Quitty, fun and healthy

Quitty is a game, based on Cognitive Bias Modification and hypnosis. In a balloon shooting game cigarettes are pushed away. The game was tested in a small group of non-quitting smokers. All smokers who played at least 5 days for 15 minutes were smoking less cigarettes after the first week.

Cognitive Bias Modification is a new treatment tool for anxiety, depression and addiction. It is based on the changing of automatic unconscious biases in thinking
Addictions are seen as neurocognitive development disorders. Recent studies of a.o. Reinout Wiers showed that computerized training interventions with Cognitive Bias Modification can reverse some of the underlying processes. Replication studies with alcoholic patients reported after treatment with CBM alcohol avoidance behaviour and lower relaps rates. Another study showed that automatic approach tendencies are also present in smokers.

A PhD student of the London University College will do an evaluation with an Arab version of Quitty in Saudi Arabia. And Quitty has been presented at the Games for Health Europe conference 2015 in Utrecht.