The world’s first prescription video game has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Akili Interactive’s EndeavorRX, formerly Project EVO, is officially the first video game which can legally be prescribed as medicine in the US, with the aim of treating youngsters with ADHD.
The FDA is allowing doctors to prescribe the video game, which is available on iPhone and iPad, to kids aged eight to 12, as a way of helping with ADHD. EndeavourRX has reportedly been through seven years of clinical trials which studied its effects on more than 600 children.
The game sees players dodge obstacles and collect targets. One of the studies found that one-third of children who played the game for 25 minutes a day, five days a week for four weeks, “no longer had a measurable attention deficit on at least one measure of objective attention.”
Although the results are fairly sound, it shouldn’t be ignored that doctors involved in the research also work for the game’s developer (as noted by The Verge, who spotted the disclosures at the bottom of the study).
The disclosure also adds that the results are “not sufficient to suggest that AKL-T01 should be used as an alternative to established and recommended treatments for ADHD.”
Still, it’s an impressive milestone, and the studies have proven sufficient for the FDA to recommend the app to patients.
It’s important to remember that this doesn’t mean that all video games are going to useful to those diagnosed with ADHD. I can’t exactly imagine getting a GP prescription for a round of Epic Games’ Fortnite, for example. Don’t forget that EndeavorRX was specifically developed to help ADHD sufferers.
EndeavorRX has not yet been fully launched to the public yet, but it sounds like it might be useful to a lot of children.
Featured Image Credit: Unsplash