That first study looked at victims of car accidents, while another round of research took place a few years later and focused on combat-based PTSD. Dr. Simone Kühn and a team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Center for Lifespan Psychology in Berlin, Germany, found that playing Tetris for 60 minutes after receiving EMDR therapy raised hippocampal volume in patients, which correlated with reductions in depression and anxiety even six months later.

In regular person speak, playing Tetris amplifies the effects of psychotherapy for these PTSD patients and helps maintain the therapy’s gains in the brain long-term. Plus, they acknowledged Tetris is an extremely helpful tool because of its accessibility.

“Tetris provides a promising therapeutic intervention for a number of practical reasons. The video-gaming consoles required are inexpensive and mobile, and they can be reused multiple times. Tetris does not require a clinician to administer; it can even be self-administered. Tetris does not produce adverse effects and is enjoyable to play, so adherence is likely to be high. Tetris is also adaptive; as a person continues to play, the difficulty level (the speed at which the blocks fall) automatically increases until the game ends (the blocks fill the screen), at which point the game restarts at the lowest difficulty. As such, by adapting the level of difficulty to the skill of the player, it is possible to minimize frustration that the game is too difficult and boredom that the game is too easy, and the player should remain engaged in the game.”

But you don’t have to have extreme PTSD for Tetris to help with your mental health. You don’t need a peer-reviewed clinical study to know that sitting down and stacking blocks for a few minutes can help make life just a little bit less stressful. It’s fun, and useful, for all of us.

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