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Playing Tetris Can Reduce Onset of PTSD After Trauma, Study Finds (cnn.com)
Reader dryriver writes (slightly edited and condensed): CNN, citing a new study, reports that playing Tetris within hours of a traumatic event can reduce the onset of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: After experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event, such as a car accident, people are likely to develop anxiety or distress in relation to that event soon after the experience, leading to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). But a new study has shown that playing the computer game Tetris within hours of experiencing trauma can prevent those feelings from taking over your mind.
PTSD occurs when intrusive memories linked to fear from a traumatic event become consolidated in a person's mind by them visualizing the event in a loop until it becomes locked in their brain. Competing with the visualization, such as with a game like Tetris, can block that consolidation form happening. "An intrusive memory is a visual memory of a traumatic event," said Emily Holmes, Professor of Psychology at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, whose team led the study. "Tetris also requires imagination and vision. Your brain can't do two things at once, so this interrupts," she added.
PTSD occurs when intrusive memories linked to fear from a traumatic event become consolidated in a person's mind by them visualizing the event in a loop until it becomes locked in their brain. Competing with the visualization, such as with a game like Tetris, can block that consolidation form happening. "An intrusive memory is a visual memory of a traumatic event," said Emily Holmes, Professor of Psychology at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, whose team led the study. "Tetris also requires imagination and vision. Your brain can't do two things at once, so this interrupts," she added.
deee de de deee de de deee de de deee de de deeeeee de deee deee deee deee deee
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CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
I never get the long skinny piece when I need it! Tetris causes me PTSD!!
So, that explains the story of this Game Boy.
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Not to diminish the importance of blocking memory formation (nice research), but most people do not care about those who suffer from PTSD.
We have a known cure for PTSD, combination MDMA psychotherapy, but it's currently illegal in most of the world because both the US FDA and DEA political hacks claim that no medical uses exist for the chemical (despite the DEA Court finding otherwise).
It's a clear case of government vs. science and the loser in the battle is the vulnerable population of patients with PTSD (and the rest of society by extension). Sadly, most of society supports those politicians over both science and the needs of the afflicted.
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I did a paper on this a while back, I'm surprised to see it revisited.
Fun fact, I once played so much tetris, I used to day-dream falling blocks and had to stop. (A form PSTD from tetris of tetris if you will...)
Tetris is impossible to win.
For example, it's been known to make earthquake victims scream "Oh God, Oh God, the blocks, the blocks, they're all falling again! They'll never stop!"
I read a report (and am scratching my head as to where, though I suspect I got it from Jane McGonigal) at least two years ago.
If someone is in a war zone, or sees a dead body(bodies) or suffers some other majorly traumatic event the first thing they want to do is play tetris.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0004153
Making America Grate Again.
well, there are still two more days til april 1st... :-)
For those who'd like a link to the paper: Preventing intrusive memories after trauma via a brief intervention involving Tetris computer game play in the emergency department: a proof-of-concept randomized controlled trial
@cyberrecce
and mild mind re-programming is what Tetris triggered in me 30 years ago. I still remember walking down the street and trying to visually fit building into each other.
Wouldn't surprised me if tetris had backings from the USSR military masquerading as academic research.
In related news, Nethack was found to hasten the onset of PTSD after a traumatic event.
We should send our troops into battle with headphones blasting the Tetris music! They will be unstoppable. Hell, Putin probably already does it.
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After a stressful event, such as an accident, the victim or friends of victims could change his mind with some tetris game. Bonus idea: if you get an operation the doctor give you a couple free token for you after the surgery!
"Playing Tetris Linked to PTSD" ;)
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which work as the "muscle rubs" do. the menthol in them distracts from the pain. yep. Tetris can be irritating.
Maybe just listening to the awesome Russian music from the Tetris soundtrack has the same therapeutic effect.
To be sure, they should repeat the experiment using a control group that plays Bioshock.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
that open world action RPGs help dealing with PTSD, so I assume that any computer game that requires concentration may come in handy here.
So I hypothesize, so mote it be.
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I was in the company warehouse when an earthquake struck. The shelves collapsed and all the boxes tumbled down on me.
Have gnu, will travel.
Having had mild PTSD for a while, I wouldn't wish it on anyone. The phrase "1000 yard stare" makes much more sense when you've experienced it.
Also "PTSD is associated with about a 53% increased risk for incident cardiovascular events over the course of eight to 10 years. And that’s on the order of about half a pack of cigarettes a day." - source http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08jbc1v
I play Tetris after talking to my wife. It has helped.
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There is no linked article in the summary, but I wonder if this study could be ethically flawed
In order to be scientifically sound, they need a control group and an experimental group, the later being exposed to a trauma. Willingly inducing a trauma seems to be at odds with Hippocratic Oath's "to abstain from doing harm".
In Capitalist west, detrimental action game changes you.
In Russia nice game helps you.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
To me it sounds a bit like the principle EMDR is based on.
http://www.emdr.com/what-is-em...
So basically it *blocks out* the bad stuff?
Here my layman's understanding of why this makes sense: A large part of what causes PTSD comes from being trapped and helpless while experiencing extreme fear; playing a simple game like Tetris makes you stop concentrating on the experience - it is complicated enough to require you to concentrate, but it is simple enough to make you feel in control. Other games of a similar level of complexity would probably work too, but tetris old old enough to be available almost universally. Finally, memories take a while to become persistent, so if you can get away from thinking about the experience in the first few hours after it occurred, you may avoid forming the unbreakable loop that is characteristic of PTSD.
Apparently you can, at least sometimes, 'unseat' the negative loop, if you can bring the patient to remember the events, but somehow disassociate them from the extreme fear and replace it with a more in-control feeling. As I understand it, certain drugs, like MDMA and psilocybin may help in this process (but don't try it at home - this isn't 'fun').