ABSTRACT

Game-based interventions have been gradually and successfully implemented in the mental health domain given the games’ ability to positively affect a variety of mental health conditions. To this aim, scholars have recently discovered the usefulness of Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) video games, due to their increasing popularity, availability, and cost effectiveness. Nevertheless, key aspects of this line of research have not emerged yet, since a comprehensive overview of how commercial video games impact on different mental disorders is still missing. In this article, we present a systematic literature review of recent research that focuses on the usage of commercial video games in mental health. We analyse 39 papers and map the relevant themes that are recurrent in the last ten years of research, offering a detailed understanding of the methodological approaches that were used, the results obtained, the main disorders addressed, and the video game genres exploited. On the basis of these findings, we highlight open issues in current work and point out a variety of research opportunities that could be tackled in future years, like the need of conducting more field and longitudinal studies, the necessity of developing the design knowledge, and the possibility of connecting research with clinical practice.

摘要

鉴于游戏能够对各种心理健康状况产生积极影响，基于游戏的干预措施已在心理健康领域逐步成功实施。为此，学者们最近发现了商用现货 (COTS) 视频游戏的实用性，因为它们越来越受欢迎、可用性和成本效益。然而，这一研究方向的关键方面尚未出现，因为仍然缺少关于商业视频游戏如何影响不同精神障碍的全面概述。在本文中，我们对最近的研究进行了系统的文献回顾，重点关注商业视频游戏在心理健康中的使用。我们分析了 39 篇论文并绘制了过去十年研究中反复出现的相关主题，详细了解所使用的方法、获得的结果、解决的主要疾病以及开发的视频游戏类型。在这些发现的基础上，我们强调了当前工作中的未解决问题，并指出了未来几年可以解决的各种研究机会，例如进行更多实地和纵向研究的需要，发展设计知识的必要性，以及将研究与临床实践联系起来的可能性。