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How to play Tetris tames the trauma of a car accident.
I spent a significant chunk alarmingly in 1989 trying to field a shower of falling digital building blocks into perfect lines 10.
The Russian video game Tetris was taken in states like many American children, I was delighted.
Many video games are immersive, but there was a particular 8-bit entrancement something Tetris simplicity and repetition of the rotation descendants blocks so that they fit well which allowed complete dissociation of so- Similarly, and parental provocation Maybe, uh, go do something outside.
I finally got out of our den, sore thumbs, red eyes, and found running around our suburban Buffalo with friends ultimately more fulfilling account.
But it is the particular brand of disconnection provided by Tetris may reflect a mindset long sought by healers to treat patients who have experienced trauma.
I refer to the idea that a combination of dealing with negative memories, but also distracted them, could help mitigate the sharp psychological scars of trauma clinicians and philosophers have tried countless ways treat trauma and anxiety over the years to find, such as Roman stoic philosopher Seneca called him, tranquillitas, or peace of mind, and many of them were, in all likelihood, stackable science now shows that as simple activities that play entertaining games or focusing on eye movements can help patients cope with a tragic experience.
Last week, a group of researchers from the UK and Sweden published a study indicating that the game only 20 minutes of Tetris in language research, a Tetris-based intervention following an automobile accident can help prevent the formation of painful memories, intrusive trauma that can follow.
The new research focused on 71 patients who presented to the John Radcliffe hospital room emergency in Oxford, England, within les six hours of being in a car crash waiting to be seen, patients first asked to recall their trauma and tell the worst moments that sprang to mind if it helps, they were paid they were then randomized to play Tetris for 20 minutes on a portable system Nintendo DS XL or fill the place with an activity log of what they had experienced since arriving at the hospital the last group served as a control.
Players have found that 62 percent of memories less intrusive in the first week after the accident than the control group What is more, their bad memories fell faster than controls.
The study was small, but the authors believe the results warrant follow-up trial to test more long-term effects of Tetris therapy, for which they now seek funding.
The traumatic memories and flashbacks entirely real at the heart of anxiety problems such as acute stress disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder by the criteria in psychiatry's DSM-5 diagnostic go-to reference a diagnosis of PTSD can not be one month after the inciting incident; if Tetris proves the effectiveness of this away, doctors and therapists treating the condition could have an efficient and easiest option to prescribe to turn to.
More research is certainly needed to develop this approach, said Emily Holmes a psychology professor at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and lead author of the study, but we're encouraged and we need to develop preventive interventions that can be delivered quickly after trauma to prevent the accumulation of symptoms Think of such intervention as a kind of cognitive vaccine.
Holmes believes that playing Tetris shortly after an accident can interfere with memory consolidation and the gradual conversion of short-term memories into more permanent Evidence suggests that there is a following window in which to trauma can be disrupted or prevented poor memory and memories can be decoupled from emotional centers of the brain.
She admits that the results are probably not unique Tetris traumatic memories are often very sensory Sights and sounds of trauma can cause a horrifying detail back Holmes believes that any highly visual activity that stimulates the brain's sensory centers could prevent graphics memories to form the colors first in the forms and the constant movement of Tetris can do, but from Holmes past research activities such as digital quiz and counting exercises She plans to study other visually appealing interventions like drawing and Crush candy video game in the near future.
The psychological effects of trauma have long been recognized and were even mentioned in the Old Testament Hippocrates and Lucretius wrote each of the traumatic memories of battle and the 13th century Icelandic saga Gisli Súrsson finds the eponymous hero of the story to relive the scenes gruesome battle and unable to spend her nights alone Methought my foemen, of wielding axes Worst I dreamed my division of the front, he worried.
Various trauma treatment forms have been tried over the centuries, often in the context of the war between them is hypnosis, touted for a hundred years at least a few as a purge medium quenching bad memories.
In the early 1900s, the French psychologist Pierre Janet has developed a hypnotic phased approach to treat symptoms of what we now call PTSD He felt that he could help people perhaps divorce unpleasant memories of emotion many modern clinicians always turn to hypnosis to help manage trauma, but as it was 100 years ago, the practice remains controversial according to some data, it might even be dangerous for people plagued with traumatic memories.
Hypnosis should not be used to retrieve traumatic memories because studies consistently show that hypnosis can increase the production of inaccurate and specific memories, says Professor of the University of Binghamton Steven psychology Jay Lynn people who are hypnotized often hold memories left with more confidence or certainty that memories are accurate or not.
Lynn feels the risk of solidifying false memories too large to fully endorse hypnosis as treatment of self trauma, but he cites evidence that it can be a valuable addition to proven psychotherapies such as cognitive processing therapy, based on changing upsetting thoughts, and prolonged exposure, which means the memory and re-engage with traumatic memories.
Another controversial treatment of post-traumatic stress is called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing developed in the 1980s by psychologist Francine Shapiro, EMDR is a form of psychotherapy that involves having patients remember traumatic events while moving eyes from one side to the other or to engage in other distracting activity in theory, doing so allows patients to reprocess memories and make them less upsetting.
The criticism of the treatment came in the 1990s, when clinical trials have suggested that it is actually the memory itself that explains the efficacy of EMDR, no eye movement at the time, recalling the trauma was already known to be effective in helping patients cope with PTSD However, as Harvard psychologist Richard J McNally explains, careful laboratory studies suggest that bilateral eye movements are the tax memory so that the images related to trauma degrade and less emotionally evocative.
McNally cites the work by the Dutch psychologist Marcel van den Hout who concluded that eye movements and other tasks that require short-term memory, are effective in relieving the symptoms of trauma.
Patients with trauma now have a number of options to turn to several forms of psychotherapy can be effective as antidepressant medication and maybe a compound called N -acetylcysteine Among the research more looking psychotropic and psychedelic drugs for mental illness, the recreational drug MDMA or ecstasy, looks promising in post-traumatic stress.
Holmes implementation of Tetris promising, said McNally, who was not involved in the research our area should be open to possible breakthroughs just beware of people who claim to miracle cures.
And there is much to be wary of include questionable supplements touted crowd for a green tea trauma could be healthy for the brain, but can it soothe the horrors of war itself probably not.
Maybe soon the benefits of visual distraction by the right activity at the right time, associated with reliving the painful experiences of the past, will also be used to treat people traumatized remains to be seen if this will require a Nintendo DS XL, or no.
Bret Stetka is a writer based in New York and editor for Medscape His work has appeared in Wired and Scientific American, and is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 2005, he is on Twitter BretStetka.
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