Advocacy Blog Blasts Report that Tetris Helps with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Advocacy Blog Blasts Report that Tetris Helps with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
January 9, 2009
A UK study which claims that playing Tetris can reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder received wide play in the gaming press this week.
However, a blog which advocates for PTSD sufferers has blasted the Tetris connection.
Wounded Times argues that the study, in which subjects were shown images of traumatic injuries, doesn't adequately replicate real PTSD-inducing situations:
Do they really think a movie is the same as reality? Let them take the game out to police officers in the street right after they had to kill someone in a gun battle and one of their own was killed as well. Try the game on them. Take it to Afghanistan and Iraq right after a road side bomb blew up some GI's, killing some and taking off a few limbs at the same time a lot of innocent civilians got killed in the process, including children...
The problem about the blog world jumping all over a story like this, as they have over the last few days, is it offers false hope...
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Posted 11/21/09 at 12:35pm
magic_taco: It doesnt have anything to do with the "National Institue of Morons & Failures"
magic_taco: It doesnt have anything to do with the "National Institue of Morons & Failures"
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magic_taco: No, I just recently had something on my mind.
magic_taco: No, I just recently had something on my mind.
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magic_taco: ...ok...
magic_taco: ...ok...
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ZippyDSMlee: Welcome and goodmorning its zippy in the AM....wat OMG its 8:50AM!!!!
Posted 11/20/09 at 05:42pm
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ZippyDSMlee: oh may the cute stab out your eyes, http://www.youtube.com/user/simonscat
Posted 11/20/09 at 05:17pm
JDKJ: O.K. Suit yourself. But when you're wearing Ray-Bans, sitting on a curb with a white cane and a cup of pencils, and doing Stevie Wonder impersonations, don't say I didn't warn you.
JDKJ: O.K. Suit yourself. But when you're wearing Ray-Bans, sitting on a curb with a white cane and a cup of pencils, and doing Stevie Wonder impersonations, don't say I didn't warn you.
Posted 11/20/09 at 05:10pm
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ZippyDSMlee: JD:No thank you I don;t want your cooties...or STDs...
Posted 11/20/09 at 05:01pm
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JDKJ: Me. I'm rehearsing the role just in case I do get dubbed Zippy The Soecnda.
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:59pm
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DarkSaber: Wait, is that meant to be Zippy, me or you?
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JDKJ: I cud caer lez. =^^= *wakes up in mid-afternoon after staying up until 3:00AM soldering resistors on to circuit boards, stumbles around in formerly white but now grey underwear, while simultaneously scratching groin with vigor and making coffee*
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:46pm
DarkSaber: knell? Don't you mean Neil? Anymore of tht and I'll dub thee Zippy The Soecnda
DarkSaber: knell? Don't you mean Neil? Anymore of tht and I'll dub thee Zippy The Soecnda
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:44pm
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JDKJ: Now, now, Saber. Don't be salty. You weren't the first one to knell and bob and you ain't gonna be the last one, either.
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:42pm
DarkSaber: JD's feeling rather desperate it seems.
DarkSaber: JD's feeling rather desperate it seems.
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:33pm
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JDKJ: C'mon, Zip. You already touch yourself way too much. Spread the love. Before you go blind.
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:27pm
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ZippyDSMlee: JD:No and I ain't touching any part of you or your friends!! :P
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:25pm
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JDKJ: @Zip: You know Lik Mitaint?
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ZippyDSMlee: neill and bob,oldest giveing head joke and most lamest...
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:18pm
JDKJ: But thanks for the memory. MIB's a classic. *sings* "Here come the Men in Black. Galaxy defenders. Here come the Men in Black. They won't let you remember."
JDKJ: But thanks for the memory. MIB's a classic. *sings* "Here come the Men in Black. Galaxy defenders. Here come the Men in Black. They won't let you remember."
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Comments
gotta say i kinda agree with this.
showing someone a movie is NOT THE SAME AS EXPERIENCING REALITY.
In the same way that playing GTA isnt the same as doing the things in real life. I hardly think that the participants can be classed as having PTSD after seeing some nasty images. Heck, everybody using the internet has clicked onto stuff unknowingly a few times and seen some horrible things. Would never say id had PTSD though or even came close to experiencing anythign 'similar' to PTSD.
"Do they really think a movie is the same as reality?"
Hey, that's valid research there, Sparky!
That's how it's done!
Take the individual out of the picture.
Show them a movie or make them listen to sounds, and that qualifies as "doing research".
Look at the so-called research on "aggression" and the so-called research about how violent video games "affect" people or "desensitize" them.
If it's valid research methods for THEM, it's valid research methods for YOU.
Someone call the CDC and the US legislature! We need to make PTSD victims play Tetris! We need legislation on this NOW!
:/
Nightwng2000
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Nightwng2000 has also updated his MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/nightwing2000 Nightwng2000 is now admin to the group "Parents For Education, Not Legislation" on MySpace as http://groups.myspace.com/pfenl
I would have to count them as one of the blogs jumping all over this, and prolly doing so to try to get attention for donations or other support. They are jumping as hastily as anyone else IMO.
I would argue that they NEED to push for testing on a range of suffers of PTSD, from soldiers, to police, to kids, and so on, but I would NOT flat out say they are 100% wrong. Even though it may only lessen the flashbacks and such from 10 a day to 9, it is a useful tool to help. My guess is the same would go for WoW, and other games people can get more hooked on. When people play enough Tetris, they tend to think about playing the game, fitting the pieces together, and so on. So anything that takes up that time which opens of the door for a flashback is good.
The real question is, night terrors. If they can prove it helps night terrors, then they will be golden. Between PTSD and little kids who have watched a very scary movie, it would be great to know about. All in all, they need to complete the study, because it isn't done.
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Ow. Better no hope at all than what is potentially false hope, eh? I didn't read anything in the Tetris stories that claimed to be the cure-all for PTSD, just that it could possibly distract and minimize. This strikes me as an overreaction, and a silly one at that. Would they rather there was no research done on how to help PTSD sufferers?
The study can be read for free from the Plos One website and surprisingly easy to read. ( http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.00041... ) (it's undergoing maintenance as of this writing)
I very much agree that bloggers offers false hope with all this positive news, but I also think that this is a systematic problem in that if you don't jump the fastest on the latest news, someone else will pick up the news before you do and you won't get any visits to your blog. Therefore, it makes bloggers speed read and miss or misinterpret raw information.
Even if this study were to be successfully replicated, there are still practical concerns, such as the willingness to accept treatment, physical disability, the emotional impact of the trauma, implementing the treatment, etc.
http://vgresearcher.wordpress.com/
But what do violent games have to do with non-volent Tetris?
- Warren Lewis
You obviously never visited communist Russia.
Triggering memories and controlling the reaction isn't quite the same as what was likely reported, which was probably a form of cognitive behavioral therapy.