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Playing Tetris ‘can prevent painful flashbacks for crash victims’

Key claim: the computer game is a “therapeutic vaccine” for motor accident victims: Alamy
Key claim: the computer game is a “therapeutic vaccine” for motor accident victims: Alamy

Road crash victims encouraged to play the computer game Tetris in A&E suffered fewer distressing flashbacks to the incident, a study revealed today.

A group of casualty patients at John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford were asked if playing Tetris for up to 20 minutes helped prevent “intrusive memories” of the crash over the following week.

Researchers found that those who received the so-called “therapeutic vaccine” — which they played on a Nintendo — within six hours of the crash had an average of 8.7 flashbacks, compared with more than 23 for those asked to write activities in a log book.

They said the “proof-of-concept” study suggested an “easy, helpful and minimally distressing” therapy to help patients overcome trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder.

It did this by “disrupting” how the mind “consolidates” the details of the traumatic event. The researchers — from Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and Oxford University — also found a more rapid reduction in bad memories among those who played Tetris. The 71 recruits included adults who had suffered or witnessed a motor vehicle accident and had remained conscious and were not drunk or on drugs.

One woman in her twenties who suffered repeated flashbacks of falling and hitting her head said of Tetris: “I think it helped a lot to distract my mind.”

A woman in her sixties who had never played Tetris or used a Nintendo asked to play longer than 20 minutes. She said: “It certainly took my mind off it at a time when I would have sat brooding and feeling very sorry for myself.”

A man in his thirties described intrusive images of the tree moments before hitting it in his vehicle, followed by the white flash of the airbag. “I think playing Tetris helped focus my mind and bring some ‘normality’ back to my head.”

Professor Emily Holmes, of the Karolinska, said: “It would make a huge difference to a great many people if we could prevent post-traumatic suffering and spare them these gruelling intrusive memories.” Researchers said they believed similar effects would result from games such as Candy Crush.