Gaming Your Mental Health: A Narrative Review on Mitigating Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety Using Commercial Video Games

Lero, The Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software, Physical Education and Sport Sciences Department, University of Limerick, Castletroy, Limerick, Ireland

Globally, depression and anxiety are the two most prevalent mental health disorders. They occur both acutely and chronically, with various symptoms commonly expressed subclinically. The treatment gap and stigma associated with such mental health disorders are common issues encountered worldwide. Given the economic and health care service burden of mental illnesses, there is a heightened demand for accessible and cost-effective methods that prevent occurrence of mental health illnesses and facilitate coping with mental health illnesses. This demand has been exacerbated post the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent increase in incidence of mental health disorders. To address these demands, a growing body of research is exploring alternative solutions to traditional mental health treatment methods. Commercial video games have been shown to impart cognitive benefits to those playing regularly (ie, attention control, cognitive flexibility, and information processing). In this paper, we specifically focus on the mental health benefits associated with playing commercial video games to address symptoms of depression and anxiety. In light of the current research, we conclude that commercial video games show great promise as inexpensive, readily accessible, internationally available, effective, and stigma-free resources for the mitigation of some mental health issues in the absence of, or in addition to, traditional therapeutic treatments.

Mental health disorders affect more than 14% of the global population [1 ] and are estimated to become 1 of the 3 major causes of morbidity and mortality by 2030 [2 ]. The current global pandemic and subsequent periods of economic uncertainty could increase the prevalence of symptoms of mental health disorders, thus increasing the ubiquitous and widespread requirement for mental health treatments [3 ]. This poses serious consequences for individuals and society by overburdening the current systems in place [4 ]. Depressive and anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental health disorders in the general population, with nearly 264 million people (3.4% of global population) and 284 million people adversely affected by depression and anxiety disorders, respectively [1 ,5 ]. Depression and anxiety are often experienced simultaneously, with up to 81% of individuals having an anxiety disorder having a depressive disorder too in their lifetime [6 ]. Depression and anxiety are also associated with chronic physical comorbidities, such as somatoform disorders [7 ], cancer, stroke, acute coronary syndrome [8 ], cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, chronic pain, and visual and auditory impairments [9 ]. Notably, mental health problems are underreported worldwide [10 ,11 ]. Due to various types of stigma and beliefs associated with the causes of symptoms, individuals with a known mental disorder often fail to reach out for help [12 -14 ]. Coupled with this, approximately 70% of those requiring treatment have limited access due to insufficient government funding [15 ]. These aforementioned factors contribute to the mental health treatment gap [15 ] that exists in high-income countries [16 ] and that is wider in low- to middle-income countries [17 ]. As of 2020, 63.2% of the world’s population was reported to have access to the internet in 2020 [18 ], with a vast majority of households owning a computer (ie, 82% of households in the United Kingdom and 93% of households in Finland) [19 ]. This increase in internet access and computer ownership has facilitated accessibility to video gaming, with approximately 2.7 billion video gamers reported worldwide in 2020. Given the existing mental health care challenges (high costs, long waiting lists, limited technological support, and less alternatives to traditional mental health care), this paper examines recent research on the potential for commercial video games to ameliorate symptoms in the two most prevalent mental health disorders: depression and anxiety. We discuss the increase in prevalence and severity of these disorders globally and the potential benefits of commercial video games to meet some of the current mental health care challenges associated with these two disorders.

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