"Tetris" might blunt mental trauma

Aficionados of the video game "Tetris" describe the manipulation of its geometric shapes as mind-bending, time-expending and utterly absorbing. But an inoculation against the mental anguish of war memories? A study published in the latest issue of the online journal PLoS One found that research subjects who played "Tetris" immediately after witnessing a traumatic event were less likely than those who did not play "Tetris" to experience disturbing, intrusive memories.

Such distressing flashbacks are a key symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a psychiatric diagnosis conferred on as many as one in five U.S. military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Effective treatments for the disorder — or better yet, preventive measures — are in high demand.

In the study at Oxford University's department of psychiatry, 40 subjects between 18 and 47 viewed a 12-minute film that included horrific images of physical injury and death. After a half-hour break during which subjects filled out forms, 20 subjects were set before a computer screen to play "Tetris" for 10 minutes. The remaining 20 sat quietly with nothing to do.

The game players reported fewer flashbacks to the gruesome scenes of injury and death than did the do-nothings in the 10-minute period of play. But in a daily diary all subjects kept for a week after viewing the film, "Tetris" players reported fewer flashbacks to the film's upsetting content than did those left to entertain themselves. Tested for PTSD a week after watching the film, the "Tetris" players showed significantly less evidence of trauma than did the control group.