On a particularly slow day in the library during his free block, Marco Romero ’25 innocuously slides out his phone from under his desk.

As students around him quietly chat, watch movies on their iPads or do homework, he opens a well- loved app that distracts him in a pinch during boring times like these:

Tetris.

“I enjoy Tetris because it’s a simple game I can play whenever and mostly wherever I like,” Romero said. “Usually [it’s] to make time go faster and to decompress.”

However, one person’s Tetris is another patient’s treatment.

A 2017 study by Oxford researchers and colleagues at the Karolinska Institutet found that Tetris was an effectivepreventative in post traumatic stress (PTSD) symptoms for victims in motor vehicle accidents.

Intheirexperiment,which was located in an emergency department receiving motor vehicle accident victims, a 20 minute “dose” of Tetris administered within six hours of the accident resulted in fewer intrusive memories that also diminished more quickly for the patients.

As hypothesized, it was more effective as compared to the control group that was tasked with a non-Tetris placebo intervention.

The study is titled “Preventing intrusive memories after trauma via a brief intervention involving Tetris computer game play in the emergency department: a proof- of-concept randomized controlled trial.”

The implications of this study are profound.

Vanessa Martinez, Class of ’25 counselor with a Masters in School and College Counseling from SFSU, said, “For patients, this study provides hope in a non- pill form.

“For doctors and medical professionals, it’s proof that we need to continue researching unorthodox methods to help people with mental illness/ disorders.”

The mental illness PTSD occurs after a traumatic event–such as motor vehicle accidents, where one in four victims develop PTSD– and is characterized by reliving or having flashbacks of the event.

That can involve persistent intrusive memories of the trauma and significantly impair a person’s ability to function without fear in the world.

Such intrusive memories were something the study aimed to target.

When he plays the game, Romero said, “I feel relaxed, it’s satisfying watching myself clear the Tetris board.”

The distractory nature of the game–precisely what Romero enjoys about it–is key to its efficacy, according to Emily Holmes, professor of psychology at Karolinska Institutet’s Department of Clinical Neuroscience.

The visually demanding nature of the game, plus its mental engagement and sound effects, is what disrupts the traumatic memory from being ingrained into the mind in a process known as memory consolidation.

Romero intuitively echoes that expertiseashedescribedwhathe would want in the aftermath of a potential trauma.

He said, “Definitely something to distract me, probably music, a task at hand not too brain- stressing but just enough to occupy the mind.”

Additionally, Martinez thinks there’s a benefit in how Tetris doesn’t involve human characters.

The geometric blocks allow a victim-patient to fully detach themselves from themselves and the trauma and just concentrate on the game.

Martinez continued, “Distraction has always been a tool I use when students are triggered or experiencing anxiety/panic attacks.”

“I am always looking for new ways to help students control what they can when the brain can be so unpredictable.”

Beyond the novelty of Tetris, what also makes it unique in the wheelhouse of PTSD treatment is that it’s a preventative instead of a post-diagnosis treatment.

As the study states, “Preventive interventions post trauma are lacking… Participants found the intervention easy, helpful and minimally distressing…. we offer a promising new low- intensity psychiatric intervention that could prevent debilitating intrusive memories following trauma.”

Looking ahead, researchers are hoping to replicate the study on a larger scale over a one month period when a PTSD diagnosis can actually be given. This study just recorded results after a week.

Romero said, “I think it’s very interesting. I would’ve never thought that a game I enjoy to pass the time would help others out in such an impactful way.”