's nice at first, but when the blocks start piling up at an ever-increasing rate and get ever closer to the top of the screen....

"NO!! YOU WON'T BEAT ME, YOU EVIL MACHINE OF ROTATING BLOCKS, YOU ARE!"

 

[Elmo Dukat]

Ugh, yet another junk study.

PTSD isn't something that just "goes away" with 30 minutes of Tetris, or meditation, {insert calming exercise here}. Usually, if you try to ignore and push away the signs of an anxiety/panic/flashback attack, you will only have it hit you even harder, later.

PTSD is a process. There are stages through which one must go. In order to really recover, you have to get down and dirty, rooting out the trauma. It's not fun. It's not easy. And playing Tetris will NOT circumvent that process.

 

[Ward Fowler]

I once wasted most of a summer playing Tetris. Quite addictive.

 

[Jadzia]

Playing the computer puzzle game Tetris can help reduce the effects of traumatic stress, UK researchers say.

Players had fewer "flashbacks", perhaps because it helped disrupt the laying down of memories, said the scientists.

The fact that computer games can disrupt the laying down of memories, is potentially interesting.

Could this be the very reason why some games are addictive? Something that grabs our attention for 5 minutes, will become compulsive if it also disrupts the formation of 'satisfaction' memories, leading us to return to the game later, ad infinitum. It may be especially applicable to something that is extreme rote like some popular mmorpgs are.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Playing the computer puzzle game Tetris can help reduce the effects of traumatic stress, UK researchers say.

Players had fewer "flashbacks", perhaps because it helped disrupt the laying down of memories, said the scientists.

The fact that computer games can disrupt the laying down of memories, is potentially interesting.

Could this be the very reason why some games are addictive? Something that grabs our attention for 5 minutes, will become compulsive if it also disrupts the formation of 'satisfaction' memories, leading us to return to the game later, ad infinitum. It may be especially applicable to something that is extreme rote like some popular mmorpgs are.

... Sorry, I forgot what you said there, my mind was wandering....

But seriously, I'm no expert on addiction studies (I could never get into them, and have ended up giving up on them whenever I wanted to ) and psychology, but I've always liked puzzle computer games that (however subconsciously) stimulate the creative, abstract and executive higher mental functions. I've always interpreted the result of the study above as merely distraction from a different stimulus (such as the aforementioned traumatic memories) by focusing on something exciting. The addiction concept may be related to the release of endogenous opioids as a result of achieving goals (or nearly reaching them) in the more pleasurable activity, also augmenting the pain threshold and experience. (I see this example in other areas: in neonatal paediatrics, for example, by distracting the newborn with a small finger for him to suck on and thus triggering the feeding activity, you effectively reduce the relative activity of the pain pathways of his inexperienced nervous system and stimulate those endogenous opioids, allowing the midwife to take a blood sample in peace [and quiet].)

So really, in other words, it's another study that suggests that by taking your mind off something by doing something else more enjoyable, you'll feel better off inside. But as ED stated, it's not going to magically wipe away the trauma by itself.

Besides, everyone loves Tetris. I think.

 

[Arrqh]

PTSD isn't something that just "goes away" with 30 minutes of Tetris, or meditation, {insert calming exercise here}.

Of course not... which is why the article did not make that claim.

What it does say is that playing Tetris for 30 minutes immediately after being exposed to something distressing helped mitigate stress after the fact by interfering with the process of the brain laying down memories. I don't think it had anything to do with Tetris specifically, more just the fact that it focused those people on a distraction. But the article most certainly does not tout this as a magic cure for PTSD.

 

[Holdfast]

The Tetris music GIVES me flashbacks...

 

[RJDiogenes]

Sounds more like avoidance behavior to me.

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

Hmm. Well i always did find the game somewhat relaxing. Just don't give them a Rubik's Cube. Of course, we could always show them the masturbation thread ...

 

[JonathonWally]

I was always kinda partial to either Dr Mario or Columns instead.