From the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Center for Lifespan Psychology, Berlin, Germany (Butler, Kühn); the Center for Military Mental Health, Military Hospital Berlin, Berlin, Germany (Herr, Willmund, Zimmermann); and the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Hamburg, Germany (Gallinat, Kühn).
J Psychiatry Neurosci. 2020 Jul 1;45(4):279-287. doi: 10.1503/jpn.190027.
Tetris has been proposed as a preventative intervention to reduce intrusive memories of a traumatic event. However, no neuroimaging study has assessed Tetris in patients with existing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or explored how playing Tetris may affect brain structure.
We recruited patients with combat-related PTSD before psychotherapy and randomly assigned them to an experimental Tetris and therapy group (n = 20) or to a therapy-only control group (n = 20). In the control group, participants completed therapy as usual: eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) psychotherapy. In the Tetris group, in addition to EMDR, participants also played 60 minutes of Tetris every day from onset to completion of therapy, approximately 6 weeks later. Participants completed structural MRI and psychological questionnaires before and after therapy, and we collected psychological questionnaire data at follow-up, approximately 6 months later. We hypothesized that the Tetris group would show increases in hippocampal volume and reductions in symptoms, both directly after completion of therapy and at follow-up.
Following therapy, hippocampal volume increased in the Tetris group, but not the control group. As well, hippocampal increases were correlated with reductions in symptoms of PTSD, depression and anxiety between completion of therapy and follow-up in the Tetris group, but not the control group.
Playing Tetris may act as a cognitive interference task and as a brain-training intervention, but it was not possible to distinguish between these 2 potential mechanisms.
Tetris may be useful as an adjunct therapeutic intervention for PTSD. Tetris-related increases in hippocampal volume may ensure that therapeutic gains are maintained after completion of therapy.
俄罗斯方块被提出作为一种预防干预措施，以减少创伤事件的侵入性记忆。然而，没有神经影像学研究评估过俄罗斯方块对现有创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）患者的影响，也没有探索玩俄罗斯方块如何影响大脑结构。
我们招募了患有与战斗相关的 PTSD 的患者，在心理治疗之前将他们随机分配到实验性俄罗斯方块和治疗组（n = 20）或仅治疗对照组（n = 20）。在对照组中，参与者完成了常规治疗：眼动脱敏再处理（EMDR）心理治疗。在俄罗斯方块组中，除了 EMDR 之外，参与者还在治疗开始到结束的大约 6 周后，每天玩 60 分钟的俄罗斯方块。参与者在治疗前后完成了结构 MRI 和心理问卷，并且我们在大约 6 个月后的随访中收集了心理问卷数据。我们假设俄罗斯方块组在治疗完成后和随访时都会表现出海马体体积增加和症状减轻。
治疗后，俄罗斯方块组的海马体体积增加，而对照组则没有。此外，在俄罗斯方块组中，海马体的增加与治疗完成到随访期间 PTSD、抑郁和焦虑症状的减少相关，但在对照组中则没有。
玩俄罗斯方块可能既可以作为认知干扰任务，也可以作为大脑训练干预，但无法区分这两种潜在的机制。
俄罗斯方块可能是 PTSD 的一种有用的辅助治疗干预措施。俄罗斯方块相关的海马体体积增加可能确保治疗效果在治疗完成后得以维持。
