New Studio Making Games As Therapy To Help With Depression And ADHD
thegamer.comIt turns out that your parents were wrong. Games can actually be quite good for your mental health, with studies showing video games have a beneficial effect on patients with depression and ADHD. In fact, there's an FDA-approved video game out there right now treating kids with ADHD.
Video games as therapy is a new and exciting field and one that could definitely benefit gamers as a whole. That's why Devolver Digital founder Mike Wilson and medical device expert Ryan Douglas have co-founded DeepWell Digital Therapeutics with the intent of making real games to treat mental health conditions.
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What makes DeepWell DT different from other companies exploring the games-as-therapy space is that those companies develop the therapy first and then the game second. DeepWell intends to flip that so they make a fun game first and then layer therapeutic elements on top.
“Developers have figured out how to bring an engagement level and get folks to do things with an intensity that on the medical side we’ve had a hard time with,” Douglas said in an interview with The Verge. “The fun is really the most therapeutic thing.”
DeepWell currently has several games in development, with the first project expected to arrive sometime in 2023. DeepWell is also looking at identifying existing games or games in development that might have useful elements for mental health therapies. For example, a game might require the player to make choices similar to techniques used in cognitive behavioral therapy, or they might help teach breathing and thinking techniques similar to meditation practices.
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