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Mental Health and Video Games

Winter Semester 2022/2023

Berkant GÜL

62201805@mail.sfu.ac.at

Department of Psychotherapy Science, Sigmund Freud University

Psychiatry I LECT

Prof. Alfred Springer

December 31,2022
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Mental Health and Video Games

Video Games

According to the Oxford Dictionary, a video game in which you press buttons to

control and move images on a screen (Oxford Learner's Dictionaries, 2022). Most of the time

you can control this image with a controller, this controller can be a keyboard, mouse,

gamepad, touch-screen and with the advancement of the technology you can control it with

movement. A video game and gaming industry itself much deeper than this simple

explanation therefore I am going to explain little more about it. First of all, a game is not just

an image its commonly combined with an audio. These images and audio are feedback of

what you do with a controller. You can play a game in various devices, in 2022 one of the

most common platforms to play video games are Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox,

Computers (also include web games like Facebook and others), Nintendo Switch, tablets

(e.g., iPad) and mobile phones.

The common view of video games and their effects on a person is changing with time.

Twenty or more years ago, video games much likely to be associated with aggression and

violence especially with younger people (under 18 ages), most of this assumptions or

research is mostly opinion biased and they are self-reported, violence was not the goal or the

achievement for playing video games it is enjoyment, overcoming the challenges and

freedom that video games provides (Jones, Scholes, Johnson, Katsikitis, & Carras, 2014).

Playing video games in children have mostly have benefits but also have its

drawbacks: between 4 and 6 ages of children showed social behaviors (more than usual) but

at the same time they showed violent behaviors too (Kovess-Masfety, et al., 2016). Addition

to those Japanese kids who played TV games were more friendly to others then who didn’t

play TV games (SHIMAI, MASUDA, & KISHIMOTOK, 1990). According to a European

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study child with high playtime associated with high intellectual skills, academic

achievements and lower prevalence of mental health issues (Kovess-Masfety, et al., 2016, pp.

1-9). This information is more than 5 years ago and they are not new or fresh but with this

information we can say video games in children mostly beneficial and it may need more

research.

In USA, 24% of gamers are under 18 ages, 36% of gamers is 18 - 34, 13% of gamers

is 35 – 44, 12% of gamers is 45 – 54, 9% of gamers is 55 – 64 and 6% of gamers is 65 or

over 65 years old, 48% of video game players are identify as female and 52% are identify as

male. Lastly %65 of adults (18 years and older) and %71 of young population (under 18

years old) plays video game in USA (Entertainment Software Association, 2022). Nearly

everyone at least once in a lifetime plays a video game or seen a video game and with this

information, we can see how much is this, continuous players of videogames are larger than

most people think. Because of variety of videogames people of every age can find someone

to entertain themselves or find something useful or informative. With the gender equality and

LGBTQ+ movement some of the genre of games becoming much more accessible or familiar

to every gender. With time we began to see much more diverse important protagonist in

games and some of this started an argument because of this (e.g., Last of Us series). And

every year gender gap is closing little more which we can see with the statistics, In USA,

%59 of gamers identifies as male and 41% of gamers identifies as female in 2020

(Entertainment Software Association, 2020). In 2021, 55% of gamers identifies as male, 45%

identifies as female (Entertainment Software Association, 2021). Even though these statistics

only in USA we can still clearly see an increase in female population of players and with

young age population, therefore right know games in the lives of people of all genders and

ages. Addition to that quite a reasonable portion of these people are familiar with video

games from their childhood.

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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) also known as autism, ASD begins early in life and

has a specific impairment in social communications of person’s life and repetitive behavior

(Lord, et al., 2020). According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder,

Fifth Edition (DSM-5) autism spectrum disorder (ASD) consists of five main symptoms and

requirements: Social communication and social interactions, restricted repetitive behaviors

and interests, symptoms must be present in early development but could be masked,

symptoms must cause clinically impairment, not better explained by intellectual disability or

global developmental delay or another mental disorder (American Psychiatric Association,

2013). Worldwide approximately 1 in 100 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder

in 2022 (Zeidan, et al., 2022). With all of this it isn’t easy to just ignore ASD, it will be

beneficial to find various ways to overcome and manage ASD or make it milder.

