Can biofeedback-based videogames help children better manage stress? Magellan Health and Mightier secure $2 million NIMH grant to investigate

Might­i­er and Mag­el­lan Health Launch NIMH-Fund­ed Research to Improve Out­comes in Chil­dren’s Men­tal Health through the Use of Video Games (press release):

Might­i­er, provider of a ground-break­ing video game sys­tem for teach­ing chil­dren emo­tion­al reg­u­la­tion, today announced the com­pa­ny has been award­ed a $2 mil­lion grant from the Nation­al Insti­tute of Men­tal Health (NIMH) to sup­port research on the impact of video games on improv­ing chil­dren’s men­tal health.

Might­i­er is col­lab­o­rat­ing with Mag­el­lan Health­care, the behav­ioral and spe­cial­ty health­care seg­ment of Mag­el­lan Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: MGLN) on this land­mark study to under­stand how the intro­duc­tion of dig­i­tal tools can increase access to care, improve out­comes, and reduce costs for chil­dren and their fam­i­lies … This next study, sup­port­ed with NIMH fund­ing, will exam­ine the impact of the Might­i­er games on improv­ing the lives of chil­dren with a broad­er range of men­tal health dis­or­ders, such as ADHD, anx­i­ety and oppo­si­tion­al defi­ant dis­or­der (ODD). Enroll­ment is now under­way through­out the Mag­el­lan net­work. Mag­el­lan expects to recruit 200 mem­bers of com­mer­cial health plans with a wide vari­ety of men­tal health conditions.

“The COVID-19 pan­dem­ic set off a wave of men­tal health issues for chil­dren across the coun­try. Even with the avail­abil­i­ty of a vac­cine, stress and anx­i­ety caused by the uncer­tain­ty in their lives will linger, at a time when avail­abil­i­ty of men­tal health ser­vices is min­i­mal, par­tic­u­lar­ly in rur­al com­mu­ni­ties. This study’s goal is to val­i­date that dig­i­tal tools like Might­i­er can improve health out­comes, low­er the cost of care and increase access to men­tal health­care” said Matthew Miller, senior vice pres­i­dent, behav­ioral health, Mag­el­lan Healthcare.

About the grant:

The research is sup­port­ed by the Nation­al Insti­tute Of Men­tal Health of the Nation­al Insti­tutes of Health under Award Num­ber R44MH124574. The NIMH sup­ports sci­en­tists, clin­i­cians, and research per­son­nel at uni­ver­si­ties, med­ical schools, hos­pi­tals, small busi­ness­es, and oth­er insti­tu­tions via grants, con­tracts, and coop­er­a­tive agree­ments. Researchers at NIMH-sup­port­ed insti­tu­tions con­duct basic, trans­la­tion­al, and applied research to advance NIMH’s mis­sion. Learn more about NIMH-sup­port­ed research areas, resources, poli­cies and pro­ce­dures, and the NIMH Research Domain Cri­te­ria (RDoC) framework.

• Research Areas
• Research Resources
• Poli­cies and Procedures
• Research Domain Cri­te­ria (RDoC) Home

News in Context:

• Mag­el­lan Health is test­ing biofeed­back videogame Might­i­er to help chil­dren bet­ter self-reg­u­late stress
• Vir­tu­al-real­i­ty gam­ing + afford­able biofeed­back = Anx­i­ety ther­a­py for all?
• Six tips to build resilience and pre­vent brain-dam­ag­ing stress
• Three ways to pro­tect your men­tal health dur­ing –and after– COVID-19