Dr. Bryan Raudenbush at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virgina has completed a study entitled Effects of Video Game Play Types on Pain Threshold and Tolerance, which seeks to determine how different genres of video games can distract patients from pain.

The study examined 6 genre types (action, puzzle, arcade, fighting, sport, and boxing). While playing a game for a 10-minute period participants were subjected to a cold pressor test while pain ratings were recorded on a scale from 0-10 every 30 seconds to a maximum of 5 minutes. Physiological measures were monitored (pulse, blood pressures, oxygen saturation) prior to and during these sessions. Additional questionnaires then measured aggressiveness, competitiveness, video game playing habits, mood, and workload.

The study showed that sports and fighting games were the most effective for distracting the player from pain, while also showing that the sports games produced the most anger. Radenbush went on to say suggest that games could be most helpful to children and young adults (the most common users of video games) undergoing painful procedures or suffering from chronic pain. He said that games could also be used in doctors' waiting rooms to distract children from upcoming surgical procedures.

Source: GameDaily