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Finnish Doctors Are Prescribing Video Games For ADHD
Daniel_Stuckey writes "Ville Tapio runs a private psychiatry center in Helsinki, and psychiatrists had told him they were reluctant in particular to hand out drugs for patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ADHD drugs are psychostimulants, they are frequently abused, and kids can be prescribed them young and kept on a regimen for years. Tapio had an idea to do it better. His alternative? Getting people with mental health concerns to play video games. They're special video games, of course — ones that can change how your brain works, with a technique loosely termed gameified neuroplasticity therapy."
Sorry boss, my doctor says I need to medicate every 2 hours while I'm awake.
How do you tell the difference between an introvert and an extrovert in Finland? A Finnish extrovert looks at your feet instead of his own when talking.
It's not just any video game, it's specific video games made specifically for this purpose.
The most interesting part of the article IMO, they are using EEG 'mind reading' controllers, so when your readings show up in a certain way, you progress in the game.
Also, the summary makes it sound like they are prescribing this to everyone who comes along, when actually they are still doing preliminary studies. The preliminary studies seem to show good results, so they will probably continue deeper investigations into the topic.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
But rather a diagnosis. I'm a 27 year old Finn and despite many visits to several doctors, got my ADHD diagnosis just last month. Before that they had just said I was depressed. Yes, since I was a small child.
After the diagnosis. my psychiatrist prescribed me medication straight away. He didn't even ask me for my opinion. And this is public healthcare we are talking about. They go apeshit if you try to get sleeping pills let alone medicine that are considered drugs like Concerta.
Also I call BS on frequent abuse of medicine like Concerta in Finland. It's so expensive and pharmacies make sure that you don't buy more any sooner than you are supposed to have used up all of your medication. It's easier and cheaper to just buy something off the street.
nothing improves your concentration like an hour playing tetris. I can still hear the song in my head. for best results, play it on an original game boy.
According to the article, these "games" utilize a brain-scanning cap that you place on your head. It reads brainwave activity and translates it into motions on the screen. It's designed to get the user to focus on tasks better and improve concentration. I don't see it being feasible with the size, power, and physical limitations of a smartphone or tablet anyway.
As someone with ADHD, I can easily see where this could work over time. If something could train my brain to slow down (without drugs), I am sure I'd be able to concentrate on tasks a lot better. Sort of like folks with anger control issues learning to breathe calmly and count to three (or whatever they do).
If someone claims alcoholism can be solved with a regimen of vodka, and they have evidence you can't prove wrong, you'd be dumb to insist it couldn't possibly be true just because it sounds incredible.
Skepticism is fine, and ideally the study would already be published, but lets not reject it out of hand just because it sounds counterintuitive.
That's like prescribing vodka to an alcoholic.
It gets worse!
We also give money and healthcare to poor people!
This has been going on for almost 20 years now. I had ADD as a kid and when I was 11 my parents sent me to a biofeedback clinic where I would sit in a dentist chair and concentrate on a pac-man. If my brain waves were in the ideal range the pac man would move through the maze and I would gain points. The speed at which he moved accelerated so the longer I was able to 'focus' the faster he would go through the maze and I'd get a higher score.
I'm sure the technology must be much more precise these days and the games have probably gotten a lot more interesting to look at but they all essentially are based on the same principle.
The problem is that most kids that age don't care about wanting to learn how to focus better. They just have fun being who they are naturally. These kinds of programs work really well for adults and younger people with a great deal of motivation to change / practice their 'focusing' ability but as an 11 year old, I got really bored doing this and eventually I started falling asleep in the chair half way through every session. Program was a wasted on me but I applaud my parents for wanting to try to help me without medication.
The Blade Itself