Video games better than drugs?

This isn't the first time we've seen video games and VR in particular applied to medicine, but this is certainly the boldest claim we've heard yet. According some research done on chronic pain sufferers up at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, test subjects who were playing VR games were more comfortable than participants who were on pain meds alone. That might sound like a no brainer, but the researchers are saying that video games apparently have the potential of providing a safe, partial alternative to addictive medicine, boring counseling and lame-sauce physical therapy. Sounds like a miracle cure, but who are we to argue with Canada's finest?

[Via DailyTech]

[Jonathan Bergeron @ Jan 3rd 2008 9:26AM]

All their doing is trading one addiction for another.

[Matthew Hilario @ Jan 3rd 2008 12:45PM]

study is blown. they're all stoned and the ones that didn't have the video games were just more upset.

[Sara @ Jan 3rd 2008 9:26AM]

Simon Fraser? Hell, that's just down the road. The relevance is killing me.

[Flashpoint @ Jan 3rd 2008 9:34AM]

DOOM is 415% more addictive than opium derivatives.

[Josh @ Jan 3rd 2008 10:13AM]

Look at the WOW addicts, give that game to someone and that won't be doing anything else. Thats 600% more addicting than narcotics.

[ohyeah @ Jan 3rd 2008 9:40AM]

I definately agree that games make you feel better - if I'm well enough to get out of bed and play them i feel a shiteload better no doubt.

Games better than drugs? No. Absolutely not, but hell, games + drugs now theres some good painkillage ;)

There's no way I would pass up opiates to play games, they are just too good. Even the shitty ones are great pain killers, they work very well for me. If anything i'd say they are under prescribed and they give you enough when you really need it (i was given morphine and hydrocondone when I was last hospitalised I would have been better off getting my own heroin)

[korey @ Jan 3rd 2008 10:03AM]

I know this is true. I broke my back a few years ago and while I was fighting my insurance company to pay for the surgery (which took 15 months) I played a lot of video games instead of taking the flexeril or the vicodin and it worked. It is all psychosomatic but the video games help to refocus that negative energy you would be wasting feeling sorry for yourself.

[Harbinger @ Jan 4th 2008 10:42AM]

Excellent comment.

[Flashpoint @ Jan 3rd 2008 10:03AM]

How about the more common ADDICTIONS?

Food
Cable TV
foreign oil

[Warhorse @ Jan 3rd 2008 10:39AM]

Mmmmmmm. Oil.

[DWells55 @ Jan 3rd 2008 10:05AM]

When I was in the hospital for a week or so a few years back I was on morphine as often as they'd give it to me. After the first day or staring at the ceiling while lying in bed feeling sorry for myself, I had my parents bring my Xbox and Halo 1. First off, let me state that Halo 1 + morphine is awesome. But it definitely did help with dealing with the pain. It's the fact that you're distracted and involved in something else rather than focusing on your pain. It applies to pretty much anything really, not just video games.

[L.Cyphre @ Jan 3rd 2008 10:07AM]

Great news! Maybe the next time I'll get sick and lie in the hospital they'll give me a high details in Crysis capable machine instead of drugs?

[jason @ Jan 3rd 2008 10:13AM]

Sweet! I hate taking drugs/medicine but love playing games.Go Canada!

[Rainier @ Jan 3rd 2008 10:20AM]

Sex, videogames, and rock-n-roll......

Just doesn't roll off the tongue quite as nice.

[scrap104 @ Jan 3rd 2008 10:38AM]

Playing "Heroin Hero" and chasing the dragon is better than the real thing.

[blade417 @ Jan 3rd 2008 3:20PM]

You know you never actually CATCH the dragon.

[Benson @ Jan 3rd 2008 10:50AM]

IIRC, VR is already used as a way of treating phantom pain for amputees or at least has been shown to help. It is actually not surprising that it would also help treat chronic pain as well.

[Chad @ Jan 3rd 2008 11:07AM]

Pot and Video Games would make me feel pretty good. I'll see if I can get a prescription for both...

[Rainier @ Jan 3rd 2008 12:01PM]

You mean I'm going to need a prescription to buy videogames? D'oh!

[Jeff @ Jan 3rd 2008 11:11AM]

I said it on Kotaku when they first reported on this... the only people for whom this is true are people who don't need pain meds in the first place. If you need pain meds, then YOU NEED PAIN MEDS.

I had major lung surgery a couple of years ago - for almost a year, there was not a position I could put my body in where it didn't feel like every muscle in my chest was being continuously ripped to shreds. If you've ever torn a muscle, or maybe more accurately a muscle and a tendon simultaneously (because that's part of what they have to do), seriously, imagine that first sharp pain you felt just continuing on forever. That's a start in understanding the pain I had.

Because my surgeon was a masochist, I had two weeks shortly after the surgery where my pain meds had run out and he didn't want to prescribe any more. I played a lot of video games in that time, and no, they didn't help. I couldn't even concentrate on them, the pain was so bad.

A few weeks later I went to a pulminologist who referred me to a pain specialist, I got new medication and that helped.

Video games can help pass the time when you're sitting at home on pain meds unable to do much of anything else (especially because meds don't make the pain go away, they just make it tolerable), so in that way video games + meds are better than just meds. But video games cannot help with pain by themselves.

Not real pain, anyway.

[Dunwang @ Jan 3rd 2008 11:30AM]

I have friends that would argue video games + drugs is far better than either alone.

[Matt B @ Jan 3rd 2008 11:40AM]

I have these same "friends". ;)

[Killerskincanoe @ Jan 3rd 2008 11:50AM]

Can you say Lawnmower Man?!?!?!?!

[blueeyesm @ Jan 3rd 2008 12:16PM]

I saw God!

[deedeedee @ Jan 3rd 2008 1:24PM]

yea they get rid of drug addiction but got kicked into one of those chinese/korean video game addiction facilities, but i guess it's better to spend some quality "jail" time with nerds instead of fellow drug addict...

[toyotaboy @ Jan 3rd 2008 1:52PM]

they needed a study for this? Anything that distracts you, be it a movie, music, or a video game is always going to make you forget about pain. I don't care what pain medicine your on, if your lying in bed staring at the ceiling, all your going to think about is what your body is telling you.

[Designer @ Jan 3rd 2008 2:56PM]

Wouldn't that depend on whether the video games were violent or not?

Hard to imagine some of the ruthless video games being better than counseling -especially not in the long term

[DDay @ Jan 3rd 2008 4:04PM]

Wow, it's great to hear from somebody that my school is awesome. We don't get that very often. :D