Fighting Depression: Action Video Game Play May Reduce Rumination and Increase Subjective and Objective Cognition in Depressed Patients

Frontiers in Psychology
Simone KühnSteffen Moritz

Abstract

Cognitive deficits are common in depression and may persist following the resolution of affective symptoms. However, therapeutic strategies that successfully target cognitive impairments are lacking. Recent work has demonstrated that playing action video games leads to improvements in cognition, in particular executive function, in healthy individuals. We therefore set out to test whether playing video games can reduce symptoms associated with depression. We focussed on depressive symptoms and on rumination, since rumination is a good predictor of depression and may contribute to triggering depression. We recruited 68 clinically depressed individuals (mean age: 46 years, 47 females) that were randomized into the training group playing a fast paced action video game for 6 weeks or a waitlist control group. Before and after training participants completed online questionnaires and a neuropsychological test battery. Only participants who actually played the game were included in the analysis. The final sample consisted ofn= 21 training group andn= 29 waitlist control group. The training group showed significantly higher subjective cognitive ability, as well as lower self-reported rumination at posttest in contrast to the control g...Continue Reading

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Citations

May 31, 2020·International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health·Ionut AnghelViorica Rozina Chifu
Jun 15, 2019·BMC Psychology·Kent NordbyGerit Pfuhl
Feb 28, 2020··Fuhua (Frank) ChengCharles B. Chen

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