The psychophysiological response during post-traumatic stress disorder treatment with modular motion-assisted memory desensitisation and reconsolidation (3MDR)

Abstract

Background : Psychophysiological changes are part of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology and can signal emotional engagement during psychological treatment. Objectives : The aim of this study was to explore psychophysiological responses during multi‐modular motion‐assisted memory desensitization and reconsolidation (3MDR) therapy. Increased self-reported distress, substantially increased heart rate (HR) and breathing rate (BR) were expected at the start of therapy and predicted to improve over time. Since physical exercise demands during therapy were low, any large HR or BR responses were considered part of the psychophysiological response. Methods : This study used pooled data collected during a randomized controlled trial of 3MDR, which demonstrated significant improvement as measured by the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale. Whilst attending therapy, HR and BR data, subjective units of distress (SUD) score and phrases to describe feelings whilst exposed to trauma-related images were collected continuously from 37 UK male military veterans with PTSD. Results : HR and BR were significantly increased throughout all sessions ( p < .01 for both). Whilst HR was raised slightly remaining on average below 100 beats/minute, BR was increased substantially with average values between 40 and 50 breaths/minute. SUD scores were very high during therapy which concurred with the many negative feelings experienced during therapy sessions. Across the course of the treatment, SUD scores ( p < .01) and negative feelings were reduced ( p < .001), and positive feelings have increased ( p < .01) significantly, reflecting improvements in clinicians assessed PTSD symptoms. Across therapy sessions, HR ( p = .888) and BR ( p = .466) responses did not change. Conclusions : The strong psychophysiological response alongside high levels of self-reported distress and negative feelings is interpreted as high emotional engagement during therapy. A novel finding was the very significant BR increase throughout recorded sessions. Future PTSD research should include BR response to therapy and explore breathing control as a treatment target.

Factors associated with the outcomes of a novel virtual reality therapy for military veterans with PTSD: Theory development using a mixed methods analysis

“…The words and phrases uttered by participants in all three groups during their treatment sessions, used in our analysis as a way of comprehending cognitive and emotional factors, had overwhelmingly negative valence. Participants in all three groups were slow walkers, with elevated breathing rate in the absence of a fast pace a generalised finding addressed in a previously published companion paper [ 30 ]. We speculate that slow walking pace may have indicated a cautious approach on the part of participants to their personally selected traumatic images, and that very high breathing rates were associated with exposure during sessions.…”

Processing negative autobiographical memories in a foreign language

“…These results suggest that the valence of a negative event changes after processing a negative event, but this effect is not influenced by the language used. Thus, language could have a greater impact on measures linked to physiological activation, such as arousal or distress-which is a common measure to assess fear activation during exposure procedures (e.g., van Deursen et al, 2021 ).…”

Virtual realities, real recoveries: exploring the efficacy of 3MDR therapy for treatment-resistant PTSD

“…These were excluded because their measurements were deemed not sufficiently relevant to the research question. These articles were by Jones et al (2022b) , which examined the impact of 3MDR on the therapists administering the treatment (findings of this study are mentioned in our discussion) and van Deursen et al (2021) , which investigated heart rate and respiratory rate during 3MDR therapy.…”