Table 1.
Selected studies of video games and health outcomes.
| VGTx health function | Condition or population | Game/system identified | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment and monitoring | Physical activity | Pokémon GO | Althoff et al. (7) |
| Cognitive status in elderly | FreeCell | Jimison et al. (8) | |
| Cognitive distraction | Anxiety, nausea in chemotherapy | Participant’s choice of 25 games | Redd et al. (9) |
| Preoperative anxiety | Choice of 10 games on hand-held system | Patel et al. (10) | |
| Fibromyalgia pain | Sports games played with Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, and Microsoft Kinect | Mortensen et al. (11) | |
| Mental health | Depression | Bejeweled 2, Peggle, Bookworm Adventures | Russoniello et al. (12) |
| Posttraumatic stress disorder | “Realistic military-themed FPS games” | Elliott et al. (13) | |
| Improvement of positive symptoms in schizophrenia | Internet games (gambling, role-playing, strategy, shooter) | Han et al. (14) | |
| Neurological rehabilitation | Attention deficit disorder | Car racing games, skateboarding games, or adventure games | Pope and Palsson (15), |
| Minimal brain damage, attention problems | Super Breakout | Larose et al. (16) | |
| Stroke | Wii Sports, PlayStation EyeToy games | Yong Joo et al. (17) | |
| Prevention | Intrusive memories from trauma | Tetris | Iyadurai et al. (18) |
| Psychotherapy | Assessment of clinical presentation | Various, including Lego Star Wars II | Ceranoglu (19) |
| Rapport and treatment | Super Mario Bros., Jeopardy, (The Legend of) Zelda | Gardner (20) | |
| Social skills training | Autism | Pacman | Gaylord-Ross et al. (21) |
| Autism | Guitar Hero | Blum-Dimaya et al. (22) | |