A research team comprising intensivists and psychologists from the United Kingdom and Sweden explored the use of the widely played video game Tetris to address post-traumatic stress disorder among nurses who cared for patients with COVID-19 during the height of the crisis. The findings were published in Translational Psychiatry, signaling a notable contribution to mental health strategies used in high-stress healthcare environments.
During the most intense phase of the pandemic, frontline healthcare workers faced a barrage of distressing scenes. From patients struggling to breathe to the emotional reactions of families and the loss of loved ones, clinicians witnessed memories that often replayed in their minds. These vivid recollections could become intrusive images, making it feel as if the trauma was happening all over again and eroding daily functioning over time.
The study builds on a growing body of research that supports a therapeutic approach which pairs distressing memories with positive, neutral, or less troubling images. By pairing the traumatic memory with a constructive or pleasant cognitive frame, the theory suggests the brain may blur the emotional charge of the original event. In this line of work, Tetris is offered as a practical tool to help reframe painful experiences and reduce their emotional impact, enabling better coping in moments of stress. This framing places the game not as entertainment but as a structured cognitive intervention within mental health care for trauma exposure.
In practical terms, researchers instructed nurses to recall the most challenging and traumatic moments from their clinical practice while engaging in brief periods of puzzle play. Across sessions, typically 10 to 20 minutes each day over the course of a month, nurses participated in this dual activity. The results indicated a substantial decrease in the persistence of traumatic memories, with participants reporting a marked reduction in intrusive recollections. Beyond memory impacts, researchers observed improvements in related symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and insomnia, suggesting broader benefits for overall well-being in pressured healthcare settings.
These findings align with broader neuroscience insights that the brain can generate its own protective chemicals to support stress resilience. By leveraging the brain’s natural coping mechanisms, the study adds to a growing field of nonpharmacologic interventions for trauma that are accessible, scalable, and adaptable to various high-stress environments. The implications extend beyond nurses in critical care, offering a potential framework for releasing the hold of traumatic memories in other professions that face extreme stress and emotional strain. The reported outcomes underscore the promise of integrating simple, widely available cognitive tools into routine mental health care and support services for healthcare workers under pressure, whether in hospital wards or beyond the pandemic context.