Assessment of the validity and feasibility of a novel virtual reality test of emotion regulation in patients with bipolar disorder and their unaffected relatives.
Bipolar disorder
Emotion regulation
Endophenotype
Relatives
Virtual reality
Journal
Journal of affective disorders
ISSN: 1573-2517
Titre abrégé: J Affect Disord
Pays: Netherlands
ID NLM: 7906073
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
01 12 2022
01 12 2022
Historique:
received:
30
06
2022
revised:
29
08
2022
accepted:
06
09
2022
pubmed:
12
9
2022
medline:
30
9
2022
entrez:
11
9
2022
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Emotion dysregulation has been suggested as an endophenotype of bipolar disorder (BD). Neuroimaging studies show aberrant neural activity during emotion regulation in remitted patients with BD and their unaffected first-degree relatives (UR) compared to healthy controls (HC). However, behavioural studies produce conflicting - generally negative findings - possibly due to limited sensitivity and ecological validity of current behavioural paradigms. This study aimed to explore emotion regulation in BD (n = 30) and UR (n = 26) relative to HC (n = 47) by using a novel emotion regulation task in virtual reality (VR). Participants were instructed to either react naturally to, or dampen, their emotional response to highly positive or highly negative scenarios presented in first-person 360-degree spherically camera-recorded VR environments. Participants also completed a more traditional computerised task of emotion regulation for comparison purposes. Patients with BD exhibited difficulties with down-regulating their negative emotions in the VR paradigm compared to HC and UR (ps ≤ .04), whereas UR did not differ from HC (p = .97). There was no emotion regulation difference between groups in the more traditional computerised task (ps ≥ .40). The small sample size limits generalisability. The results suggest trait-related reduced ability to down-regulate negative emotions in BD patients compared to HC in the VR paradigm, but not in the more traditional task of emotion regulation. This may indicate that VR provides a more sensitive measure relative to traditional paradigms. The findings provided no support for aberrant emotional regulation as an endophenotype of BD given the normal emotion regulation performance in UR.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND
Emotion dysregulation has been suggested as an endophenotype of bipolar disorder (BD). Neuroimaging studies show aberrant neural activity during emotion regulation in remitted patients with BD and their unaffected first-degree relatives (UR) compared to healthy controls (HC). However, behavioural studies produce conflicting - generally negative findings - possibly due to limited sensitivity and ecological validity of current behavioural paradigms.
METHODS
This study aimed to explore emotion regulation in BD (n = 30) and UR (n = 26) relative to HC (n = 47) by using a novel emotion regulation task in virtual reality (VR). Participants were instructed to either react naturally to, or dampen, their emotional response to highly positive or highly negative scenarios presented in first-person 360-degree spherically camera-recorded VR environments. Participants also completed a more traditional computerised task of emotion regulation for comparison purposes.
RESULTS
Patients with BD exhibited difficulties with down-regulating their negative emotions in the VR paradigm compared to HC and UR (ps ≤ .04), whereas UR did not differ from HC (p = .97). There was no emotion regulation difference between groups in the more traditional computerised task (ps ≥ .40).
LIMITATIONS
The small sample size limits generalisability.
CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest trait-related reduced ability to down-regulate negative emotions in BD patients compared to HC in the VR paradigm, but not in the more traditional task of emotion regulation. This may indicate that VR provides a more sensitive measure relative to traditional paradigms. The findings provided no support for aberrant emotional regulation as an endophenotype of BD given the normal emotion regulation performance in UR.
Identifiants
pubmed: 36089075
pii: S0165-0327(22)00999-5
doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.09.004
pii:
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
217-223Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
Conflict of interest KWM has received honoraria from Janssen-Cilag and Lundbeck in the past three years. LVK has been a consultant for Lundbeck and Teva in the past three years. The remaining authors report no conflicts of interest.