Just how are video games to help manage mental health conditions in children developed? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Can you trust a video game to help your child with ADHD, depression or anxiety? A new study by Johns Hopkins psychiatrist Barry Bryant surveyed the field of such games to find out more about them.

Bryant: There were some companies that made them that seemed to be more of the exception than the rule. A lot of the games were coming out of academic research labs and were made for these studies, some more partnerships between the two. In terms of how they were deciding what content goes into the games that was less clear from the articles that we were reading. I'm sure that some was based on more rigorous trials and some was more hypothesis driven, that if we put these elements that have been shown to work in certain therapies before into a game let's see if it's effective.     :34

Bryant says he hopes the study will enable primary care providers to assist parents in assessing whether such video games might be of benefit to their child. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.