HG at the American Psychiatric Association Annual Conference 2022

The HG Research team went to the American Psychiatric Association’s Annual Conference and talked to other psychiatrists and mental health providers about HG’s mission. 

Initially, HG Coaching was designed to be a peer support program for video game addiction. However, as our audience expanded, the program expanded to be a peer support system for non-clinical mental wellness challenges faced by the internet generation.

We conducted an observational study and found that our program creates a 20-25% reduction in problematic gaming behavior. We also measured feelings of depression, anxiety, and life purpose. We hypothesized that these factors also contribute to gaming addiction, and working through gaming addiction would result in improvement in these aspects of an individual’s mental health.

The HG Coaching Program was even able to help people with less severe problematic gaming behavior, seeing a 30% reduction. The study also showed that feelings of anxiety, depression, and lack of life purpose also improved.

Our study is robust, and our pilot had over 200 participants. The large sample size gives us security about our conclusions, despite the limitations of the study. Our complete study has over 1000 participants. We are also submitting this study for peer review!

We presented this data at the American Psychiatric Association’s Annual Conference in the form of a poster and also talked to other psychiatrists and mental health providers about the HG Coaching Program. Other mental health providers showed interest in how the HG Coaching Program can help their patients through peer support. Psychiatrists felt good that this service is available to them as it allowed them to focus more on clinical care i.e. mental health challenges that require the specialized training and resources of a physician.

We concluded that a focus on mindfulness, self-understanding, motivation and the ability to communicate effectively has benefits for an individual’s overall wellbeing. The HG Coaching Program is an effective peer support intervention for gaming addiction.