Research suggests Tetris can be a surprising fix for PTSD flashbacks

A study conducted by Uppsala University researchers has found that playing the popular video game Tetris can significantly reduce flashbacks in people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The study, led by Professor Emily Holmes, involved 164 healthcare workers in Sweden who were exposed to trauma while working with COVID-19 patients.

The research, conducted between September 2020 and April 2022, showed that participants who played Tetris reported a sharp reduction in flashbacks.

At a five-week follow-up, those in the Tetris group had an average of just one flashback per week, compared to five in the control group, who only listened to the radio. Six months after treatment, Tetris players continued to report half as many flashbacks as the control group.

This builds on Holmes’ earlier research from 2009, which proposed that Tetris disrupts "dysfunctional mental imagery" by taxing the brain's visuospatial memory – the same cognitive resource used in forming intrusive memories.

The game’s spatial reasoning tasks compete with these mental resources, reducing the vividness and frequency of flashbacks.

Holmes envisions that Tetris could serve as a "cognitive vaccine" for individuals exposed to trauma, such as frontline workers, preventing early PTSD symptoms.

The findings, published in BMC Medicine, suggest that just 20 minutes of gameplay can have lasting therapeutic effects.