(2020-06-15) The FDA Just Approved The First Prescription Video Game - It's For Kids With ADHD

The FDA just approved the first prescription video game — it’s for kids with ADHD (ADD). Akili Interactive’s EndeavorRX, formerly Project EVO, may go down in history: it’s the first video game that can legally be marketed and prescribed as medicine in the US.

authorizing doctors to prescribe the iPhone and iPad game for kids between ages eight and 12 years old with ADHD

after playing the obstacle-dodging, target-collecting game for 25 minutes a day, five days a week for four weeks.

That said, we are talking about a study by doctors who work for the game’s developer, according to disclosures at the bottom of the study, and even their conclusion is that the results “are not sufficient to suggest that AKL-T01 should be used as an alternative to established and recommended treatments for ADHD.”

the next step is to actually launch the game, an Akili rep tells The Verge, though it did technically open up enrollment for a limited number of families under the FDA’s relaxed COVID-19 enforcement back in April. If you’re interested, here’s the company’s website, which currently has a waitlist you can join.