When Pokemon Go started becoming a worldwide phenomenon, it seemed like the world was healing. Almost everyone was out on walks and grouped together to catch rare Pokemon. So, it didn’t surprise me to learn that a new study by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) found that the game can help with depression.
The study, titled “Location-Based Mobile Gaming and Local Depression Trends: A Study of Pokémon Go”, states that Pokemon Go “may alleviate non-clinical forms of mild depression for users playing the game”. And it’s all thanks to the game encouraging physical activity outside—as well as face-to-face socialisation.
The authors of the study measured depression levels using Google Trends data. They did so by calculating internet searches for “depression-related terms” like “depression”, “stress” and “anxiety”.
“… the release of Pokémon Go was associated with a significant short-term decrease in depression-related internet searches, suggesting location-based mobile games may decrease the prevalence of local rates of depression,” wrote LSE.
The data covers 166 different regions and spans a period of 50 weeks between 1 January 2016, and 12 December 2016. Those specific dates were chosen as it was the time period that covers before and after Pokemon Go’s release.
I might take this study with a grain of salt. I don’t know if I would literally type the word “depression” on Google if I felt depressed—although my brother did tell me that it isn’t a completely abnormal thing to do. It’s also a bit ridiculous that the entire study was based on Google Trends data.
However, the authors were “keen to stress” that their findings only relate to “those suffering from non-clinical forms of mild depression and not those suffering with chronic or severe depressive disorders”. They also aim to highlight the mental health opportunities of video games like Pokemon Go, due to “their relatively low cost and accessibility”.
