Alteration of complex negative emotions induced by music in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder

Abstract

a b s t r a c tBackground: Research has shown bipolar disorder to be characterized by dysregulation of emotion processing, including biases in facial expression recognition that is most prevalent during depressive and manic states. Very few studies have examined induced emotions when patients are in a euthymic phase, and there has been no research on complex emotions. We therefore set out to test emotional hyperreactivity in response to musical excerpts inducing complex emotions in bipolar disorder during euthymia. Methods: We recruited 21 patients with bipolar disorder (BD) in a euthymic phase and 21 matched healthy controls. Participants first rated their emotional reactivity on two validated self-report scales (ERS and MAThyS). They then rated their music-induced emotions on nine continuous scales. The targeted emotions were wonder, power, melancholy and tension. We used a specific generalized linear mixed model to analyze the behavioral data. Results: We found that participants in the euthymic bipolar group experienced more intense complex negative emotions than controls when the musical excerpts induced wonder. Moreover, patients exhibited greater emotional reactivity in daily life (ERS). Finally, a greater experience of tension while listening to positive music seemed to be mediated by greater emotional reactivity and a deficit in executive functions. Limitations: The heterogeneity of the BD group in terms of clinical characteristics may have influenced the results. Conclusions: Euthymic patients with bipolar disorder exhibit more complex negative emotions than controls in response to positive music.

The Effects of Music Therapy on Individuals Suffering from Psychiatric Disorders: A Literature Review and Look into Future Prospects

“…One study looking at the effects of music therapy on bipolar disorder patients in a euthymic (normal mood) state found that music created more complex negative emotions in those responding to subjectively uplifting music (Choppin et al, 2016). Data was collected from participants using two self-reported scales (ERS and MAThyS), along with scales that required them to rate their music-induced emotions.…”

“…One hypothesis for these results was that patients with bipolar disorder might respond in this way as a result of their struggle to regulate their own positive emotions, which creates a form of distress manifested as a negative emotion. While the data says little for the effectiveness of music listening alone on bipolar disorder, the research group posited that listening to music could be a beneficial tool in allowing patients to better understand their emotions and the roots therein (Choppin et al, 2016).…”

Subthalamic deep brain stimulation influences complex emotional musical experience in Parkinson's disease

“…The stimuli consisted of 12 excerpts of instrumental music from the previous four centuries, taken from commercially available CDs (See Supplementary material, Table 1). This set of stimuli was derived from a previous study (Trost et al, 2012) and had already been used in the same format in another study (Choppin et al, 2016). The choice of excerpts avoided extremely popular pieces from the classical music repertoire, in order to reduce potential biases stemming from memory and semantic knowledge associated with the music.…”

“…More recently, the GEMS has also been studied in a clinical context. When Choppin et al (2016) investigated emotional alterations in patients with bipolar disorder in response to music, they found that patients in a euthymic state experienced music inducing wonder as more negative than controls did (Choppin et al, 2016).…”

Origanum majorana Essential Oil Reduces VAS Score and Modulates Cerebral Activity during 10 NeurOptimal

“…Neurofeedback is a noninvasive self-training regimen that improves brain function in the prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex (4) by inducing specific changes on waves (EEG) (5,6). During NeurOptimal® training (NO), all participants are listening a new age piece music (the same for all of them) given its beneficial effect on physiological parameters (7)(8)(9)(10)(11). NeurOptimal® use "music interruptions" to generate changes on brain activity (www.zengar.com, Zengar Institute, Canada).…”