In a world that can feel inundated with video games, an age-old classic is making a comeback: Tetris. Why and how is it related to trauma? Hang tight..
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is characterized by the following: intrusive memories, disrupted sleep, flashbacks, intense or prolonged psychological distress, avoidance, reckless or self-destructive behavior, hypervigilance, exaggerated startle response, problems concentrating, and the list goes on (DSM-5, American Psychiatric Association). Because PTSD is usually related to a singular or multiple traumatic events, it is one of the few psychological conditions where we are able to trace its origins. With that said, more research has been conducted on how we can prevent PTSD or even get ahead of it (resiliency!).
Now you may think you are immune to PTSD or that only certain events can cause PTSD. In reality, the national average in Canada for those who develop PTSD is roughly under 10% (Canadian Mental Health Association, 2013). This number doubles when it comes to first responders and front-line workers. A 2017 national study surveyed nearly 6,000 dispatchers, correctional workers, police, paramedics and firefighters and found 44.5 per cent showed signs of least one mental health disorder, which is significantly higher than that of the general population (Carleton et al., 2018).
Why is this important to those who don’t work in the emergency field or the front lines? Because traumatic events can be anywhere and everywhere. Although ‘trauma’ has become a hot buzzword in the last few years, it is also important to recognize that it can take the form of many things such as a car accident, workplace harassment, losing a loved one, or going through a worldwide health pandemic. This is not to say that everyone that experiences a traumatic event will go on to develop PTSD, but if there’s something we can do to decrease those odds, why not give it a go?
Enter Tetris. The theoretic basis behind playing Tetris following a traumatic event, is the process of preventing memories from forming and solidifying in the brain. You’ll remember one of the symptoms of PTSD is intrusive memories. Professor of Psychology at Karolinska Institutet’s Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Emily Holmes, has been studying the neuroscience and preventative effects of behavioural interventions and recently conducted a study looking at patients who were instructed to play Tetris while awaiting treatment at the hospital after a motor vehicle accident. She goes on to state “since the game is visually demanding, we wanted to see if it could prevent the intrusive aspects of the traumatic memories from becoming established i.e. by disrupting a process known as memory consolidation.” (Lyadurai et al., 2018)
The results were promising! Out of 71 people in this study, 62% reported fewer intrusive memories of the car accident over the next week compared to those who didn’t play the game. Twenty minutes of Tetris within the first 6 hours of the car accident was all it took. While studies have not been conducted on a larger scale to replicate these results (yet!), the outcome is still positive considering the minimal effort it takes to play a mindless game for 20 minutes. So, all this to say, give it a try, download Tetris on your phone and give it a go for 20 minutes after a traumatic event and see how it goes!
“You can’t hold both the image of trauma and the image of Tetris in your mind at once. The Tetris is taking the overly hyper sort of real quality out of trauma images” – Professor E. Holmes
The following list was compiled by the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford for further information about the impacts of Tetris and PTSD:
(https://www.psych.ox.ac.uk/news/tetris-used-to-prevent-post-traumatic-stress-symptoms):
Playing Tetris could help stave off PTSD
Daily Telegraph, 29/03/2017, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/03/28/tetris-can-prevent-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-oxford-university/
How Tetris therapy could help patients
BBC News online, 28/03/2017, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39407196
Playing Tetris soothes stress after trauma
The Times, 29/03/2017, http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/playing-tetris-soothes-stress-after-trauma-03cg7gt6m
Playing Tetris in hospital after traumatic incident could prevent PTSD, scientists say
The Independent, 28/03/2017, http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/tetris-ptsd-hospital-oxford-study-symptoms-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-video-games-ruth-abrahams-a7653731.html
Can playing Tetris ease our minds after a trauma? A study suggests it can, The Washington Post, 30/03/2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/30/can-playing-tetris-ease-our-minds-after-a-trauma-a-study-suggest-it-can/?utm_term=.3bca17c966db
Can playing Tetris help slow the onset of PTSD? Researchers think it might, Global News Canada, 30/03/2017, http://globalnews.ca/news/3345938/can-playing-tetris-help-slow-the-onset-of-ptsd-researchers-think-it-might/
Tetris to treat PTSD?, Global News Canada, 19/04/2017
http://globalnews.ca/video/3382669/tetris-to-treat-ptsd
About the Author
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
Canadian Mental Health Association. (2013). Posttraumatic stress disorder. Retrieved October 6, 2018, from https://cmha.bc.ca/documents/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-2/
Carleton, R. N., Afifi, T. O., Turner, S., Taillieu, T., Duranceau, S., LeBouthillier, D. M., Sareen, J., Ricciardelli, R., MacPhee, R. S., Groll, D., Hozempa, K., Brunet, A., Weekes, J. R., Griffiths, C. T., Abrams, K. J., Jones, N. A., Beshai, S., Cramm, H. A., Dobson, K. S., … Asmundson, G. J. (2017). Mental disorder symptoms among public safety personnel in Canada. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 63(1), 54–64.
Hagenaars, M. A., Holmes, E. A., Klaassen, F., & Elzinga, B. (2017). Tetris and Word games lead to fewer intrusive memories when applied several days after analogue trauma. European journal of psychotraumatology, 8(sup1), 1386959. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2017.1386959
Lyadurai, L., Blackwell, S. E., Meiser-Stedman, R., Watson, P. C., Bonsall, M. B., Geddes, J. R., Nobre, A. C., & Holmes, E. A. (2018). 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. Molecular psychiatry, 23(3), 674–682. https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2017.23