Therapeutic and preventive use of video games in child and adolescent psychiatry: a systematic review
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Over the past decade, the use of commercial video games and serious games has developed in child and adolescent psychiatry. These games may become relevant alternatives or adjuncts to traditional psychotherapy, providing that their effectiveness is properly established. The purpose of this literature review was to evaluate the effectiveness of serious games and commercial video games in the treatment or prevention of psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents. METHODS: Medline's database was used to search articles published between January 2012 and July 2019. The following keywords were used for this search: "Video games" OR "Active video game" OR "serious gaming" OR "Serious game" OR "Exergame" AND "Child mental disorder" OR "Adolescent" OR "Child" AND "Therapy" OR "Prevention". Only comparative studies which targeted interventions on children and adolescents suffering from psychiatric disorders were included. RESULTS: Twenty-two studies, focusing on a wide range of psychiatric conditions, met our inclusion criteria's: 14 evaluated serious games and 8 commercial games. All studies were randomized controlled trials but only two studies compared the intervention game to psychotherapeutic gold standard; other studies used a no-intervention control group or an alternative game as the control group. Eighteen studies reported significant improvements on the symptoms and test scores targeted. CONCLUSION: Serious games and commercially available video games can be an effective trajectory for psychotherapy in child and adolescent psychiatry. However, there is a lack of longitudinal studies which assess the sustained effects of these games, and standards for proper evaluation of their effectiveness are missing.
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Many studies of these games often lack appropriate and rigorous methodology such as longitudinal follow-up and a mixed-methodological approach that can assess feasibility and acceptability.
“Another issue with many of these studies is that they often lack appropriate and rigorous methodology such as longitudinal follow-up,29 and a mixed-methodological approach that can assess the feasibility and acceptability of such interventions.”
From A novel ACT-based video game to support mental health through embedded learning: A mixed-methods feasibility study protocol (2020) · cites this paper as [29]
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- Authors
- Zayeni, D., Raynaud, J.-P., & Revet, A.
- Affiliations
- Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Toulouse (FR)
- Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (FR)
- Corresponding author
- Zayeni, Darius
- Venue
- Frontiers in Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2020-02-06
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 36
- Pages
- 36-36
- ISSN
- 1664-0640 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7016332
- OpenAlex
- W3004678209
- Cited by
- 124
- References
- 66
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 7
- FWCI
- 3.57
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Frontiers in Psychiatry (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Educational Games and Gamification
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Therapy and Development
- Keywords
- serious games, video games, exergames, child and adolescent psychiatry, mental illness, prevention, psychotherapy adjunct, game-based intervention
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