Method for treating a medical condition in a human patient comprising choosing a psychological strategy for treating the medical condition, encoding electronic instructions for an interactive video game in such a way that the interactive video game implements the psychological strategy, loading the electronic instructions into a microprocessor-based unit (10, 30) equipped with a display (14, 34) for displaying the interactive video game and with an patient input device (16, 16a, 36b, 36c, 36d, 36e) for receiving responses to the interactive video game from the human patient, and instructing the human patient how and when to use the microprocessor-based unit (10) to play the interactive video game. The interactive video game contains instructions for a scoring procedure for quantitatively analyzing the medical condition of the human patient, and/or counseling instructions or self-care instructions. The video game can be used in conjunction with a physical parameter measuring device (54) connected to the microprocessor-based unit (10).