{"id":153004,"date":"2019-08-13T09:53:28","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T13:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?post_type=school-college-post&p=153004"},"modified":"2019-08-13T11:36:11","modified_gmt":"2019-08-13T15:36:11","slug":"video-gaming-may-reduce-depression-older-adults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2019\/08\/video-gaming-may-reduce-depression-older-adults\/","title":{"rendered":"Video Gaming May Reduce Depression in Older Adults"},"content":{"rendered":"

UConn School of Medicine<\/a> researchers are testing the power of computerized video gaming to improve late-life depression in older adults and they are already seeing early-promising results.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have successfully begun investigating the potential benefits of video games for several older adults with depression,\u201d says Dr. Kevin Manning<\/a>, the study\u2019s lead investigator and a UConn Center on Aging<\/a> neuropsychologist assisting patients with care and diagnosis of cognitive or mood issues that may arise.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Dr. Kevin Manning (UConn Health\/Tina Encarnacion).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Manning and his colleagues are studying gaming in older adults who continue to show symptoms of depression despite being on antidepressants. \u201cWith only gaming added to their treatment plan, and no other changes, these study subjects have already experienced a statistically significant reduction in their depression over just six weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manning adds: \u201cAt the UConn Center on Aging our goal is preserving and improving our patients\u2019 quality of life in every way we can. Cognitive stimulation through computerized video games might be a new alternative way to treat depression in older adults and an additional way for us to help our older patients improve their cognitive fitness.\u201d<\/p>\n

As assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UConn School of Medicine, Manning\u2019s research focuses on understanding links between cognitive changes in older adults and depression.<\/p>\n

This August, he was awarded a five-year NIH grant through its young faculty career-development program to understand whether intensive computerized brain training can improve mood, cognition, and actual brain activation in older adults with depression.<\/p>\n

The clinical trial study is using the enrolled patients\u2019 clinical data, survey responses, and the latest 3T functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to track their and their brain\u2019s response to gaming. An additional goal of this work is to understand whether any brain changes on MRI imaging may help researchers determine if a patient might be more likely to experience future depression relapses or cognitive decline.<\/p>\n

According to Manning, in addition to the short-term benefits, his team also plans to examine the long-term effects of gaming on older adults annually.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be really impressive if we see a delay in the onset of cognitive decline and long-term improvement in the treatment group at one-year,\u201d says Manning. Also, if proven to improve cognition and mood, Manning believes his team\u2019s video game findings might be generalized to other cognitively stimulating activities such as brain game challenges, word puzzles, and learning a new language or instrument.<\/p>\n

Depression in older adults places them at higher risk for cognitive weakness and even developing dementia later in life. Cognitive weaknesses, or mild cognitive impairments, may start with one\u2019s daily executive function being impacted, such as multi-tasking, organization, and planning. Trouble with these daily tasks are commonly linked to future dementia development.<\/p>\n

Decreases in one\u2019s executive functions alone says Manning may promote the onset of depressive symptoms and lead to greater functional impairment (for example: driving difficulties and trouble managing one\u2019s medications). However, standard care with antidepressants and psychotherapy, while effective for managing mood symptoms, do not consistently improve executive function.<\/p>\n

Manning believes that computerized gaming may be a promising interventional therapy to directly target and improve older patients\u2019 impaired executive functioning.<\/p>\n

Mentors of Manning\u2019s for this research project include UConn School of Medicine\u2019s Dr. David Steffens, Dr. Lihong Wang, and Dr. Mark Litt, as well as, the University of Utah\u2019s Dr. Shizuko Morimoto.<\/p>\n

The clinical trial is seeking study participants who are age 60 or older and continue to feel depressed despite being on antidepressants. Those interested can contact UConn Health\u2019s Jennifer Brindisi at: 860-679-7581 or brindisi@uchc.edu<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UConn School of Medicine and UConn Center on Aging are testing the power of computerized video games to improve depression in older adults. The researchers and patients are already seeing its benefits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":153007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076,1868],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1873],"class_list":["post-153004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-meds"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 00:42:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/153007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153004"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=153004"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=153004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}