In small doses: Tetris is a PTSD 'vaccine,' prevents flashbacks, study finds

I’m glad that you were able to form an opinion on this study by reading a summary-of-a-summary of the article rather than the article itself. In the article, they clearly specify that the purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of using a “visuospatial computer game.” Tetris is just one example of such a game. This study doesn’t preclude other methods. There are other studies that discuss the effectiveness of other techniques (they specifically mention both counting backwards and finger pattern tapping.)

Moreover, the purpose of this study isn’t designed to compare the effectiveness of “Tetris + Maintaining a diary” v “not playing Tetris + not maintain a diary.” For taking a baseline (i.e., establishing a control group), not doing anything and maintain a diary seems reasonable especially compared to what they are trying to evaluate—playing Tetris and maintain a diary.

I’m not a psychiatrist, (my Ph.D. is in computer science); however, this study seems reasonable; however, there are two problems with this study. First, there are only 40 participants, but for a first pass that seems reasonable. Second, Tetris was used instead of Dr. Mario.

Fair point.

Breaking news: Study finds that doing stuff prevents thinking about what you were doing before!

This will of course have a dramatic effect on PTSD, especially for the military. Perhaps next our friends at the University of Oxford will do a study that proves that bullets accelerate downward, further saving lives, helping people, and revolutionizing science!

gamers don't have sex. duh

You cant have sex AND play Tetris at the same time

Rule 34 on Tetris, Furry Style?

FUCK YEAH!

Drunken furry tetris orgy is NOT what Alexey had in mind.

.....Or DID he?

lol, addict!

How about I book you into reh...

>_>

Damn, using those bracket thingies sure screwed that post up.

move along folks, nothing to see here...

If they just meant to show that doing something is better than sitting looking into space thinking about people in car crashes, then presumably this is adequate.

If they wanted to show that playing Tetris is better than, say, something else active (like playing squash or Wii Fit or Gears of War) or even something inactive (like watching TV) then they would need to do other comparisons.

I skimmed the paper. It doesn't look like they compared other options. Ho hum. (Although perhaps you would assume that people would ordinarily do things like watching TV as they go about their lives.)

Also note that you (possibly) have to play Tetris immediately after seeing the car crash or whatever. Better send out Game Boys with the paramedics, then!

sam,

Thank you for the squash reference/example. I used to play competitively way back in the day, and despite how popular it really is, no one seems to have heard of it.

btw, I'm not sure if it was Squash or Tetris that cured my Herpes. It really could have been either.

I posit that you are correct, and support your argument.