Game point over shock

Aficionados of the video game Tetris describe the manipulation of its geometric shapes as mind-bending and absorbing.

But an inoculation against the mental anguish of war memories?

A study, published in the online journal PLoS One, found that subjects who played Tetris immediately after witnessing a traumatic event were less likely to experience disturbing intrusive memories of the horror than those who do not play the game.

Clue to treatment

Such flashbacks are symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a psychiatric diagnosis conferred on as many as 1 in 5 US service personnel. Treatments for the disorder are in demand.

In the study, conducted at Oxford University's Department of Psychiatry, 40 subjects between ages 18 and 47 viewed a 12-minute film that included physical injury and death.

After a half-hour break during which subjects were filling out forms, 20 were allowed to play Tetris for 10 minutes. The other 20 sat quietly with nothing to do.

Not surprising, the Tetris players reported fewer flashbacks to the gruesome scenes than did the other group in the 10-minute period of play.

But in a daily diary, subjects kept for a week after the viewing of the film, Tetris players reported fewer flashbacks to the film's upsetting content than the other group.

Tested for PTSD symptoms, Tetris players showed less evidence of trauma than did the control group.

And yet, the Tetris-playing group's memories of the events in the film were perfectly intact, the researchers found.

Apparently, the scenes had simply lost their power to horrify.