Study shows that digital treatment with Tetris gameplay can dramatically reduce trauma memories
http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-02-19-study-shows-digital-treatment-tetris-gameplay-can-dramatically-reduce-traumaOpen linkView original on feddit.uk162
Comments38
Wow:
That's a crazy positive result. Hopefully there is more research into this treatment. My wife still has PTSD and other early childhood trauma related issues that are being treated with NMDR, which is definitely effective, but it sounds like this could potentially accentuate that treatment for a more positive outcome.
Have you ever heard of EMDR therapy? This really reminds me of this. It's a newer therapy that is geared towards trauma. They do this weird thing where they have the participants move their eyes back and forth while thinking of their trauma. People seem to be torn on whether or not the eye movements themselves help or if it's just the nature of performing an action while doing so. Kind of sounds like a similar concept to me.
Whoops, that's exactly what I meant to say, I accidentally typo'd it to NMDR. Yeah, EMDR is an interesting thing that I'm not sure how it works, I just know anecdotally that it works for my wife.
Wow no I'm dumb I somehow skipped that part of the sentence sorry!!!
It's too good, and its funded by a corporation, and its got a very low sample size, and it's tied in with some wacky "digital therapy solution". I wouldn't be surprised if the control groups actually worsened because the service just sucked and the tetris version included less of that service.
I am also treating this one limited study with a huge grain of salt, but I'm an eternal optimist so I hope my pessimism is wrong.
it's not too limited just to assess general efficacy either
I'll copy my reply from below as well:
how would it possibly be bad in factors other than efficacy, like BetterHelp was due to data nightmares and advertising a different mechanism? this isn't even online
99 is a more than enough sample size as this RCT's Bayes factor is 114 and 15.8 for better efficacy than -control and -regular treatment respectively, which corresponds to "extreme" and "strong evidence" (Lee and Wagenmakers 2013, p. 105; adjusted from Jeffreys, 1961). The Lancet also peer-reviewed the claim "The Bayesian adaptive trial design enabled efficient evaluation with early stopping when convincing evidence was reached (n=99).[2]"
indeed further testing is needed to establish subgroup effects and improve generalizability but this is already quite promising
Fuck off, dude, you expect me to treat you seriously when you defend a company that commodified mental illness?
i have never supported or defended BetterHelp
You said the only bad thing about it was low efficacy. Fuck you.
that was the opposite of what i meant; sorry i was unclear. when I said "how would it possibly be bad in factors other than efficacy, like BetterHelp was due to data nightmares and advertising a different mechanism" i meant that BetterHelp had many reasons it was bad other than efficacy like data nightmares and advertising a different mechanism, and asked how the tetris treatment would replicate BetterHelp's notorious woes
Just replace traumatic memories with falling bricks. 😃
*patient with PTSD after nearly being crushed by a falling pallet of bricks on a construction site:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH–
Actually this is effectively how it works.
I'm genuinely shocked at there only being negative comments here. I'm doubtful anyone actually read the article, let alone the study. This is wonderful news and good science, it should be celebrated.
The participants in the study must not be playing tetris the grand master.
Interesting, I feel like I've heard about this 'mental image rotation' exercise before, though I forget in what context. Pretty cool
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/rotating-a-cow-in-mind
I suspect the memes started because research into image rotation got in the news cycle, and the Internet took it from there.
Honestly, the study is so well written you don’t need to read the article:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(25)00397-9/fulltext But glad the article spread the news.
They’re required to report it, but so funny.
♪♪♪ "I know the pieces fit, cause I watch them falling down" ♪♪♪
What about tetris on mushrooms?
Not only do you cure your PTSD but you can cure others with your serene wisdom
As I understand it, it's not about "just chill by playing tetris", but more uses tetris to reinforce another mental method to make intrusive visual memories less intense and prevalent.
Did you know there's this new thing called a 'news article' where you can read about what's being discussed?
I used to be like you. I'd just imagine what I thought people were talking about, then I'd tell them how they were wrong. Now we can use this new technology to read about what is being discussed first so we can all talk about the SAME THING and tell others how they're wrong! Wow!
The OP was even kind enough to provide a link so we can all read together! You should give it a try. The future is now!
Regrettably, even on Lemmy, people only react to the title.
Read the article before posting next time, please.
Yeah, this is on me this time. Not sure what drove me there.
NO.
NO NO NO. You don't get to have 9 in 10 dentists promote some gamified healthcare app to the masses, fuck this. This sounds like the BetterHelp Scam 2.0.
how so? this is a method that would work completely offline and without any form of centralization i can imagine
It's a study with a very low sample size funded by some corporation and with the intention to normalize "digital treatment" similar to BetterHelp. This has red flags front to back.
how is this digital treatment similar to BetterHelp? how would it possibly be bad in factors other than efficacy, like BetterHelp was due to data nightmares and advertising a different mechanism? this isn't even online
99 is a more than enough sample size if your RCT's Bayes factor is 114 and 15.8 for better efficacy than -control and -regular treatment respectively, which corresponds to "extreme" and "strong evidence" (Lee and Wagenmakers 2013, p. 105; adjusted from Jeffreys, 1961). The Lancet also peer-reviewed the claim "The Bayesian adaptive trial design enabled efficient evaluation with early stopping when convincing evidence was reached (n=99).[2]"
indeed further testing is needed to establish subgroup effects and improve generalizability but this is already quite promising
That's the dumbest shit I ever read.
Oxford was ranked the world's best research university for 10 years in a row.
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-10-09-oxford-named-best-university-world-record-tenth-consecutive-year
They also started shilling AI recently. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end.
What, that Tetris is soothing?
Yes.
Okay.