There’s something oddly refreshing about starting your day by solving Wordle. According to DeepWell DTx, there’s a scientific explanation for why our brains may feel a little better after a short break to play a game. In fact, DeepWell now has FDA clearance to back up its claim that video games can treat stress.
With FDA approval, DeepWell’s biofeedback software development kit is approved for over-the-counter use, meaning patients can use its games as an adjunct to other treatments for stress or hypertension. While Medicare evaluates the benefits of reimbursing physicians for digital therapy software, it’s possible that DeepWell’s games could become eligible for reimbursement.
FDA-approved medical devices don’t have to be developed solely for medical purposes. Apple’s AirPods Pro just received FDA approval to function as hearing aids, making them the first over-the-counter hearing aid software device. Consumer products like the Garmin watch and certain Apple Watch apps have also been approved to monitor conditions like atrial fibrillation and Parkinson’s disease. As rates of anxiety and depression rise in the U.S., it’s no surprise that medical regulators are looking for solutions from unconventional sources, like a game developer kit.
“I think what we’re seeing right now is a recognition of the mental health emergency we’re in and the resource constraints we have,” co-founder Ryan Douglas told Tech News. “What we’ve done is built a set of tools that allows media creators to connect them to the flow of reimbursements that are now coming in for digital mental health.”
For more than 20 years, Douglas has designed therapeutic hardware and software and has earned more than 30 patents for treatment systems and medical devices. Currently, he is President and CEO of NeuFluent, a neurological product venture studio of which DeepWell is a part.
DeepWell does not recommend that its products be used in place of talk therapy, but rather as a complement.
“We have seen amazing results, sometimes up to four times more effective than psychotherapy or medication,” he said. “But in combination with psychotherapy, it has been extraordinary.”
As a proof of concept, DeepWell launched a VR game on Meta Quest called Zengence, which it calls an “action shooter for mental health.” The headset can detect the player’s breathing, and by maintaining a consistent breathing pattern, it becomes easier to defeat enemies.
Games don’t need to have overtly therapeutic mechanics to be useful. According to Douglas, even games like Super Mario or Animal Crossing can have positive effects.
As with anything, video games should be enjoyed in moderation: for the sake of your physical and mental health, you probably shouldn’t be playing Tears of the Kingdom for 12 hours a day. But DeepWell argues that playing a game for 15 minutes, three times a week (the FDA-authorized “dose”) can have noticeable benefits.
“It turns out that this overlap between being in a playful state — in a strongly dopaminergic state — while gaining a lot of autonomy and having a lot of positive interaction… You’re really bioavailable to learn new things about yourself,” he said.
Playing games that capture our attention can also offer us a temporary respite from our negative thoughts and feelings.
“If you’re playing Tetris, for example, you can’t have a big conversation in your head about how terrible you are, how worthless you are, what’s going to happen next week and all that,” Douglas said.
So the limbic system (the part of the brain responsible for reacting to stress) might become susceptible to learning new ways to deal with negative stimuli. So, as we gain more practice in handling stressors (even fake ones from a video game), it can influence how we respond to real-life stress.
“We see a lot of people with high levels of stress, who have been through wars and things like that, and they go back to playing games that give them shocks and thrills,” Douglas said. “There’s a desire to go in and have control over an environment that they didn’t have control over before.”
So far, DeepWell is approved to treat stress and hypertension, but Douglas hopes that in the future this technology could treat PTSD, epilepsy, sleep disorders, and memory disorders. Although DeepWell’s work focuses on digital media, Douglas believes these same principles can be seen in other forms of entertainment.
“That’s why we see people go to a concert or a movie and come back two hours later thinking differently about what they’re going to do next,” he said. “In that time, you’ve overcome a major hurdle or you’ve gotten out of a rut in your thinking that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to overcome without that stimulus.”
