Game-based versus traditional case-based learning: comparing effectiveness in stroke continuing medical education. Social dramatics: social skills development for the chronically mentally ill. Rehearsing decisions may help teenagers: an evaluation of a simulation game. Brief motivational interventions for college student problem gamblers. A video game improves behavioral outcomes in adolescents and young adults with cancer: a randomized trial. School-based intervention to promote coping in rural teens. A social adjustment enhancement intervention for high functioning autism, Asperger's syndrome, and pervasive developmental disorder NOS. Treating problem-solving deficits on an acute care psychiatric inpatient unit. Watch, Discover, Think, and Act: evaluation of computer-assisted instruction to improve asthma self-management in inner-city children.
To evaluate family physicians' enjoyment of and knowledge gained from game-based learning, compared with traditional case-based learning, in a continuing medical education (CME) event on stroke prevention and management.
                An equivalence trial to determine if game-based learning was as effective as case-based learning in terms of attained knowledge levels. Game questions and small group cases were developed. Participants were randomized to either a game-based or a case-based group and took part in the event.
                Ontario provincial family medicine conference.
                Thirty-two family physicians and 3 senior family medicine residents attending the conference.
                Participation in either a game-based or a case-based CME learning group.
                Scores on 40-item immediate and 3-month posttests of knowledge and a satisfaction survey.
                Results from knowledge testing immediately after the event and 3 months later showed no significant difference in scoring between groups. Participants in the game-based group reported higher levels of satisfaction with the learning experience.
                Games provide a novel way of organizing CME events. They might provide more group interaction and discussion, as well as improve recruitment to CME events. They might also provide a forum for interdisciplinary CME. Using games in future CME events appears to be a promising approach to facilitate participant learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of social dramatics as a clinical tool for teaching social skills to the chronically mentally ill on adult inpatient units of a state hospital. The research tested the hypothesis that patients exposed to social dramatics with videotape feedback would demonstrate greater ability to perform social skills as measured by the Nurses' Observation Scale for Inpatient Evaluation (NOSIE-30). Fifteen schizophrenic adults of both sexes meeting specific criteria were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Subjects were exposed over an 8-week period to randomly introduced social dramatic scenarios. The Wilcoxin test for two independent samples was used for testing differences between experimental and control groups. The research findings supported the hypothesis for one positive factor, social competence. The findings did not support any treatment effect on either social interest and personal neatness or irritability, manifest psychosis, and psychotic depression. There were no significant differences on the total score NOSIE-30. Recommendations for psychiatric nursing are made. Limitations of research methodologies and sample size were addressed. This paper presents a new approach to preventing adolescent pregnancy. Information alone is not sufficient to prevent teenage pregnancy. The teenagers ability to choose and remain committed to a decision also needs to be developed. Because decision making skills are best learned through practice in an environment with frequent feedback, we have developed a computer game which simulates the consequences of different sexual roles. In addition, the game is intended to increase communication about sex between teenagers and their role models (peers, teachers and/or parents). Increased communication is expected to reduce the feeling of guilt and lead to either consistent abstention from sex or consistent contraceptive use. The paper reports on the development of the computer game and the preliminary evaluation of its impact. College students experience high rates of problem and pathological gambling, yet little research has investigated methods for reducing gambling in this population. This study sought to examine the efficacy of brief intervention strategies.
                Randomized trial.
                College campuses.
                A total of 117 college student problem and pathological gamblers.
                Students were assigned randomly to: an assessment-only control, 10 minutes of brief advice, one session of motivational enhancement therapy (MET) or one session of MET, plus three sessions of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). The three interventions were designed to reduce gambling.
                Gambling was assessed at baseline, week 6 and month 9 using the Addiction Severity Index-gambling (ASI-G) module, which also assesses days and dollars wagered.
                Compared to the assessment-only condition, those receiving any intervention had significant decreases in ASI-G scores and days and dollars wagered over time. The MET condition decreased significantly ASI-G scores and dollars wagered over time, and increased the odds of a clinically significant reduction in gambling at the 9-month follow-up relative to the assessment-only condition, even after controlling for baseline indices that could impact outcomes. The Brief Advice and MET+CBT conditions had benefits on some, but not all, indices of gambling. None of the interventions differed significantly from one another. Conclusions These results suggest the efficacy of brief interventions for reducing gambling problems in college students. Suboptimal adherence to self-administered medications is a common problem. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a video-game intervention for improving adherence and other behavioral outcomes for adolescents and young adults with malignancies including acute leukemia, lymphoma, and soft-tissue sarcoma.
