Video games used to treat lockdown anxiety

Children may be prescribed technology based on cognitive behavioural therapy

CHILDREN as young as five may be prescribed video games to help ease anxieties fuelled by lockdown.

Conditional recommendations by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) provide for games, videos and quizzes based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to be offered to children because their mental health had been affected by the pandemic. One in six children in England, aged between six and 16, probably has a mental health condition – up from one in nine in 2017, according to NHS Digital.

The proposals, which have been put out to consultation, are aimed at children and young people in England with symptoms of mild to moderate anxiety. The self-guided products are based on CBT principles that help users to better understand and manage their symptoms of anxiety and low mood with the support of a mental health practitioner, Nice said.

Mark Chapman, interim director of medical technology at Nice, said the need for children and young people’s mental health services had become more acute due to the pandemic and “technologies like these could help children and young people get wider access to support”.

The watchdog said children could be prescribed the technology after an assessment by a mental health practitioner and some children would be offered one-to-one counselling.

Nice said the convenience of smartphone apps might make them appealing to children. It also said that though there was some evidence to suggest that guided self-help digital CBT technologies may improve symptoms of anxiety, more research was needed to inform a full assessment.

The technologies conditionally recommended include an internet-based psychological intervention for children aged five to 12 with symptoms of anxiety.

It has three components, a parent’s website, a clinician case management website and an optional game app called Monster’s Journey: Facing Fears, which includes interactive worksheets, videos and quizzes.

Another programme, Lumi Nova: Tales of Courage, aimed at those between seven and 12 with mild to moderate anxiety, involves intergalactic role-playing games that aim to provide “psycho-educational content”. Another programme includes: Space from Anxiety for Teens, Space from Low Mood for Teens, Space from Low Mood and Anxiety for teens. Mr Chapman said: “For some children and young people, technologies will not replace face-to-face interventions. What is promising about all the technologies we have conditionally recommended today is the way they bring together digital interventions with clinical support.

“By driving innovations like these into the hands of clinicians we can improve care … and help the service recover following the pandemic.”

The programme is part of a Nice pilot for early value assessment of medical technologies.