ArticleJMIR serious games2023
The Development of Game-Based Digital Mental Health Interventions: Bridging the Paradigms of Health Care and Entertainment.
Article in JMIR serious games, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Advancements and challenges in methodological approaches for game-based health interventions: a scoping review.Frontiers in digital health · 2025Pooled it
- Game-Based Social-Emotional Learning for Youth: School-Based Qualitative Analysis ofJMIR formative research · 2025Trial
- User journey method: a case study for improving digital intervention use measurement.BMC health services research · 2025Trial
- No evidence of increased gaming-related problems with long-term use of a video game therapeutic: Exploratory endpoint findings from a randomized controlled trial.Internet interventions · 2026Article
- Video and App-Based Games for Youth Emotion Regulation: Scoping Review.JMIR mental health · 2026Article
- Designing Coloring-Based Digital Art Therapy to Treat Alexithymia in Chinese College Students: Qualitative Study.JMIR human factors · 2026Article
- Mental Health Professionals' Views on Gaming to Inform Game-Based Interventions: Qualitative Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR serious games · 2026Article
- eHealth in the management of PTSD in children and adolescents: a scoping review.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- A Proposed Taxonomy to Holistically Classify Employee Mental Health Programs: Qualitative Taxonomy Development Study.Interactive journal of medical research · 2025Article
- User Character Strengths and Engagement Prediction on a Digital Mental Health Platform for Young People: Longitudinal Observational Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Observational
- Gamification as a Tool for Understanding Mental Disorders in Nursing Students: Qualitative Study.JMIR nursing · 2025Article
- Neuroscience-informed psychoeducation for addiction: a conceptual and feasibility study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- The Role of Relevance in Shaping Perceptions of Sleep Hygiene Games Among University Students: Mixed Methods Study.JMIR serious games · 2024Article
- Measuring digital intervention user experience with a novel ecological momentary assessment (EMA) method, CORTO.Internet interventions · 2024Article
- Patients prefer easy adverse event reporting: Observational study within clinical trial.Digital healthArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Game elements are increasingly used to improve user engagement in digital mental health interventions, and specific game mechanics may yield therapeutic effects per se and thereby contribute to digital mental health intervention efficacy. However, only a few commercial game-based interventions are available. We suggest that the key challenge in their development reflects the tension between the 2 underlying paradigms, health care and entertainment, which have disparate goals and processes in digital development. We describe 3 approaches currently used to negotiate the 2 paradigms: the gamification of health care software, designing serious games, and purpose shifting existing entertainment games. We advanced an integrative framework to focus attention on 4 key themes in intervention development: target audience, engagement, mechanisms of action, and health-related effectiveness. On each theme, we show how the 2 paradigms contrast and can complement each other. Finally, we consider the 4 interdependent themes through the new product development phases from concept to production. Our viewpoint provides an integrative synthesis that facilitates the research, design, and development of game-based digital mental health interventions.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.