The Tampa Clinic cure for ADHD? Play this video game 5 days a week.

How is medicine?

Freah Lewis sits on the couch in her Port Richey home, a tablet in her tiny hands. On the screen, his avatar rides a small hovercraft over rivers and valleys. She controls the direction of the machine by tilting the tablet left or right. Every few seconds, the 10-year-old earns points by smashing changing on-screen targets with her thumbs.

After about 25 minutes, the machine ran out of fuel, the signal for “game over”.

It’s his therapy for the day. No spoonful of sugar needed.

Freah has struggled with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, since she was 4, her mother, Amanda Lewis, said. In kindergarten, she didn’t sit during circle time and hid under tables to escape the hubbub of class. She struggled to concentrate on her activities and was expelled from two preschools whose staff said they did not know how to help her.

His formal diagnosis at the age of 6 was the start of a search to find the right medicine and the right dosage. Some worked for a while until she passed them. Others helped but usually dissipated by late afternoon, her mother said.

A breakthrough came in December when Freah was prescribed not another pill but a video game.

Known as EndeavorRx, it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2020 to be marketed as an ADHD treatment for children ages 8 to 12. Freah uses gambling in conjunction with medication.

Her daughter’s improvement was not immediate, Lewis said, but after two weeks they noticed Freah was sitting by herself working on her home lessons. Previously, she needed constant supervision and prompting.

“I didn’t know if it would be effective,” Lewis said. “Then things started to get really noticeable.”

ADHD is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that typically begins in childhood and affects more than 6 million children in the United States. Symptoms include difficulty staying focused and controlling behavior and very high activity levels.

It is frequently treated with stimulant drugs such as Adderall.

Freah’s video game was prescribed by Katharine Quinn, a nurse practitioner at Pediatric Epilepsy and Neurology Specialists in Tampa.

Quinn first discovered the game after patients started asking for it. She reviewed data from several clinical trials that showed significant improvements in children’s attention.

According to the 2020 STARS-ADHD study, nearly half of children who used the game five days a week for two four-week treatment periods showed improvement in their attention. Nearly 70% of parents reported improvements in their child’s ADHD when using play with medication, according to another study. Game maker Akili Interactive funded both studies.

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Play helps stimulate a child’s prefrontal cortex, Quinn said. The player must stay focused to steer the craft while dealing with the “interruption” of passing objects which must be quickly assessed to see if they can be turned into points.

The code that drives the game includes an algorithm that constantly monitors the child’s response levels in real time. As their performance improves, it increases the level of difficulty to keep pushing them.

Quinn generally recommends kids use the game five days a week over a two-month period. She uses therapy to supplement medication, but she knows of cases where it has helped children who couldn’t take medication or whose parents didn’t want to use drugs.

“It’s a great option for patients who have struggled with medication side effects or want to reduce their reliance on prescription drugs,” she said.

The game is only accessible to patients with a prescription and can be obtained from specialized pharmacies, which provide a downloadable copy on smartphone, tablet or computer. It can be difficult to get insurance to pay for therapy, Quinn said. The game’s maker is offering a discounted rate of $99 for parents who have to pay out of pocket. The total cost is $450 per month.

All four of Lewis’s children have been diagnosed with ADHD, which scientists say is linked to genetics but not a single gene.

Her eldest son is prescribed Adderall but has been unable to get his medication due to a national drug shortage.

Lewis hopes play therapy will soon be available for her older children. Akili announced in January that it would seek a label extension from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in adolescents 13 to 17 years old based on new studies that have shown the game to provide benefits. improvements in attention greater than those seen in young children.

“It’s important to find solutions other than drugs,” Lewis said. “You want your children to live their dream and function in the real world. Medications don’t work all day.