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Excerpt from BBC News Online, Jan 30th, 2005 :-
John Grade, Director of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Institute (MPI), revealed today how experiments with life-simulating games such as "The Sims" and various expansion packs, have brought new hope for some of his psychiatric patients.
Grade has recently conducted a study with patients who have had unusual or disturbed family life, and who suffer from not being able to communicate with other people, and who occasionally have panic attacks about relating to family, friends and colleagues. The results of the study show that after playing games in which they must play a character who goes through a series of life crisis, patients feel more at ease with relating to one another, as well as with doctors, nurses, and, occasionaly, complete strangers.
In a press conference yesterday, Grade said "I'm so pleased with the results, they go far beyond what I had hoped for. Through using the life simulating games, the patient is free to experience things, and make types of decisions, like chatting to a stranger perhaps, which they would never attempt to do in real life.
"The patient the internalises these experiences, learning from them, and then gradually applies this new found knowledge to real-life situations to the extent that they progress much further in treatment than if we used more conventional electro-therapy methods."
Asked if this model of treatment could be applied to patients with more serious problems, such as homicidal tendancies, the Doctor refused to rule out further studies.
The Sims has been a best selling game for the last 5 years, and a spokesman for Electronica Arts, who produce the game, expressed how pleased they are at the results of the study, and hinted that there may even be some future expansion packs based upon living in a Psychiatric Institute.
John Grade, Director of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Institute (MPI), revealed today how experiments with life-simulating games such as "The Sims" and various expansion packs, have brought new hope for some of his psychiatric patients.
Grade has recently conducted a study with patients who have had unusual or disturbed family life, and who suffer from not being able to communicate with other people, and who occasionally have panic attacks about relating to family, friends and colleagues. The results of the study show that after playing games in which they must play a character who goes through a series of life crisis, patients feel more at ease with relating to one another, as well as with doctors, nurses, and, occasionaly, complete strangers.
In a press conference yesterday, Grade said "I'm so pleased with the results, they go far beyond what I had hoped for. Through using the life simulating games, the patient is free to experience things, and make types of decisions, like chatting to a stranger perhaps, which they would never attempt to do in real life.
"The patient the internalises these experiences, learning from them, and then gradually applies this new found knowledge to real-life situations to the extent that they progress much further in treatment than if we used more conventional electro-therapy methods."
Asked if this model of treatment could be applied to patients with more serious problems, such as homicidal tendancies, the Doctor refused to rule out further studies.
The Sims has been a best selling game for the last 5 years, and a spokesman for Electronica Arts, who produce the game, expressed how pleased they are at the results of the study, and hinted that there may even be some future expansion packs based upon living in a Psychiatric Institute.
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Get something that will warp your mind..
Oh the irony..
Oh the irony..
My Mum's a Psycotherapist.
(Or so she says.):D.
(Or so she says.):D.
If you asked a panel of Psychiatric patients, I'm sure their answer would be GTA III
And you won a GAD for it.
Nice one!
Nice one!
Five years? A best selling game for five years?
It hasn't been around that long, surely?
So anyway... what you're basically saying, is that the game I've played more than any other in the last two years... is now used to treat psychiatric patients?
Well, that makes me feel great ;)
It hasn't been around that long, surely?
So anyway... what you're basically saying, is that the game I've played more than any other in the last two years... is now used to treat psychiatric patients?
Well, that makes me feel great ;)
I don't know what to think to this to be honest, though it is nice to see a positive game-related news story.
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