FDA approves video game for ADHD treatment

[clozareal]

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What do you all think about this?

In a landmark decision, FDA greenlights a video game for kids with ADHD

The FDA has given a green light for the first time to a game-based therapeutic: Akili's video game EndeavorRx, designed to be prescribed to kids with ADHD.

www.statnews.com

Here's the actual Lancet paper that led to the FDA approval.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(20)30017-0/fulltext

 

[wolfvgang22]

I think it's ridiculous to require a prescription for a simple video game.

 

[TexasPhysician]

Waste of time and money

 

[nexus73]

Waiting for weed strains that treat bipolar and schizophrenia.

 

[Sushirolls]

The real question is will Natropathic 'physicians' prescribe this or shun it as westernized medicine?

 

[Liquid8]

The study has a lot of limitations. The duration of the trial was only a month, and I’d also question the severity of the patients included which raises issues regarding generalizability. When I think back to my own childhood, after school we were allowed to watch 30 minutes of TV after school before having dinner and getting down to homework – but we were easy kids and neither of us had ADHD. The patients I see with ADHD weren’t so compliant, parents struggled to set any kind of limits and if they played games it would be for hours at the expense of any school work.

Watching the gameplay trailer, it looks like an endless runner with 3D graphics from the N64 era and I can’t help but think the game is simply failed shovelware rebadged as a therapeutic intervention. I’m also sceptical as it’s not really clear what the therapeutic benefit is that distinguishes the EndeavourRX game from similar commercial titles, and I think that will be a limiting factor in promoting uptake even if the game does everything that is promised.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

The study has a lot of limitations. The duration of the trial was only a month, and I’d also question the severity of the patients included which raises issues regarding generalizability. When I think back to my own childhood, after school we were allowed to watch 30 minutes of TV after school before having dinner and getting down to homework – but we were easy kids and neither of us had ADHD. The patients I see with ADHD weren’t so compliant, parents struggled to set any kind of limits and if they played games it would be for hours at the expense of any school work.

Watching the gameplay trailer, it looks like an endless runner with 3D graphics from the N64 era and I can’t help but think the game is simply failed shovelware rebadged as a therapeutic intervention. I’m also sceptical as it’s not really clear what the therapeutic benefit is that distinguishes the EndeavourRX game from similar commercial titles, and I think that will be a limiting factor in promoting uptake even if the game does everything that is promised.

I believe that's the rub, which has been a problem with computerized cognitive rehab/training/retraining for decades, unfortunately. It improved TOVA performance (probably not surprisingly), but didn't improve ratings of ADHD-related symptomology and functional impairment relative to control. I also wonder how the inclusion criteria of low baseline performance on the TOVA impacted things. However, I do think some aspects of this study will probably carry on to future interventions, so from that iterative perspective, it could be beneficial.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

The study has a lot of limitations. The duration of the trial was only a month, and I’d also question the severity of the patients included which raises issues regarding generalizability. When I think back to my own childhood, after school we were allowed to watch 30 minutes of TV after school before having dinner and getting down to homework – but we were easy kids and neither of us had ADHD. The patients I see with ADHD weren’t so compliant, parents struggled to set any kind of limits and if they played games it would be for hours at the expense of any school work.

Watching the gameplay trailer, it looks like an endless runner with 3D graphics from the N64 era and I can’t help but think the game is simply failed shovelware rebadged as a therapeutic intervention. I’m also sceptical as it’s not really clear what the therapeutic benefit is that distinguishes the EndeavourRX game from similar commercial titles, and I think that will be a limiting factor in promoting uptake even if the game does everything that is promised.

This is a major issue I see as well. I had actually recently looked at the paper this approval was based on. The game doesn't seem to be particularly different from many other games you could get for your iphone for $3. So why wouldn't I just tell my patients to buy an endless runner game from the app store instead of prescribing this ridiculous thing?

 

[brycew85]

On a related note, virtual reality for the treatment of depression is something that could work

create a world so immersive and make your patient’s character competent,able, and easy enough to “win” but hard enough to still feel like a challenge. Would be behavioral activation therapy to the extreme, but potentially addictive (patients would prefer to be in the virtual reality world where they are winners than the real world where they are not.

Whatever.... make it happen, silicon valley techlords!

 

[futureapppsy2]

On a related note, virtual reality for the treatment of depression is something that could work

create a world so immersive and make your patient’s character competent,able, and easy enough to “win” but hard enough to still feel like a challenge. Would be behavioral activation therapy to the extreme, but potentially addictive (patients would prefer to be in the virtual reality world where they are winners than the real world where they are not.

Whatever.... make it happen, silicon valley techlords!

This is almost every single RPG and action-adventure game (not Dark Souls).

 

[birchswing]

Is the idea to get lost in flow?

Video games can be great for anxiety. It's been a long time since I've played any, but I found I would lose track of time and enter what I think people call flow.

There was this one at a community clinic I went to that connected to you via some sort of skin conductor—I guess it measured your stress level somehow—and you got to control a hot air balloon up and down with your mind. This was so long ago and for some reason they only demonstrated it to me. I didn't actually get to use it for long, but I think I would have liked it.

I bought Muse which is an EEG headband and I was hoping it would do something similar. You meditate with it and when you're meditating "well" the sounds are calm and you hear birds chirping. If your thoughts start to drift it gets windier sounding or you hear waves crashing, etc., depending on the scene. The good part about it is that it actually works. The part I don't like is that I am someone who gets very anxious focusing on the breath. I start breathing strangely. And while you don't have to focus on the breath in Muse, I think that's how it's working in part. Those are the instructions they give. I notice if I do focus on the breath I do well in it, but I just don't find focusing on the breath too helpful. It makes me breath weird. There's enough tech there it seems like they could add some game type thing (like the hot air balloon). There's another app that lets you see the raw EEG data, and I can't make heads or tails of it, but it looks science-y to me (the axis orientation is definitely accurate).