Flashbacks are lively, recurring, intrusive and unwanted mental images of a traumatic experience of the past. You are a sine qua non of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Although drugs and cognitive/behavioral interventions are available to treat PTSD, clinicians would prefer to avoid any kind of early intervention that flashback first and foremost the development to use.
Well, apparently researchers at Oxford University have found one. All it takes is remarkable Tetris play. Yes, Tetris!
The team is responsible for the discovery was managed by Emily Holmes. Labeling appears in the November issue of PLoS One. Holmes and colleagues had the human brain has a limited capacity to process memories, and that traumatic is usually complete within 6 hours after the event from storage consolidation following established. Holmes' team also knew that Tetris play the same kind of mental processing as involved in education with flashback. So you thought if you had people play Tetris during this 6 hour window after the traumatic event, could interfere with storage consolidation the traumatic experience. This would in turn reduce or eliminate the flashbacks.
The idea worked like a charm.
The experiment: Holmes' team had 40 topics to see a 12-minute film traumatic injuries and death scenes and then randomised to receive either the classic video game play the group after the movie finished, or sit and do nothing. The groups were similar in age, gender and existing psychological make-up.
Topics in both groups held all flashbacks for a week, follow the use a diary. Then, a formal clinical evaluation and various memory tests subjected.
The scientists observed that Tetris appeared to be topics, such as a"cognitive vaccine" the game played after the movie less flashbacks during follow-up. Amazingly, memory of the film and the associated trauma of the control group was identical Tetris players. They had few flashbacks.
Extra credit: to illuminate the mechanisms behind Tetris positive effects, Holmes Group a follow-up study to compare Tetris with pub quiz in a head-to-head match race, both carried out. The latter game has different mental processing claims as Tetris and it turned out to actually increase the frequency of flashbacks and other PTSD symptoms.
The authors on the hypothesis that discussions and debriefing meetings representing the traditional therapeutic intervention in the immediate (i.e., 6-hour) follow a traumatic experience can actually do more harm than good. This is because these interventions can actually improve storage consolidation of the traumatic event.
Glenn Laffel, MD, PhD, is a successful entrepreneur in health information technology. He blogs about on Pizaazz.
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