ASD can be hard to manage in clinic or in general expertise, video games can be an

alternative way for this. Studies show that therapeutic methods with video games are

substantially effective. Video games can be more auspicious for younger ages with that they

can improve participation, especially collaboration with other ASD diagnosed children

addition to that video games can be helpful for raising motivation for these children,

(Jiménez-Muñoz, et al., 2021).

Although there is evidence that video games are helpful for ASD cases we shouldn’t

overlook their addictive parts of it, according to Micah O. Mazurek’s research some ASD

diagnosed children informed they may have tendency to become addicted to video games

(Mazurek, Engelhardt, & Clark, 2015).

Video game with ASD can be beneficial but at the same time they can be addictive, in

light of mentioned research it should be noted that selection, difficulties and genres of video
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games are crucial for ASD studies. Video games definitely can be helpful tool with autism

spectrum disorder. Most of these studies from recent years and as it stated in the citated

studies video games and ASD needs more research for mental health.

Depression and Anxiety Disorder

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, Fifth Edition

(DSM-5) depressive disorders can be categorized according to the duration, timing and

presumed etiology, some of the symptoms of depressive disorders are sleep and diet

disruption, fatigue, worthlessness, low mood and suicidal thoughts (American Psychiatric

Association, 2013). Depression is very common and broad disorder, approximately 3.8% of

the world population affected with depression disorder (World Health Organization, 2021).

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, Fifth Edition

(DSM-5) generalized anxiety disorder consist five main symptoms (categories): excessive

anxiety and worry, difficulty to control worry, anxiety is associated with 3 or more symptoms

(restlessness, easily fatigued, difficulty concentrating, irritability, muscle tension, sleep

disturbance), not better explained by another mental disorder, not attributable to the

physiological effects of a medical condition (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).

Current studies with anxiety and depression disorder associated with video games are

mainly focused on video game genres or types therefore there will be a mention about genres

about video games. For both anxiety and depression’s negative emotional aspect video games

can be helpful or much accurately can be regulative, especially with popular MOBA genre of

video games (Bonnaire & Baptista, 2019). Easy to use, fast paced casual video games may

have an effect on anxiety and depressive disorders, casual games were reported that they may

have been exceptional for reducing anxiety, although casual games can be much affective for

anxiety casual games have reducing symptoms of depression disorder (Pine, Fleming,
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McCallum, & Sutcliffe, 2020). To reduce anxieties tension on the patient there is a

gamification idea of relaxing and winning, basically as long as you relax you are going to win

the game and this process is measured with skin response of the person (John Sharry, 2003).

It is important to note that most of this study indicates that there is a need for more research

in this area. According to these studies we can clearly say video games can be an useful tool

to reduce or balance anxiety and depression symptoms.

On mental health, video games can also be used for research and observation. For

example, there is a trust video game study concerning social anxiety, this study uses video

games to model neural activity in social anxiety patients (Sripada, et al., 2009). With this

research we can assume video games can be used as a modest way to research disorders.

In conclusion, currently video games are in everyone’s life and we are constantly

exposed to them, video game industry and technology is still growing as it grow it will have

more affect in our lives. Video games can cause issues in our lives for example, they can be

addictive beginning early ages or they can disrupt our sleeping schedule and diet patterns.

But at the same time, we can’t overlook their positive effects with disorders, video games can

be a very useful tool for therapeutic effects or research purposes. Because of video games

have various types and genres we need to find and utilize right combinations for our

purposes. As mentioned in the studies, video games with mental health studies needs more

research.
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References
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mental disorders fifth edition. American Psychiatric Association.

Bonnaire, C., & Baptista, D. (2019). Internet gaming disorder in male and female young

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Entertainment Software Association. (2020). 2020 Essential Facts About the Video Game

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Entertainment Software Association. (2021). 2021 Essential Facts About the Video Game

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Jiménez-Muñoz, L., Peñuelas-Calvo, I., Calvo-Rivera, P., Díaz-Oliván, I., Moreno, M., Baca-

García, E., & Porras-Segovia, A. (2021). Video Games for the Treatment of Autism

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John Sharry, M. M. (2003). Relax To Win: Treating children with anxiety problems with a

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Jones, C. M., Scholes, L., Johnson, D., Katsikitis, M., & Carras, M. C. (2014). Gaming well:

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