Dec 24, 2024 14:00:00

What are the 'Tetris Method' and 'Avatar Method' that use technology to improve mental health?

There are attempts to use 'Tetris' and 'Avatar' to treat people with mental illness. The Financial Time explains what kind of treatment each of these is.

The new tech treatments that could improve mental health

https://www.ft.com/content/134bddde-23fe-4214-a3ee-ff0e131a5f71

Psychological therapy using technology and digital tools is increasing year by year. The Financial Times explains that this is because 'existing treatments such as drugs and talk therapy are reaching their limits.' A mental health official at the charitable foundation Wellcome said, 'I think the new generation of technology will be more targeted and potentially transformative for patients. We are at a turning point, and psychotherapy five years from now may look completely different from what it is now,' revealing that numerous alternative treatments to existing methods are being considered.

One of the new treatments is the Tetris game. According to Emily Holmes of Uppsala University in Sweden, Tetris is effective for patients who experience flashbacks of unpleasant memories.

In

a test to see if Tetris worked, Holmes had patients make a list of their most unpleasant memories, then think of one and play Tetris for 20 minutes. After repeating this process several times, by the fourth week, the patients were remembering the unpleasant memory less frequently.

'The parts of the brain that are activated during flashbacks are the same ones used for vision and spatial awareness,' Holmes said. 'If you try to do something else while playing Tetris, it won't work. You can only do one thing: either remember the bad memory or concentrate on Tetris. By concentrating on Tetris, you weaken the bad memory and make it less likely to be triggered by something.'

Another type of therapy, called 'avatar,' uses technology to create an avatar of the patient and attempts to treat them through conversations between the patient and the avatar.

In

a trial of the 'avatar' conducted by Philippa Garrett and colleagues at King's College London, about 300 patients who said they could hear 'inner voices' in their heads were asked to embody what those inner voices sounded like. Garrett and her colleagues embodied the patients' inner voices as avatars, and the patients conversed with their own avatars according to the therapist's instructions.

After 16 weeks of treatment, the researchers found that most patients who continued the treatment were able to hear their inner voice and thus alleviate their distress. In addition, those who extended the treatment to fit their lifestyle habits reported hearing their inner voice less frequently than before.

'By opening up our inner voices, we can offer people the choice to control them,' said lead researcher Thomas Ward. He said he plans to explore whether the treatment can be rolled out globally.

Regarding new technologies beginning to be used in medicine, David Krepas-Ky of the Mental Health Foundation pointed out, 'Advances in big data and AI have increased the potential to identify at-risk populations and enable medical intervention at an earlier stage. For this reason, researchers are turning to technology. Combining apps and wearable devices with other technologies could lead to innovations that help maintain good mental health.'