                A randomized trial with baseline and 1- and 3-month assessments was conducted from 2004 to 2005 at 34 medical centers in the United States, Canada, and Australia. A total of 375 male and female patients who were 13 to 29 years old, had an initial or relapse diagnosis of a malignancy, and currently undergoing treatment and expected to continue treatment for at least 4 months from baseline assessment were randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. The intervention was a video game that addressed issues of cancer treatment and care for teenagers and young adults. Outcome measures included adherence, self-efficacy, knowledge, control, stress, and quality of life. For patients who were prescribed prophylactic antibiotics, adherence to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole was tracked by electronic pill-monitoring devices (n = 200). Adherence to 6-mercaptopurine was assessed through serum metabolite assays (n = 54).
                Adherence to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and 6-mercaptopurine was greater in the intervention group. Self-efficacy and knowledge also increased in the intervention group compared with the control group. The intervention did not affect self-report measures of adherence, stress, control, or quality of life.
                The video-game intervention significantly improved treatment adherence and indicators of cancer-related self-efficacy and knowledge in adolescents and young adults who were undergoing cancer therapy. The findings support current efforts to develop effective video-game interventions for education and training in health care. To evaluate a program designed to help high school students with depressive symptomology to effectively cope.
                Two-phase experimental study.
                Rural high school students (N = 222), ages 14 through 19 years, were surveyed to identify teens with depressive symptomatology, identify stressful life events and coping styles of at-risk subjects, and evaluate a cognitive-behavioral group intervention to enhance students' coping and affect levels of depression. Students with depressive symptomatology were randomized into control (n = 18) or intervention (n = 23) groups. Intervention subjects were treated with a nurse-led, 8-week cognitive skills group, conducted at school.
                On posttesting, the intervention groups demonstrated reduced depressive symptoms in females and a wider range of coping compared with controls.
                School-based nurses are in an ideal position to provide assessment, referral, and intervention programs in the natural setting of the school. Results of this study indicate that such programs can be implemented successfully in schools and have the potential to promote mental health in teenagers. This paper reports the findings of a 20-week social adjustment enhancement curriculum for boys aged 8-12. The curriculum was designed to address three areas hypothesized to be deficient in persons with HFA, AS, and PDDNOS: emotion recognition and understanding; theory of mind; and executive functions/real life type problem solving. Parents attended a semi-structured concurrent psychoeducational training meeting during children's sessions. Statistically significant improvements in facial expression recognition, and problem solving were reported for intervention group children compared to waiting list control group children. For the intervention group (the only group for whom data were available), older and less cognitively able boy's scores on a depression inventory decreased significantly more than younger children's. Mother's depression scores tended to decrease and there were significant reductions in child problem behaviors reported. Results are discussed in the context of individual differences in participant cognitive levels and profiles, symptom severity, and affect-related variables. Neuropsychological deficits in problem-solving are commonly found in patients with schizophrenia and severe affective disorders. However, in an acute care setting, treatment efforts do not typically target these deficits, even though they can impede recovery. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of short-term problem-solving remediation in acutely ill psychiatric inpatients. Twenty-eight psychiatric inpatients identified as having a verbal problem-solving deficit received 6 h of either verbal problem-solving remediation or placebo instruction. Before and after treatment a nurse rated the patient's psychiatric status and the patient completed verbal and nonverbal problem-solving tests, and a self-report rating of symptoms and ability to cope with symptoms. Both groups of patients improved on the measure of verbal problem solving, but those receiving problem-solving remediation improved significantly more. Both groups made symptomatic improvement, but the patients receiving problem-solving remediation made significantly more improvement on the measure of coping ability and the nurses rated them as more improved, both psychiatrically and with regard to coping skills. Verbal problem-solving deficits are responsive to short-term remediation in an acute care setting, and treatment effects may generalize to improve ability to cope with psychiatric symptoms. An interactive multimedia computer game to enhance self-management skills and thereby improve asthma outcomes in inner city children with asthma was evaluated. Subjects aged 6-17 were recruited from four pediatric practices and randomly assigned to the computer intervention condition or to the usual-care comparison. The main character in the game could match the subject on gender and ethnicity. Characteristics of the protagonist's asthma were tailored to be like those of the subject. Subjects played the computer game as part of regular asthma visits. Time between pre- and post-test varied from 4 to 15.6 months (mean, 7.6 months). Analysis of covariance, with pre-test scores, age, and asthma severity as covariates, found that the intervention was associated with fewer hospitalizations, better symptom scores, increased functional status, greater knowledge of asthma management, and better child self-management behavior for those in the intervention condition. Interactions with covariates were found and discussed in terms of variable efficacy of the intervention.
Current limited evidence suggests educational games could help mental health students gain more points in their tests, especially if they have left revision to the last minute. This salient study should be refined and repeated.