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The Food and Drug Administration had approved the first ever video game to be prescribed as medicine in the United States for children with ADHD.
What’s going on:
- Akili Interactive’s EndeavorRX, formerly Project EVO, became the first ever video game to be prescribed by doctors and be marketed as a medicine in the U.S.
- The FDA will approve doctors to prescribe the game to children between 8 and 12 years old who have ADHD.
Notes about the game:
- The game is available on the iPhone and iPad.
- “EndeavorRX” went through seven years of clinical trials. More than 600 children were studied after using the game to see if it could help, according to The Verge.
Does the game help?
- According to Akili Interactive, one-third of the children treated didn’t measure to have a high level of attention deficit “on at least one measure of objective attention” after the playing the game, which focuses on dodging obstacles.
- Akili Interactive said the game improvements made after playing the game lasted for up to one month.
- But one study — published in the Lancet Digital Health Journal — didn’t recommend the game, saying that ”the results of the current trial are not sufficient to suggest that AKL-T01 should be used as an alternative to established and recommended treatments for ADHD.”