from the take^W-play-two-of-these-and-call^W-text-me-in-the-morning dept.
The FDA just approved the first prescription video game:
It might not look like much of a video game, but Akili Interactive's EndeavorRX, formerly Project EVO, may go down in history: it's the first video game that can legally be marketed and prescribed as medicine in the US.
That's the landmark decision from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is authorizing doctors to prescribe the iPhone and iPad game for kids between ages eight and 12 years old with ADHD, after it underwent seven years of clinical trials that studied over 600 children to figure out whether a game could actually make a difference.
According to the company's favorite of the five studies, the answer is yes: one-third of kids treated "no longer had a measurable attention deficit on at least one measure of objective attention" after playing the obstacle-dodging, target-collecting game for 25 minutes a day, five days a week for four weeks.
"Improvements in ADHD impairments following a month of treatment with EndeavorRx were maintained for up to a month," the company cites, with the most common side effects being frustration and headache — seemingly mild compared to traditional drugs, as you'd hope from so-called virtual medicine.
That said, we are talking about a study by doctors who work for the game's developer, according to disclosures at the bottom of the study, and even their conclusion is that the results "are not sufficient to suggest that AKL-T01 should be used as an alternative to established and recommended treatments for ADHD."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Thursday June 18 2020, @05:44AM (3 children)
Do you also get the required Apple device on prescription? I mean, what use is a prescribed game if you don't have the hardware to run it?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @06:00AM
Only if it's certified as a medical device.
(Score: 3, Funny) by SomeGuy on Thursday June 18 2020, @11:55AM (1 child)
Didn't you get the memo? Every person the planet has a smart phone. EVERY person.
According to the updated American Dictionary (which exists only in the cloud now, and requires the latest Apple or Samsung smart phones to access), which was graciously paid for by the cell phone companies - "Person" is defined as everyone who has a smart phone. Anyone who does not is not a "person" and must either be killed or forced to buy a smart phone at gunpoint. Oh, and "you" is officially spelled "u" now.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday June 19 2020, @06:14AM
So you now can install iOS apps on Samsung smartphones?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @05:45AM (3 children)
OK, Millenniall!!1!!
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @07:23AM (2 children)
You're welcome, best part is the government grant I got to make one geared towards boomers. It can take any popular pundit and generate life like segments that the user gets to select from, and it gradually shifts the available stories to present fact based information that the user can research on their own and ultimately fix the misinformation they've been fed as facts.
I'm sure this approach will make most boomers angry or self-righteous, but it is "bipartisan" software since many humans are drawn to extremes no matter their ideology.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @02:50PM (1 child)
Please make this app. I'll have my mom "update" grandpas phone for him, and then we can be free of Rush.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @07:46PM
Sorry pal no can do.
Not all is lost, I found a documentary that might provide some useful tips https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exorcist_(film) [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Quicksilver on Thursday June 18 2020, @06:43AM (3 children)
Or maybe you could just have them run around the block three times.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @03:03PM (2 children)
That's really not a viable alternative, exercises and dietary changes only help so much. At the end of the day, something needs to be done to change the brain or work with the brains quirks or you make very little progress. It's just not tenable to go outside and run around the block a few times every time you need it. Very few places of employment or schools would tolerate that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @04:48PM (1 child)
they have to proof that adhd medication is bad for people that don't have adhd.
if they cannot proof that then adhd medication has to lose prescription status.
thence we are stuck at same dilemma:
normal people boasted by adhd drugs outperforming people with adhd and boasted by drugs ... which is same like if nobody was taking drugs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @10:27PM
They have plenty of evidence that the medications are addictive to people that don't have ADHD. And honestly, you Libertarians are some of the most retarded people on the planet. Too fucking stupid to understand how the world functions and too fucking stupid to have real policy proposals either.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday June 18 2020, @08:09AM (3 children)
Now it's approved for medical use, it'll suddenly start costing a shitload of money and you'll have to fight your healthcare provider for coverage...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @08:27AM (1 child)
Or, as is increasing popular here on SoylentNews, you could just Break Bad. Have you considered a career in Meth production?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @10:18AM
Yes. Many times.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @10:32AM
Big Pharma has shown the way, now game industry is copying the successful solution.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Thursday June 18 2020, @10:24AM
I love it! This could turn decision theory upside down.
error count exceeds 100; stopping compilation
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Thursday June 18 2020, @11:46AM (3 children)
When I saw the headline, I knew there had to be a catch:
Right. Lets sell more of teh latest and greatest smart phones! Lets generate some more news about how some tiny edge case can make toy smart phones "good" for a few people, rather than an expensive advertising spyware upgrade-o-rama filled burden. Those super powerful non-locked-down-yet desktop computers are just so old, we cant consider using those!
Wow a "prescription" to turn kids in to fucking consumertards.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @03:06PM (2 children)
Do you have any idea what the lifetime cost of poorly treated ADHD is? The cost of the technology is nothing compared with the upside if this really works.
Obviously, this isn't a cure, but there's a pretty big difference between severe ADHD and significant ADHD that could easily pay the cost of the gear over several times.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Thursday June 18 2020, @04:01PM (1 child)
> The cost of the technology is nothing compared with the upside if this really works.
Are you saying that ADHD is worse than a lifetime addiction to apple products?
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @10:29PM
As somebody who has ADHD, it's not even close. ADHD is pretty expensive in terms of managing it, lost productivity/opportunities and the work necessary to manage. There's plenty of things that, if we can do them, are vastly more time consuming than they would be for other folks.
Plus, this product is only approved for like 5 years, if it works it could easily be worth the Apple tax to get it.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @11:55AM (2 children)
Its at least 2nd. since 20yrs ago, I bought a video game that help with eye convergence. Only sold by prescription too. Using older 3D glasses on red and the other cyan, the goal was to get two squares aligned. Over and over you work through the puzzle. Sort of like PONG except you are the paddle watching the ball come towards you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @12:42PM (1 child)
Was that software effective?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @09:06PM
Yes. Daughter’s eyesight improved and laze eye went away. She was 6 at the time.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday June 18 2020, @02:37PM (2 children)
I'm not wasting my life playing video games ... I'm healing!
(Score: 2, Touché) by RouteZero on Thursday June 18 2020, @04:07PM (1 child)
Grand Theft Auto sounds like the perfect game for you.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 18 2020, @06:45PM
It's the perfect game for everyone. Back in the day when we were playing GTA III my mild-mannered wife happened by and stopped to watch. She was appalled at the vehicular mayhem, how we never stopped for red lights, etc. Then we handed her the controller and went out to get more beer. When we came back she was laughing maniacally while she ran down pedestrians on the sidewalks, yelling, "This is better than crack!"
Washington DC delenda est.