JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Globally, depression and anxiety are the two most prevalent mental health disorders. Depression and anxiety occur both acutely and chronically, with various symptoms commonly expressed sub-clinically. The mental health treatment gap and stigma associated with mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety are common issues encountered worldwide. Given the economic and healthcare service burden of mental illness, there is a heightened demand for accessible and cost-effective methods that prevent and facilitate coping with mental health illness. This demand has only become exacerbated following the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and 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. Commercial video games have been shown to impart cognitive benefits to those that play regularly (ie attentional control, cognitive flexibility and information processing). In this paper, we specifically focus on mental health benefits from the use of commercial video games for tackling depression and anxiety symptoms. In the light of the current research, we conclude that commercial video games show great promise as an inexpensive, readily accessible, internationally available, effective and stigma free resource for the mitigation of some mental health issues in the absence of, or as an addition to, more traditional therapeutic treatments.