
Prescription-only video game EndeavorRx approved by FDA for kids with ADHD - afastow
https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-permits-marketing-first-game-based-digital-therapeutic-improve-attention-function-children-adhd
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yummypaint
This kind of software exists in an interesting space. It's effectively a
medicine that can be distributed and administered at no cost. If we had a
physical drug with those properties, access would be ubiquitous. Instead, the
controlling company will likely use DRM and otherwise do everything in its
power to prevent access. IP law is supposed to ultimately maximize public good
by gaurenteeing a return on investment, but denying someone medical treatment
that costs nothing just feels wrong.

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afastow
I don't disagree with this principle but I'm not sure it's actually different
than physical drugs. While a new drug is still patented the manufacturer is
able to price it however they want.

In fact this video game seems to have gone through a reduced scrutiny process
and I'm hoping they wouldn't somehow be given any sort of patent for how
simple this game appears to be. So if it were actually effective and became
popular it might end up being easy for competitors to make a substantially
similar "generic" version. That's just pure speculation from me though.

Regardless I feel it's irrelevant for now since the claim that this game could
actually help kids with ADHD seems baseless to me.

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afastow
After reading one[1] of the studies(the FDA release says there are multiple
studies but provides no links) that supposedly supports the claim that this
game could be beneficial, my opinion is that this is entirely bogus.

The issue is that the only metric that this game improved was performance on a
TOVA assessment[2]. TOVA is itself essentially just an absurdly boring video
game: You press a button when the correct target appears, and don't press when
incorrect targets appear. I have personal objections to idea that TOVA can
really be a reliable indicator of ADHD, but it is approved as one.

The "therapeutic" video game is described in the study as game where half of
the gameplay is "a perceptual discrimination targeting task in which users
respond to the instructed stimulus targets and ignore the stimulus
distractors". Meaning this game is almost literally just the TOVA test but
with better graphics. The control game appears to have been a word game along
the lines of scrabble. Unsurprisingly, kids who played the first game had more
improvement on the TOVA test.

They just developed a game that taught to the test. Of course the results
improved.

[1]
[https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7...](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500%2820%2930017-0/fulltext)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_of_Variables_of_Attention](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_of_Variables_of_Attention)

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afastow
Additional news articles:

[https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/15/fda-akili-adhd-
endeavorr...](https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/15/fda-akili-adhd-endeavorrx/)

[https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/15/21292267/fda-adhd-
video-g...](https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/15/21292267/fda-adhd-video-game-
prescription-endeavor-rx-akl-t01-project-evo)

Related study:

[https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7...](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500%2820%2930017-0/fulltext)

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garmaine
Why in the world is this prescription-only?

