While many parents are concerned that their children are spending too much time playing computer games, Kelsey Sinaurat she is happy when she sees her son Owen take his tablet.

Owen, now 13, has been diagnosed ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) at preschool age. Since then, the family, based in the US city of Savannah, Georgia, has accompanied Owen to occupational therapists, who help him to better cope with daily responsibilities.

The family also tried the drug route, but were eventually forced to stop after prescription drugs worsened the boy’s regular migraines and also caused nausea. With ADHD constantly affecting Owen’s performance in school over the years, Kelsey says she “hoped for something more, any other option.”

“I saw him struggle to understand why he couldn’t focus and the frustration he felt when he tried so hard and still couldn’t,” his mother says, adding, “It broke my heart because I, too, felt trapped and completely unable. to help him.’

Finally, something that at first glance seems very ridiculous came to the rescue – one the game on a computer called EndeavorRx.

In 2020, EndeavorRx became the first toy approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of ADHD in children. It is currently only available by prescription in the US. At first glance, EndeavorRx looks like a lot of other games. The player controls a small alien who runs around different worlds on a spaceship, trying to collect different things.

The game, developed in collaboration with neuroscientists, is designed to stimulate and improve areas of the brain that play a key role in attention. The main idea is that it teaches a child with ADHD to multitask while ignoring distractions. This is thanks to an algorithm that measures the child’s progress and adjusts the difficulty of the game in real time.

When doctors prescribe it, they then send parents an activation link, which is required before the game can be launched. Kelsey notes that she was “a little skeptical” at first, but in late 2020, Owen began a three-month program, playing the game for 25 minutes a day. He did it again last year.

“He admitted that it was a little more difficult than he expected,” says Kelsey, adding: “But he realized that he was doing it to improve his concentration. He still really wanted to follow the program despite the hardships and frustrations that accompanied it through the stages.”

After each of Owen’s “sessions”, his mother recorded the student’s daily behavior on the app, tracking his progress. She soon began to notice small positive changes in Owen’s behavior. For example, preparation for school became smoother and there were no more negative reports from teachers.

And after failing earlier in the fifth grade, Owen then managed to get A’s and B’s on his assignments with the help of the game. “It was amazing to see my son being so successful, but most of all, he has confidence in himself,” his mother says. “He is no longer upset or confused, and he does not try to give an answer about what is happening to him,” she adds.

Eddie Martucci, CEO of Akili, the Boston tech company that developed EndeavorRx, says the game is designed to improve cognitive progress.

As he notes: “This is very difficult to achieve with means such as pills. It turns out that sensory stimuli can directly stimulate the parts of the brain that control cognition.” Now his company plans to release the game in Europe in the coming years.

In London, again, the Thymia app is using computer games to help doctors and other health professionals identify and diagnose mental health problems, especially depression.

In one of the games, the user tries to remember moving objects, and in the other, the user’s memory is tested. In addition to how well the patient performs in each game, the application also evaluates the comments made and the user’s facial expressions through access to the camera and microphone of a computer or mobile phone.

Thymia was founded by Dr. Emilia Molymbakis, who holds a PhD in Linguistics, Cognitive Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology from University College London (UCL). She manages the development and use of Thymia with co-founder Dr. C. Stefano Goria, who holds a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Turin.

Dr. Goria explains that the app “collects and extracts biomarkers that are relevant to understanding the symptoms of depression… in a useful and engaging way.”

Both Akili and Timia say their apps should be used in addition to existing monitoring and treatment, not as a replacement. British teen psychologist Angela Karanza agrees.

“While these are… effective inventions, they should be used in conjunction with current patient assessment questionnaires that have been tested and accepted for reliability and validity, as well as physician data. They should be used in conjunction with other treatments, not alone,” adds Ms Karanza.

Fellow psychologist Lee Chambers adds that while the use of such video games to diagnose, monitor, and treat mental illness is still in its early stages, they appear to have “potential”.

As he notes: “Participation in the game can remove the feeling that someone is watching us, testing us and measuring our abilities at the moment. These types of “mental health” games can expand access to the data they collect over time. This means that they can also act as early indicators that at the same time show us behavioral patterns in a new way that we have not had access to until now.”

Source: BBC