Business Week: Video Games Increase Pain Tolerance

Sick kidsA tub of really cold water plus a stopwatch can add up to a pain tolerance test. You guessed it. The longer time a subject keeps his arm submerged would reveal how much pain could s/he take.

In a research conducted with 60 children from ages 5 to 12, it was revealed that they could keep their arms submerged for an average of 19 seconds. However simultaneous playing of Free Dive, developed by BreakAway, showed that the same kids could keep their arms submerged in frigid water for 86 seconds!

It seems that there’s a growing trend these days, and that is to see the “health-related applications of video-game technologies, mostly aimed at children”. In 2004, Ben’s Game, the first game specifically made for sick kids was launched. The goal is to primarily deviate the kids’ attention from pain by making them engrossed with video games.

Re-Mission is another third-person shooter was designed for cancer patients. A test was conducted with this video game, and it was shown that participants who played it took their anitbiotics more often. Moreover, 54 Re-Mission players “saw their bloodvideo games levels of an oral chemotherapy medicine maintained at a higher rate”.

Another product used is PediSate,a yummy-colored headset that “disperses anaesthesia”, and can be hooked up to a Game Boy.

Speaking of which, “Game Boys have a hypnotic effect on kids,” says David Chastain, principal engineer at the Boston-based design consultancy Continuum. “We thought, why not use this effect so young patients can remove themselves from the environment of a hospital when they’re being sedated for a procedure?”

According to Pamela Kato, a researcher that has a PhD in Psychology in Stanford and a Masters in Counseling and consulting psychology from Harvard, video games are an appropriate medium for kids suffering from diseases that make them sedentary and isolated. Also, many online games promote health and sickness prevention, a great tool for educating kids about taking care of themselves.

Commercial game developers are starting to look into the potential of health-related video games. Popcap, a casual game publisher, received a letter from 30-something Sonya Johnson of Marlboro, New Hampshire, who has been diagnosed with multiple bone tumors, and her 10-year-old niece, who suffers from muscular developmental ailments. The letter read:

“I play casual games every Sunday with my niece,” Johnson told BusinessWeek.com when asked about her experience using video games to help cope with illness. “They help us forget the pain we’re in. But more importantly, they give her—and me—something to look forward to.”

Although Popcap hasn’t dveloped health-related games, it works with Games for Health to keep the research going. And indeed it’s quite an interesting field. Who knows that games could actually help save lives?

Via BusinessWeek

Sick kidsA tub of really cold water plus a stopwatch can add up to a pain tolerance test. You guessed it. The longer time a subject keeps his arm submerged would reveal how much pain could s/he take.

In a research conducted with 60 children from ages 5 to 12, it was revealed that they could keep their arms submerged for an average of 19 seconds. However simultaneous playing of Free Dive, developed by BreakAway, showed that the same kids could keep their arms submerged in frigid water for 86 seconds!

It seems that there’s a growing trend these days, and that is to see the “health-related applications of video-game technologies, mostly aimed at children”. In 2004, Ben’s Game, the first game specifically made for sick kids was launched. The goal is to primarily deviate the kids’ attention from pain by making them engrossed with video games.

Re-Mission is another third-person shooter was designed for cancer patients. A test was conducted with this video game, and it was shown that participants who played it took their anitbiotics more often. Moreover, 54 Re-Mission players “saw their bloodvideo games levels of an oral chemotherapy medicine maintained at a higher rate”.

Another product used is PediSate,a yummy-colored headset that “disperses anaesthesia”, and can be hooked up to a Game Boy.

Speaking of which, “Game Boys have a hypnotic effect on kids,” says David Chastain, principal engineer at the Boston-based design consultancy Continuum. “We thought, why not use this effect so young patients can remove themselves from the environment of a hospital when they’re being sedated for a procedure?”

According to Pamela Kato, a researcher that has a PhD in Psychology in Stanford and a Masters in Counseling and consulting psychology from Harvard, video games are an appropriate medium for kids suffering from diseases that make them sedentary and isolated. Also, many online games promote health and sickness prevention, a great tool for educating kids about taking care of themselves.

Commercial game developers are starting to look into the potential of health-related video games. Popcap, a casual game publisher, received a letter from 30-something Sonya Johnson of Marlboro, New Hampshire, who has been diagnosed with multiple bone tumors, and her 10-year-old niece, who suffers from muscular developmental ailments. The letter read:

“I play casual games every Sunday with my niece,” Johnson told BusinessWeek.com when asked about her experience using video games to help cope with illness. “They help us forget the pain we’re in. But more importantly, they give her—and me—something to look forward to.”

Although Popcap hasn’t dveloped health-related games, it works with Games for Health to keep the research going. And indeed it’s quite an interesting field. Who knows that games could actually help save lives?

Via BusinessWeek

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