"These findings suggest that commercially available exergaming platforms may serve as accessible, engaging tools for early mental health support in real-world settings"

Image credit: Nintendo

New research shows that exercise games – or 'exergames' – like Nintendo's Ring Fit Adventure could help people deal with the early stages of depression.

That's according to a study funded by China's Jilin Association of Higher Education – spotted by VGC – which examined whether these kinds of video games could help treat what it termed 'subthreshold depression'. This is when people experience the symptoms of depression, but aren't at the point where they can be classified as suffering from major depressive disorder.

The research panel only consisted of 84 adults, all of whom were experiencing subthreshold depression, who were randomly split into two groups. One half was tasked with playing Ring Fit Adventure two-to-three times per week for between 50-to-60 minutes at a time; the other 42 subjects went about their business as usual.

The researchers say that the group who played exergames experienced “significantly greater reductions in depressive symptoms at all time points" in additional to "significant" improvements to their anxiety levels and quality of sleep.

"A Nintendo Switch–based exergaming intervention was associated with improvements in depressive symptoms, anxiety, and sleep quality in adults with subthreshold depression," the researchers wrote in their conclusion.

"Using mixed methods design, this study provides evidence integrating effectiveness and participant experience, extending prior research focused on other populations or quantitative outcomes. These findings suggest that commercially available exergaming platforms may serve as accessible, engaging tools for early mental health support in real-world settings."

This isn't the first time that video games have been proposed as a means of managing or treating mental health issues. In 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration approved Akili Interactive's game, EndeavorRx, for prescription use in managing inattentive or combined-type ADHD. The FDA said that this was proven to improve attention.

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