Abstract
People with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) suffer from recurring unwanted thoughts (called obsessions) that drive them to do certain actions repetitively (called compulsions). People with OCD feels stuck in a stressful cycle of obsessions and compulsions. There are two approaches to diagnosing and assessing people with OCD. The first one is conducted in the doctor’s office. The second one is conducted inside a special-purpose room that is typically setup in the hospital. This second environment is constructed using virtual and augmented reality. Both approaches are challenging with difficulties such as the high cost and stigma of therapy. Fortunately, there is a third approach that uses specialized computer games to achieve the same goals. This third approach has not been researched yet in the context of OCD detection and measurement. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a serious game that can provoke OCD and then measure the intensity of the resulting obsessions and compulsions. This new game is based on the concept of cognitive gameplay. As such, the interaction between the proposed game design elements leads to the emergence of different cognitive processes, such as attention, memory, and planning, which are essential in the study of OCD. The proposed game design elements have been reviewed and approved by two psychiatrists.
This work is protected with a US provisional patent with the number 63342804.
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Notes
- 1.
Based on interviews with actual OCD muslim patients. This design concept is general and applicable to different types of tasks such as prayers and checking.
- 2.
A physical activity referred to as Salah. It involves a set of movements like bowing and prostration.
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Acknowledgements
Ameera Alajlan would like to acknowledge the support received from KFUPM via the summer research program for high school students (Hxplore 2021). Also, she would like to thank Dr. Samah Al-Khawashki and Dr. Ahmed Al-Madani from the Department of Psychiatry at King Saud university in Riyadh for reviewing the game design elements. Ahmed Alqunber and Yahya Osais would like to acknowledge KFUPM for support.
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Alajlan, A., Alqunber, A., Osais, Y. (2022). Design of a Novel Serious Game for the Detection and Measurement of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. In: Kiili, K., Antti, K., de Rosa, F., Dindar, M., Kickmeier-Rust, M., Bellotti, F. (eds) Games and Learning Alliance. GALA 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13647. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22124-8_17
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