Games for Health - really?

Just as a pilot may learn to fly in a simulator, I've read some intresting stories of how games (e.g. Quake) that allow a user to develop virtual environments, have been, or at least *could be*, used to create environments for people with a variety of problems, to explore safely.
A interesting story regarding virtual reality therapy for Iraq soldiers suffering from acute combat stress can be read here and takes this approach one step further.

"All I can see in every direction is black smoke, with intermittent darts of flame. And all I hear is gunfire, mortar rounds and the rumbling engine of the fortified tank I'm driving to Falluja."

Being developed by a cognitive psychologist, the system will incorporate smell alongside a full 3D environment. Scary perhaps?? Well for anyone not been at war for sure..

In July the press mentioned a article published in the BMJ about the usage of video games in health care. This goes along with a variety of literature including that from OT stating that it can be useful. However, a word of warning perhaps comes from the aptly names article stated "How computers make our children stupid". With computers outnumbering fishtanks in US preschools, there appears to be a growing concern that all this computer usage is really useful, or even that they are damaging for education and perhaps health.

More recently the American Psychological Association (via) have called for a reduction in the amount of violent content in video games, as well as a monitoring of the negative consequences associated with acts of violence depicted in such games; a need which seems to occur in other areas of computer usage too. The use of computer games clearly has its place as a therapeutic tool for certain individuals, and a proper assessment of need and ability will make this tool for more useful. However ongoing assessment of usage for individuals clearly needs to take place - the arguments for computer use for children autism and against it seem muddled for example.