School-based video game shows promise in reducing adolescent depression over time

A Dartmouth-led study finds that PlaySmart, a school-based interactive game, not only educates teenagers about mental health but also significantly alleviates depressive symptoms over a 12-month period, offering a new approach to adolescent mental health prevention.

Researchers at Dartmouth say a short, school-based video game may do more than teach teenagers about mental health: it could also help ease depressive symptoms over time. In a clinical trial of 532 students aged 16 to 19, those who used PlaySmart showed lower depression scores a year later than peers who played commercial games without therapeutic content, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open and described by MedicalXpress.

The game was built in Dartmouth’s play2PREVENT Lab, led by Lynn Fiellin, and was designed with input from teenagers and other stakeholders. Rather than delivering lectures, it places players inside interactive storylines that ask them to spot warning signs, weigh choices and decide when to seek help from a trusted adult. The idea, the researchers say, is to normalise healthier decisions while giving students space to reflect on what happens when they choose differently.

Caroline Barry, the study’s lead author, said many adolescents do not get care because of stigma, poor access to providers or simply not realising they might benefit from help. Because the game is self-guided and digital, she said it could reach young people in places where mental health services are thin on the ground. Fiellin said the trial’s design strengthens the findings: it used an active control group, random assignment and a 12-month follow-up, which she argued is unusual in prevention research.

The study participants were recruited from school-based health programmes in Connecticut between October 2021 and February 2024. They were eligible if they had recently used vaping products, alcohol, cannabis or non-opioid drugs, or if they reported elevated depressive symptoms; students with a history of opioid misuse were excluded. About 53% were boys, around 45% were Black and 38% were Hispanic. The researchers reported no meaningful difference in effect by sex, race, grade level, food insecurity or family history of substance use.

The findings add to earlier work on PlaySmart. A separate study on the same trial, published in Nature Health, found that the game improved students’ knowledge about opioid misuse, though it did not significantly shift their sense of risk at three months. Together, the papers suggest the programme may have a broader role than originally planned. Fiellin said it is already being used as a universal school-based prevention tool, but the new results may also point to a place for adolescents with more serious depressive symptoms.