Tetris found to improve PTSD symptoms

Researchers from Karolinska Institutet and Oxford University have demonstrated how the survivors of motor vehicle accidents have fewer post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms if they play Tetris in hospital within six hours of admission.

The study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, involved 71 motor vehicle accident victims, of whom half received the Tetris intervention therapy while waiting in the hospital emergency department. Meanwhile, the other half performed another task, all doing so within six hours of the accident.

Results showed those who had played Tetris had fewer intrusive memories of the trauma in total over the week immediately following the accident than the control group. The research also indicated that the intrusive memories diminished more quickly.

Emily Holmes, professor of psychology at Karolinska Institutet’s Department of Clinical Neuroscience, explained: “Our hypothesis was that after a trauma, patients would have fewer intrusive memories if they got to play Tetris as part of a short behavioural intervention while waiting in the hospital Emergency Department. Since the game is visually demanding, we wanted to see if it could prevent the intrusive aspects of the traumatic memories from becoming established i.e. by disrupting a process known as memory consolidation.

“Anyone can experience trauma. It would make a huge difference to a great many people if we could create simple behavioural psychological interventions using computer games to prevent post-traumatic suffering and spare them these gruelling intrusive memories. This is early days and more research is needed."