ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Digit. Health
Sec. Digital Mental Health
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2025.1584171
Exploring Mexican Psychotherapist's Attitudes towards, Knowledge and Use of Serious Games in Clinical Practice
Provisionally accepted
Marcela Tiburcio1*
Nora Angélica Martínez-Vélez1Rosalía Pilar Bernal-Pérez1Jessica Huss2Christiane Eichenberg3- 1National Institute of Psychiatry Ramon de la Fuente Muñiz (INPRFM), Mexico City, Mexico
- 2Asklepios Hospital Teupitz, Teupitz, Germany
- 3Sigmund Freud University Vienna, Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Objective: To explore the perceptions, attitudes, and use of serious games (SG) in psychotherapeutic intervention from the perspective of psychotherapists in Mexico.Methods: An online survey was conducted using snowball sampling through social media. The participation of psychotherapists was sought, regardless of their theoretical approach. The questionnaire (Huss, 2021), available through SurveyMonkey, explored demographics, experience with electronic devices and computer games, experience with SG, and attitudes toward SG use. Two hundred and sixteen health professionals participated, yielding 135 (62.5%) complete questionnaires; 74.1% of the respondents were women. Participants had an average age of 35 (SD+11) and 9. (SD+8.5) years of clinical experience. The most common psychotherapeutic approach was cognitivebehavioral (66.7%).Results: Nearly all respondents used a technological modality as part of psychotherapy but only nine (6.6%) reported using SG. Participants considered that SG could be used to treat anxiety and emotional and impulse control disorders with a mild to moderate degree of severity. A total of 4.8% of therapists showed unfavorable attitudes and 9.8% highly favorable attitudes towards SG; no statistically significant differences were observed by sex, age, years of experience, or psychotherapeutic approach.Although SG are a little-known care modality in Mexico, some potential benefits have been acknowledged, particularly in the care of adolescents and young people, for specific skills training.More information on their advantages and disadvantages should be made available to those seeking care and health professionals.
Keywords: serious games1, psychotherapy2, attitudes3, e-mental health4, Latin America
Received: 26 Feb 2025; Accepted: 20 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tiburcio, Martínez-Vélez, Bernal-Pérez, Huss and Eichenberg. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Marcela Tiburcio, National Institute of Psychiatry Ramon de la Fuente Muñiz (INPRFM), Mexico City, Mexico
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.