Video Games May Help Doctors Screen for Depression

Depression causes long-lasting feelings of sadness and loss of interest. A new study suggests that simple, game-like tests may help doctors identify patients with depression more quickly.

NIH-funded researchers tested two video games as screening tools for depression. The study enrolled healthy people and ones with moderate to severe depression. Participants were asked to play two video games.

One game was designed to test when a person no longer found playing the game rewarding. It had participants collect apples from trees. Each time they harvested a tree, the tree produced fewer apples. They could choose to stay at the same tree or move to a new one. Those with depression moved on to harvest new trees sooner than those without it. How soon the participants moved on was tightly linked to the severity of their depression symptoms.

The second game tested how people adjusted their decisions when a situation changed. Participants ranked snack food items based on how much they would pay for them. The snack items were then presented with different combinations to see how participants’ rankings changed. Healthy participants changed how they rated the items depending on what other choices they had. But participants with depression did not.

“Our behavioral game gives us clues to what is happening in the brains of patients with depression,” says Dr. Paul Glimcher of New York University, who co-led the study. With more research, these simple tests might help doctors quickly screen for and track depression in the clinic.