Gaming Your Mental Health: A Narrative Review on Mitigating Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety Using Commercial Video Games

Abstract

Globally, depression and anxiety are the two most prevalent mental health disorders. They occur both acutely and chronically, with various symptoms commonly expressed subclinically. The treatment gap and stigma associated with such mental health disorders are common issues encountered worldwide. Given the economic and health care service burden of mental illnesses, there is a heightened demand for accessible and cost-effective methods that prevent occurrence of mental health illnesses and facilitate coping with mental health illnesses. This demand has been exacerbated post the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent increase in incidence of mental health disorders. To address these demands, a growing body of research is exploring alternative solutions to traditional mental health treatment methods. Commercial video games have been shown to impart cognitive benefits to those playing regularly (ie, attention control, cognitive flexibility, and information processing). In this paper, we specifically focus on the mental health benefits associated with playing commercial video games to address symptoms of depression and anxiety. In light of the current research, we conclude that commercial video games show great promise as inexpensive, readily accessible, internationally available, effective, and stigma-free resources for the mitigation of some mental health issues in the absence of, or in addition to, traditional therapeutic treatments.

Exploring the mental health of individuals who play fantasy football

“…Future research should look to examine whether FF has a more holistic impact on mental health in everyday life. Irrespective, the low numbers reported here are perhaps encouraging given some of the anecdotal reports frequently seen online (Fantasy Football Hub, 2021; Jones, 2020) and are in line with growing evidence from video game research which suggests a positive, rather than negative, impact on wellbeing (see Kowal et al, 2021, andPine et al, 2020, for recent reviews). The findings of this work, therefore, suggest that potential risk factors linked to poor mental health-such as a lack of control over the outcome of events or an uncertainty over attributing successes and failures-do not apply to FF, or are compensated for by the positive characteristics such as the inability to "binge" play the game.…”

The Associations Between Gaming Motivation and Internet Gaming Disorder: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

“…Based on the criteria for other behavioral addictions, several recurring symptoms of IGD have been identified, including preoccupation with gaming activities and withdrawal symptoms such as irritability when individuals are kept from playing [9,10]. Studies have revealed that IGD was positively associated with mental health issues such as depression, social anxiety, and psychological distress [11][12][13][14][15][16].…”

Human-Computer Interaction in Digital Mental Health

“…A narrative review [128] and a systematic review [129] found efficacy for stress and anxiety reduction from the use of commercial off-the-shelf video games (i.e., exergames, casual video games, action games, action-adventure games, and augmented reality games used on various gaming platforms, including consoles, personal computers, smartphones, mobile consoles, and virtual reality systems). Although commercial video games have design features that instil a sense of flow [128], the systematic review acknowledged that custom-made games (i.e., for serious purposes like education, training, or behavior modification) better integrate biofeedback techniques for relaxation and are more appropriate for adults in regard to their stress and anxiety responses [129].…”