[routerl]

Thanks for your perspective. I've known and lived with several people who have ADHD, and you've expressed exactly the perspective I expected to hear from them.

"Games as treatment" are a new frontier of "selling bullshit". This happened before in education, and it's now making its way into health care.

The problem, here, is that the users aren't any part of how these games are designed. Everything about them is just directed at making presentations to investors and licensing bodies.

In the real games industry, user testing is the apex of success: you know your users will enjoy and benefit from your design choices because your users have already enjoyed and benefited from your design choices. When this relationship doesn't hold, the game gets changed. Play testing is king.

This kind of thing is cynical, thoughtless, and testless. It shouldn't exist, and it's nothing more than the effort of some founders to gather funding from clueless agencies.

[loopdoend]

And let’s be honest they’re just torturing people with no positive outcome. The net effect is you have a poorer, more frustrated patient, who has this stupid game burned into their memories.

[cowsaymoo]

Here is their safety and warnings section disclosing that. It's really interesting because of how they're presumably required by law to make a CVS-receipt-length FDA medicine warning but all the dangers are for playing a video game. I think it's pretty cool to see how effective the FDA's procedures are at capturing your concerns, through forcing them to be transparent

# Indications: > EndeavorRx is a digital therapeutic indicated to improve attention function as measured by computer-based testing in children ages 8-17 years old with primarily inattentive or combined-type ADHD, who have a demonstrated attention issue. Patients who engage with EndeavorRx demonstrate improvements in a digitally assessed measure, Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA®), of sustained and selective attention and may not display benefits in typical behavioral symptoms, such as hyperactivity. EndeavorRx should be considered for use as part of a therapeutic program that may include clinician-directed therapy, medication, and/or educational programs, which further address symptoms of the disorder.

# Safety: > No serious adverse events were reported. Of 342 participants who received AKL-T01 in the two clinical trials supporting EndeavorRx authorization for age ranges 8-17, 17 participants (4.97%) experienced treatment-related adverse events (TE-ADE) (possible, probable, likely). TE-ADEs reported at greater than 1% across the studies include: frustration tolerance decreased (2.34%) and headache (1.17%). Other adverse events occurred less than 1% and included dizziness, emotional disorder, nausea, and aggression. All adverse events were transient and no events led to device discontinuation. Across other studies in children and adolescents with ADHD, rates of adverse events were similarly low (<10%) and no Serious Adverse Events have been reported. All reported adverse events across all clinical trials resolved at the end of treatment. Users should consider the totality of evidence presented along with their health care provider when considering incorporating AKL-T01 into their treatment plan.

# Cautions: > Rx only: Federal law restricts this device to sale by or on the order of a licensed health care provider. EndeavorRx should only be used by the patient for whom the prescription was written. For medical questions, please contact your child’s healthcare provider. If you are experiencing a medical emergency, please dial 911. EndeavorRx is not intended to be used as a stand-alone therapeutic and is not a substitution for your child’s medication.

> If your child experiences frustration, emotional reaction, dizziness, nausea, headache, eye-strain, or joint pain while playing EndeavorRx pause the treatment. If the problem persists contact your child’s healthcare provider. If your child experiences a seizure stop the treatment and contact your child’s healthcare provider.

> EndeavorRx may not be appropriate for patients with photo-sensitive epilepsy, color blindness, or physical limitations that restrict use of a mobile device; parents should consult with their child’s healthcare provider.

> Please follow all of your mobile device manufacturer’s instructions for the safe operation of your mobile device. For example, this may include appropriate volume settings, proper battery charging, not operating the device if damaged, and proper device disposal. Contact your mobile device manufacturer for any questions or concerns that pertain to your device.

[codr7]

I wish these texts were written with the intent to inform rather than cover their asses legally, it's barely readable to me.

[ThrowawayTestr]

I feel like playing a video game for 30 minutes a day is pretty far from torture.

[Spivak]

ADHD is a weird disorder that's hard to explain to people who don't suffer from it. Understimulation is a physically painful experience, one that pain killers don't really work with. Before I got on a regimen that works well-enough for me I had to regularly leave social events and check out of work to lie down and sleep it off. And it's not really a boredom thing, I can be actively enjoying the thing I'm doing — hell I can want to be doing the thing and it still happens.

Forcing yourself through 30 minutes of a video game likely isn't much compared to their day-to-day painful experiences at work or school but given the high likelihood that it doesn't actually work it's unnecessary additional suffering likely imposed on them by a frustrated parent who wants them to "get better" for their own sake instead of the kid's.