Game Boy Effective Kid Tranq

yali writes "A new study shows that Game Boys are better than tranquilizers for calming children before surgery. Kids allowed to bring Game Boys into the OR showed no change in anxiety (compared to a small increase with tranquilizers, and a big increase in a control condition.) Kind of puts a different spin on analogies between games and drugs."

Will it work on road trips too?

[cdoty]

And to think, we're buying them for our kids this Christmas to be an effective tranquilizer on road trips.

Re:Will it work on road trips too?

[Mean_Nishka]

Yeah until they get car sick from playing it :).

No... Maybe?

[maskedbishounen]

The glare on the screen from the sun tends to make the display quite difficult to see. Unless you have some clever way to block out natural lighting in your car, they're often quite useless.

Then again, the newer units should be backlit. So I suppose throwing a blanket over the kids in the back would be quite effective. Plus it acts as a sound buffer. Instant winner.

Re:No... Maybe?

[calibanDNS]

Buy a copy of Boktai [gamestop.com] or Boktai 2 [gamestop.com] and the sun is your ally.

Also, the GBA SP is backlit, and you can mod the original GBA to add backlighting, so this is not really a big deal.

Re:No... Maybe?

[Cecil]

The glare on the screen from the sun tends to make the display quite difficult to see.

I dunno about you, but I have never had a problem with my GBA SP in the passenger seat on long car rides. It actually works beautifully in sunlight, you can turn off the backlight and save battery power.

Re:No... Maybe?

[TheBunk]

Nit pick I know, but the SP is actually front lit. The DS is back lit. Really, to me they seem almost the same in terms of visibility. The SP just has a habbit of throwing light out the top part of the screen from the internal light.

Makes a good makeshift reading lamp if you've got nothing else :)

It works for adults too!!

[FriedTurkey]

As a frequent traveler, I still get a little scared during really rough flights. I whip out the gameboy and I don't really pay attention to what is going on anymore. Fear is all mental. The more you let your mind think, the more you are scared. Gameboys divert all thinking to trying to defeat the other army in Advance Wars.

We've all experienced this, I'm sure...

[00null00]

and this study puts some validity to the feeling of being "in the zone" when playing a favorite game. I think it's a zen-like state where outside influences can easily be ignored. As for the link between gaming and drugs, I'd like to see a study where kids are given a game boy AND a bong... wouldn't even need the anesthetic!

Orthodontist

[Apreche]

When I was a kid the orthodontist had gameboys for kids to play. But he wasn't very good about keeping batteries and games fresh. He did have Metroid II and Zelda: Link's Awakening. I think its rather obvious that the reason the gameboy works is because it distracts the mind from thinking about it. Anxiety forms when you keep thinking about what they're going to do to you and how much it will be unpleasant. If you don't think about it, you stop worrying.

Kind of like how the government and the megacorps use television to distract people so they don't worry about what's really going on in the world.

Child's Play

[Schezar]

Considering the ramifications of this article, I urge any of you with spare cash/games to check out Child's Play [childsplaycharity.org]. It's a huge charity that collects video games and systems for children in hospitals, run by the folks at Penny Arcade [penny-arcade.com]

I normally don't plug things, but this is too relevant to the article to ignore, and it can help out a lot of kids.

Save yourself 80 Bucks

[Mr.Dippy]

and put 5 fingers to your kids face and be like "stop worrying or I'll give you something to worry about."

Re:Save yourself 80 Bucks

[Lisandro]

The Five across the eyes [xmission.net] is an unappreciated move indeed...

Re:Bad thing

[cluke]

Way to not RTFA, dude! Or even the story summary.
It's just saying how Gameboys are good at taking kid's minds off their upcoming being-cut-open-with-a-knife event.
Having momma and poppa huddle round and hug you like it's the last time they're ever going to see you isn't exactly going to decrease your anxiety now, is it? Whereas a blast on Advance Wars is at least going to make you think of something else for a while.
Calm down - the sky is not falling! The days of our infants being raised entirely by robots

Re:Bad thing

[Kick the Donkey]

The days of our infants being raised entirely by robots are still some way off!

As someone with a 13 month old, I say: "Bring'em on!" Maybe not for rasing my kid, but keeping her out of the Christmas tree for me would be nice.

Re:Bad thing

[Goobermunch]

Actually, I think it's not so much of a matter of turning to electronics for comfort as it is a matter of using electronics as a distraction from a frightening and potentially painful situation. Mom and Dad are still the best source for comfort.

