Ethical implications of applied digital gaming interventions for mental health: a systematic review and critical appraisal

Review question / Objective: What are the ethical and practical considerations of gaming interventions in mental health? What existing viewpoint, commentary or theoretical points have been made in the literature regarding ethical issues in the development of serious games? What benefits and risks of games development in mental health are discussed in the literature? How are the core healthcare ethical principles of beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy and justice discussed as relating to applied games in mental health? How might this information inform future thinking regarding the ethical development of serious games in mental health? Information sources: The search was conducted across four electronic databases covering science and arts and humanities titles: Scopus, PUBMED, PsycNET, EthxWeb and additionally, the journal, Game Studies, which contrary to other gaming journals does not exist in any of these databases. Given the recency of games design in this area, the search was limited to the preceding 30-year period, til January 2023, where available.