Only Bejeweled had a significant effect on stress, but a slew of mood-affecting factors were tested for: psychological tension, anger, depression, vigour, fatigue and the amusingly nebulous 'confusion.' Peggle was clear champ, improving the total 'mood' by 573% across all study subjects, followed by Bejeweled 2 at 435% and Bookworm Adventures at 303%. However, these exciting results confirm anecdotal evidence that people are playing casual video games to improve their mood and decrease their stress, and herald casual games’ potential in health promotion, disease prevention, and treatment of stress- and mood-related disorders.' Granted, this study was a first step and much more needs to be done before video games can be prescribed to treat medical conditions. When coupled with the very high degree of confidence we have in those results based on the methodology and technologies used, I believe there is a wide range of therapeutic applications of casual games in mood-related disorders such as depression and in stress-related disorders including diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The results of this study are impressive and intriguing, given the extent of the effects of the games on subjects’ stress levels and overall mood. 'I’ve conducted many clinical studies in the area of recreational therapy in the past, but this was the first one seeking to determine the potential therapeutic value of video games. Caremen Russoniello, associate professor and director of the Psychophysiology and Biofeedback Center at ECU: This is, however, actualish science, not spurious 'our tealady only smiles when playing Chuzzle' stuff.

Test subjects were given a raft of Popcap games to play, so, quite understandably, Popcap is now giving props to itself. It's all part of a study (involving 132 subjects) by East Carolina University as to the positive effects of playing casual games. Popcap send me a release saying stuff like 'Bejeweled 2 and Peggle were shown to reduce anger by 65% and 63% respectively' - of course I'm going to post that. The real purpose of press releases is to issue outrageous statements to as many journalists as possible in the hope they'll namecheck you when they inevitably repeat it.

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