A brand new examine from Uppsala College has discovered {that a} single therapy session, together with enjoying the online game Tetris, can considerably cut back signs of post-traumatic stress dysfunction (PTSD).
The examine, revealed in BMC Medication, targeted on healthcare professionals working throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s potential to cut back the frequency of disagreeable and intrusive recollections of trauma, and thereby additionally alleviate different PTSD signs,” defined Professor Emily Holmes, founding trustee of MQ and present director of the MQ Basis. Emily, who led the examine, famous that optimistic results have been noticed even 5 weeks and 6 months after only one guided session. “If this impact might be achieved with an on a regular basis instrument that features video gaming, it could possibly be an accessible method to assist many individuals,” Holmes added.
PTSD typically manifests as flashbacks—vivid, intrusive recollections of trauma. Holmes and her colleagues have lengthy researched methods to stop PTSD, and this examine aimed to cut back flashbacks particularly by utilizing a visible process, like psychological rotation, which is a core facet of Tetris. The concept is that visible duties can substitute intrusive recollections and cut back different PTSD signs.
The examine concerned 164 members who monitored their flashbacks for every week. They have been then randomly assigned to considered one of two teams: half performed Tetris utilizing psychological rotation, whereas the management group listened to the radio. All members stored diaries of their flashbacks. Earlier than the examine, members averaged 15 flashbacks per week. After 5 weeks, the management group averaged 5 episodes per week, however the gaming group had only one. Six months later, the gaming group continued to expertise fewer and fewer extreme PTSD signs, reporting about half the issues of the management group, in line with a widely known PTSD questionnaire (PCL-5).
Holmes stated,
“It was stunning to us that the therapy technique was so efficient and that the development in signs lasted for six months. I realise that it could appear unlikely that such a brief intervention, which incorporates video video games however would not embody an in-depth dialogue of trauma with a therapist, might assist.”
Nonetheless, she emphasised that the examine affords managed proof {that a} single guided session can safely cut back intrusive recollections.
Holmes additionally shared her broader imaginative and prescient for the long run, stating,
“My imaginative and prescient is that at some point we can present a instrument for folks corresponding to healthcare professionals after traumatic occasions to assist stop and deal with early PTSD signs, that may be a ‘cognitive vaccine’, in an identical method that we presently vaccinate towards some infectious bodily ailments.”
The analysis was a collaboration involving Uppsala Medical Analysis, Karolinska Institutet, Dalarna College, and different establishments from Germany, the UK, and Australia.
In 2017, MQ funded a examine by Dr Jennifer Wild from Oxford College, trialling a brand new intervention Known as SHAPE Restoration, to assist stop PTSD from taking maintain in healthcare employees. The outcomes of this examine have been extremely encouraging.
