Canadian researchers have found that computer games can be an effective treatment for some phobias.
Researchers at the Universite du Quebec en Outaouais recently studied 26 people using computer games. Thirteen of the people had a phobia and 13 did not. Using PC games and a head-mounted display, the researchers measured the responses of the participants playing different games.
The researchers conducted the study using virtual reality-style games that allowed users to change the environments with the use of headsets. The researchers found the PC games were just as effective for treating people’s fears as simulation machines, which cost four times more than a game.
According to the university’s researchers, “virtual environments derived from games can produce the mid-range levels of anxiety that are most useful in therapy.”
The video games produced real increases in fear and anxiety in the subjects, suggesting the games are realistic enough to be used in phobia treatment, said University of Wisconsin nursing researcher and psychiatry lecturer Jeffrey Henriques.
“I would imagine that the video games would be most useful in a systematic desensitizing approach to treatment,” he said.
Video games, such as the best seller “Half-Life,” which created a spider-filled environment for participants with arachnophobia, or a fear of spiders, were used in the PC simulation. The range of documented phobias covers a wide variety of subjects and number in the hundreds. Some examples of phobias include acrophobia, which is a fear of heights, claustrophobia, which is a fear of enclosed spaces, and even triskaidekaphobia, which is a fear of the number 13.
UW sophomore PJ Macklin, an avid video-game player, spoke sarcastically of the research findings.
“I used to hate killing zombies. I used to have nightmares about it. But after I played ‘Resident Evil’ for PlayStation, killing zombies was about as scary as finding my roommate’s two-week-old tuna casserole in the refrigerator,” Macklin joked.
Although there are many different ways to treat a phobia — for instance, exposing the patient to the feared object in a room from which he or she cannot escape, which then forces him or her to face the fear head-on — the researchers found that the games may actually be much more useful in therapy.
Students who are afraid they may have an undiagnosed phobia can check out the games used in the study on the Quebec university’s website.
According to Henriques, 11 percent of individuals will be affected by a disabling fear or phobia at some point in their lives.
A phobia, which 6 percent of individuals have at any given time, is a constant, unfounded fear of an object or situation that is out of proportion with the actual danger of the object or situation.
There are several explanations for why phobias occur, such as a connection between a common object and a traumatic event, which could cause the person to fear the common object. Some scientists say phobias are an evolutionary trait because our ancestors may have been frightened of snakes or high places or that people may have a phobia because they witnessed someone else displaying that phobia.
A UW student said he is willing to help others relieve their phobias.
“The only fear that could possibly be alleviated by playing video games would be their fear of losing to me in ‘Super Techmo Bowl,'” said UW sophomore Curtis Fahndrich, a self-proclaimed undefeated Techmo Bowl player.
