ArticleFrontiers in psychiatry2023
Effects of a video game intervention on symptoms, training motivation, and visuo-spatial memory in depression.
Article in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 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
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effects of video games on cognitive function in older adults with mild cognitive impairment: a meta-analysis.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2025Pooled it
- The Positive Effect of Video-Game Play on College Students' Anxiety and Depression Symptoms During the COVID-19 Pandemic Shelter-in-Place Lockdowns: Mixed Methods Study.JMIR serious games · 2025Article
- Commercial Wearables for the Management of People with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Review.Biosensors · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: People with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) often experience reduced affect, mood, and cognitive impairments such as memory problems. Although there are various treatments for MDD, many of them do not address the cognitive deficits associated with the disorder. Playing 3D video games has been found to improve cognitive functioning in healthy people, but it is not clear how they may affect depressed mood and motivation in people with MDD. The aim of this study was to investigate whether a six-week video game intervention leads to improvements in depressed mood, training motivation, and visuo-spatial (working) memory functions in patients with MDD. Methods: A total of 46 clinically depressed individuals were randomly assigned to one of three groups: an experimental "3D video gaming" group ( Results: Regarding depressive symptoms, a significant decrease in the proportion of participants who showed clinical levels of depressive symptoms as measured by the Beck Depression Inventory was only found in the 3D video gaming group. Additionally, mean motivational levels of performing the training were significantly higher in the 3D video gaming group when compared with the active control group. Moreover, whereas the 3D Video Gaming group only significantly improved on one visuo-spatial memory test, the active control group improved in all visuo-spatial memory functions. The 3D video gaming group did not perform significantly better than the CogPack group, and the TAU group. Conclusion: Besides a standalone cognitive training, the current findings suggest that cognitive trainings using a video game have potential to increase subjective well-being, show higher levels of training motivation, and lead to improvements in visuo-spatial (working) memory functions in MDD. However, given the mixed and unblinded nature of this study, the results should be interpreted with caution. Further research with larger samples and follow-up measurements is needed.
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.