Serious games applied to cases of depression and anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has devastated the world and several cases of emergence or increase in anxiety and depression levels have negatively affected the quality of life of individuals. As a promising response to this problem, serious games have become attractive and innovative tools for several areas, including health. Therefore, this research aims to analyze serious games that have been used to combat/improve depression and anxiety. The identification of serious games was conducted through the SCOPUS database, with the implementation of the PRISMA systematic literature review method. In a total of 13 selected articles, 23 games were located, which according to the intended criteria, were analyzed and summarized. This analysis showed that serious games have a significant impact on the promotion of mental health, however, most of the articles analyzed do not present complete information about serious games, which makes an in-depth analysis impossible.