I don't think there's anything wrong with using electronics as a distraction. In fact, I think that's probably the best use for them.

--AC

Re:Bad thing

[over_exposed]

Mom and Dad are still the best source for comfort.

You obviously don't know my Mom and Dad...

Re:Bad thing

[elasticwings]

I don't really share your point of view on that. I mean no offense, but if you're going to be in some kind of surgery or something else that you know will involve pain. I don't care how many times somebody tells me, "Everything will be okay." I'm still going to be extremely nervous and uneasy thinking about it. But if I find something to distract myself from the thought, then I tend to feel less distraught about the upcoming moment of pain. Comfort from your family or friends is what you need after the

Re:Bad thing

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Let's see what these kids are like as adults.

We won't have to wait very long. We ARE those kids remember. Majority of slashdotters are 15~30 years old I should think(Aplogies in advance to the legions of outrages 0-14 and 31-127 age groupers). Most of us grew up on gameboy, SNES, Genesis and Playstation. And guess what! Society isn't falling apart after all.

Or is it? Video games, TV, porn, drugs, education, emancapation, the vote, tolerence, cars, secularism and the internet have all failed, despite all doomsday predictions to the contrary, to tear the fabric of society apart. However I personally fell that our new found 14 hour day work ethic could have a fair stab at bringing about an Escape From New York or Mad Max type senario. The reason people are turning to Gameboys and Riddlin as babysitters is because they're exhausted after slogging for corperate masters all day so they don't lose their job to offshoring.

Naturally of course free market economics will eventually solve this problem. So goes the prevailing theory anyway. It's more likely however that kids and teenagers will just have to make to with Super Mario and Gordon Freeman as role models while their parents spend most of their free time sleeping or driving.
But hey! We beat the commies right!? ...Right?

Re:Bad thing

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Only an AC would come out with such a idiot statistic. Of course rates of sexual crime are higher in cities. They're cities. Crime is higher there anyway.

Re:Bad thing

[pipingguy]

The reason people are turning to Gameboys and Riddlin as babysitters is because they're exhausted after slogging for corperate masters all day so they don't lose their job to offshoring.

My opinion is that America is "losing" (if it truly is) because money has become all-important. The generation that built companies is dead and their offspring has chosen the stock market for their future security, thus placing wealth in the hands of umm, people less concerned with long-term results.

This is kind of expe

Games as distractions.

[JavaLord]

Kids allowed to bring Game Boys into the OR showed no change in anxiety (compared to a small increase with tranquilizers, and a big increase in a control condition.)

This is probably because whatever part of the brain that tells us that there is 'danger' is distracted by the game. If you are busy thinking about the enemies inside the game, your brain has less of an ability to process the real danger of the upcoming operation.

Re:Games as distractions.

[pseudolus]

I recently had Lasik surgery, which at the clinic I went to includes a 10-minute massage from a professional masseur prior to the operation. While this was very relaxing, I was still pretty freaked out during the procedure. If only I'd had my GBA...

Not so much with adults

[Mostly Monkey]

I brought my DS with me before getting surgery last Tuesday for a pilonidal cyst and honestly it didn't do anything to calm my nerves. Even while playing I couldn't get the painful future recovery out of my mind. In my case I could look more into the future then kids despite distractions.

Re:Not so much with adults

[Cthefuture]

Yeah, I was going to comment on the same thing. When I get into that high anxiety state I can't focus on anything. Playing a game just makes me feel worse because I can't concentrate.

It probably has a lot to do with personality though. I have yet to find a game that can divert my attention for more than 15 minutes even when I'm feeling great.

With the exception of a couple of the original FPS games, there haven't been any really fun and interesting games since the 80's. Everything nowadays looks better

job interview

[fafaforza]

Now if they only allowed this before and maybe even during a job interview I wouldn't be a newrvous wreck.

Ironically...

[3point1415927]

...I remember having surgery when I was a kid and having the doctor tell my mother to take my GB out of the hospital room, because Playing Video Games Is Bad For You(TM). Glad to see that the medical profession has changed its mind. And indeed, I find the argument that "video games destroy childrens' minds and will turn them into psychopathic lunatics" to have already been disproven, given that my siblings and I all grew up playing Nintendo/GB/etc. like there was no tomorrow, and now we're all scientists.