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Video games often get a bad rap for the negative effects blowing up buildings and destroying humans has on young minds. Yet, a recent article in the British Medical Journal shows that video games can be used positively in the health care field. No long term follow-up and no randomized controlled trials have proven any of this research, but the evidence that video games can help many patients seems clear.
One area that video games have seen effective is in pain management. Since video games require concentration, this often takes away from the concentration that the patient would normally place on the pain.
Severe learning disabilities, autism, and impulsive or attention deficit disorders in children have all benefitted from the use of video games. Video games have also been used to increase hand strength, and help many disabled adults. They have been used to assist people with spinal cord injuries, severe burns, or muscular dystrophy.
Video games have also had negative effects for regular players such as video game addiction, increased aggressiveness, auditory hallucinations, wrist pain, neck pain, elbow pain, hand-arm vibration syndrom, repetitive strain injuries, and obesity were listed among some of the negative effects of video games.
Now, next time mom tells you all that video game playing is rotting your brain, point to this article to prove her wrong.