Arcade Therapeutics’ Game-Based Digital Therapeutic for Anxiety Shows Promising Results in Newly Published Clinical Study

New York, NY (March 10, 2025) – Arcade Therapeutics, a pioneer in science-backed digital therapeutics, is excited to announce that the results of its latest clinical trial have been published in the Journal of Anxiety Disorders. This peer-reviewed study reinforces the effectiveness of the company’s game-based intervention — now released as StarStarter for Anxiety— in reducing symptoms of social anxiety disorder (SAD), a growing mental health challenge affecting both youth and adults.

As part of the company’s FDA pre-submission process, the study evaluated the impact of Arcade’s proprietary digital therapeutic in a randomized controlled trial of 104 participants. Unlike traditional placebo conditions, the control group in this study engaged with the same game in a “placebo mode,” delivering only 50% of the active training effect, setting a stringent standard for comparison.

Key findings from the study include:

• The digital therapeutic reduced social anxiety symptoms in more than 90% of patient participants 22-65 with Social Anxiety Disorder, averaging a 33% decrease, a magnitude that was statistically significantly greater than that of the gold-standard placebo control (Cohen’s d  = .4738)
• 68% of patients showed clinically meaningful reductions in their anxiety severity level, with 38% showing reductions to sub-clinical cutoffs after just a 30-day period of use. 

“This study builds on existing research, adding further evidence that game-based digital therapeutics can be an effective, engaging, and accessible solution for anxiety treatment,” said Raj Amin, Co-Founder & CEO of Arcade Therapeutics. “As a science-first digital medicine company, our goal at Arcade Therapeutics is to create engaging digital mental health treatments that clinicians and patients can trust. Hats off to the great work done on the trial and this article. Glad to put more real science out into the world of emerging mental health treatments!”

To read the full study, visit here. 

About Arcade Therapeutics
Arcade Therapeutics is a science-first game studio dedicated to treating mental illness by combining the most cutting edge cognitive neuroscience with engaging games. Arcade’s mission is to radically transform the mental health journey through highly accessible, clinically validated therapeutic games. Its NYC-based team includes leaders in clinical research, consumer products, game development, and healthcare strategy. To learn more visit https://arcadetherapeutics.com/.

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