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Playing Tetris could help reduce distressing memories of trauma, a study has found.
Health workers who played the classic computer game as part of their treatment experienced fewer flashbacks, researchers say.
Experts are now hoping to test the method, which they describe as “accessible, scalable and adaptable”, on a larger group of people.
The trial, carried out by researchers in the United Kingdom and Sweden, included 99 National Health Service (NHS) staff exposed to trauma at work – such as witnessing deaths – during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Some 40 patients were given the treatment, known as imagery competing task intervention (ICTI), which involved playing Tetris.
The group was asked to play a slow version of the classic game while briefly recalling a traumatic memory.
They were then asked to use their mind’s eye to imagine the Tetris grid and visualise the blocks.
The ICTI method is thought to weaken the vividness of the intrusive memories by occupying the brain’s visuospatial areas, which help it analyse and understand physical space.
“Even a single, fleeting intrusive memory of past trauma can exert a powerful impact in daily life by hijacking attention and leaving people at the mercy of unwanted and intrusive emotions,” says Emily Holmes, a professor of psychology at Uppsala University in Sweden, who led the study.
“By weakening the intrusive aspect of these sensory memories via this brief visual intervention, people experience fewer trauma images flashing back.”
The remaining patients listened to music by, or podcasts about, Mozart to help alleviate stress, or received standard treatment.
The study, published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal, found that those who received the ICTI treatment had 10 times fewer flashbacks compared to other groups within four weeks.
After six months, some 70 per cent reported having no intrusive memories at all. The treatment also helped tackle symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“We are delighted to have made a real breakthrough by showing this intervention works,” Holmes adds. “It is far more than just playing Tetris, and while it is simple to use, it’s been a complicated process to refine and develop.
“The intervention focuses on our mental imagery, not words, and is designed to be as gentle, brief and practical as possible to fit into people’s busy lives.
“We hope to expand our research so it can be put into practice by determining its effectiveness for a broader range of people and scenarios.”
The original version of Tetris, which was created by Russian programmer Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union, was launched in 1984. It eventually hit the global market in 1989 as the launch title of the Game Boy, a handheld console developed by Japanese company Nintendo, after Dutch-American game designer and publisher Henk Rogers doggedly pursued the rights.
“I believe there is some basic psychological pleasure sensor that Tetris has found that other [games] don’t,” Rogers once said.
The backstory on how Tetris became a video game phenomenon was made into a movie in 2023 and is streaming on Apple TV.

Charlotte Summers, director of the Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Heart & Lung Research Institute in the UK and professor of intensive care medicine at the University of Cambridge, says that healthcare workers across the world are recurrently exposed to traumatic events during their work.
“At a time when global healthcare systems remain under intense pressure, the discovery of a scalable digital intervention that promotes the well-being of health professionals experiencing work-related traumatic events is an exciting step forward,” she says.
The research team is now exploring ways to test ICTI on larger and more diverse groups, as well as looking at options for a non-guided version of the game.
Tayla McCloud, research lead for digital mental health at Wellcome Trust, which funded the study, says: “These results are impressive for such a simple-to-use intervention. If we can get similarly strong results in bigger trials, this could have an enormous impact.
“It’s rare to see something so accessible, scalable and adaptable across contexts. It doesn’t require patients to put their trauma into words and even transcends language barriers.
“This study is a key example of why Wellcome is investing in a wide range of mental health interventions, so that in the future everyone will have access to treatments that work for them.”


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A study in the UK and Sweden found that playing Tetris helped reduce the frequency and intensity of traumatic flashbacks for healthcare workers. Researchers are calling the findings “an exciting step forward”. Photo: dpa

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Taron Egerton (left) and Nikita Efremov in a still from Tetris (2023). Photo: Apple TV/TNS 

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Lifestyle

Health & Wellness

Entertainment

Playing Tetris while recalling distressing memories reduced intrusive flashbacks for healthcare workers in a ‘breakthrough’ trial


Playing Tetris while recalling distressing memories reduced intrusive flashbacks for healthcare workers in a ‘breakthrough’ trial.


Video gaming

Nintendo

How playing Tetris can help reduce traumatic memory flashbacks, according to new study

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Playing Tetris while recalling distressing memories reduced intrusive flashbacks for healthcare workers in a ‘breakthrough’ trial

Playing Tetris while recalling distressing memories reduced intrusive flashbacks for healthcare workers in a ‘breakthrough’ trial