A recent study published in JAMA Network Open reveals that consuming more than a teaspoon of olive oil daily could significantly reduce the risk of dying from dementia, and that replacement of margarine or mayonnaise with olive oil could also reduce this risk.
The Mediterranean diet has been celebrated for its cardiovascular benefits. Recently, researchers have turned their attention to its potential to protect cognitive health. Olive oil, a staple of the Mediterranean diet, is rich in healthy fats and antioxidants, which are thought to offer anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects.
The study aimed to explore the relationship between olive oil consumption and the risk of dementia-related death. Researchers also sought to understand how olive oil intake interacts with overall diet quality and the replacement of other dietary fats with olive oil.
The investigation was a prospective cohort study, which is a study that follows a group of participants over time. The research team proposed studying a US population could offer new insights, as most research on the Mediterranean diet is conducted in Mediterranean countries.
Consequently the team, led by Anne-Julie Tessier from Harvard University, analyzed data from 93,383 US adults (60,582 women and 31,801 men) who were free from cardiovascular disease and cancer at the start of the study, for 28 years.
Participants’ olive oil intake was measured every four years through detailed food frequency questionnaires. Consumption was categorized into “never or less than once per month”, “greater than 0 to less than or equal to 4.5 grams per day”, “greater than 4.5 grams per day to less than or equal to 7 grams per day”, and “greater than 7 grams per day”.
Death from dementia was obtained from death records, and confirmed by physician review.
Following data analysis, it was discovered that individuals who consumed at least 7 grams of olive oil per day which is a little more than half a tablespoon had a 28% lower risk of dementia-related death compared to those who rarely or never consumed it. This finding was not affected by diet quality.
Tessier and colleagues proposed a potential mechanism behind this, “olive oil consumption may lower dementia mortality by improving vascular health. Several clinical trials support the effect of olive oil in reducing [cardiovascular disease] via improved function [of the membrane that lines the inside of the heart and blood vessels], [blood clotting], lipid metabolism, oxidative stress … and decreased inflammation.”
Moreover, replacing just 5 grams per day of margarine or mayonnaise with olive oil was associated with an 8% to 14% lower risk of dementia mortality, respectively.
“At the time of the study, margarine and mayonnaise contained considerable levels of hydrogenated trans-fats. The latter were strongly associated with all-cause mortality, [cardiovascular disease], type 2 diabetes, and dementia, which may explain the lower dementia-related death risk observed when replacing it with olive oil,” the authors explained.
While the study’s findings are compelling, there are some limitations. For instance, the study did not differentiate among various types of olive oil that differ in their compound content.
The study, “Consumption of Olive Oil and Diet Quality and Risk of Dementia-Related Death”, was authored by Anne-Julie Tessier, Marianna Cortese; Changzheng Yuan, Kjetil Bjornevik, Alberto Ascherio, Daniel D. Wang, Jorge E. Chavarro, Meir J. Stampfer, Frank B. Hu, Walter C. Willett and Marta Guasch-Ferré.
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A recent study has unveiled new insights into the neural mechanisms underlying treatment-resistant depression. By recording stereotactic electroencephalography signals (sEEG) from patients’ brains, the team identified specific abnormalities in how depressed individual process emotional information. This study, published in Nature Mental Health, provides a promising step towards understanding and potentially treating this challenging condition.
Depression is a common but serious mental health disorder characterized by persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and a lack of interest or pleasure in daily activities. It affects millions of people worldwide and can significantly impair one’s ability to function at work, school, and in personal relationships.
While many individuals with depression respond well to standard treatments, such as medication and psychotherapy, a significant subset of patients do not experience sufficient relief from these approaches. This condition is known as treatment-resistant depression. It is defined as the failure to respond to at least two different antidepressant treatments administered at adequate doses and durations.
The new study conducted by the researchers at Baylor College of Medicine aimed to explore the neural basis of an emotion-processing bias observed in individuals with depression. This bias leads to a stronger response to negative information compared to positive information, which exacerbates depressive symptoms. Understanding the neural mechanisms behind this bias is crucial for developing targeted interventions that can better address the unique challenges of treatment-resistant depression.
“There has been a big question in the field about whether there was a physiological abnormality we could measure related to depression, as people had historically thought of it as a disorder of the ‘mind’ rather than one of the ‘brain’ and its cells. In this study, we were able to capture very sensitive data from awake, behaving human subjects that demonstrate a physiological basis for treatment-resistant depression,” said study authors Kelly Bijanki, an associate professor, and Xiaoxu Fan, a postdoctoral fellow.
For the study, sEEG electrodes were implanted in specific regions of the participants’ brains, particularly the amygdala and prefrontal cortex (PFC). These regions were chosen due to their known roles in emotion processing and regulation. The electrodes provided high spatial and temporal resolution recordings of brain activity, allowing the researchers to observe detailed neural responses to emotional stimuli.
The study included 12 epilepsy patients and 5 patients diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression. The epilepsy patients served as a control group since they were already undergoing stereotactic electroencephalography (sEEG) monitoring for seizure localization. The treatment-resistant depression patients had not responded to at least four different antidepressant treatments and were recruited as part of an early feasibility trial.
Participants were asked to rate the emotional intensity of human face photographs displaying various expressions, ranging from very sad to very happy. This task was designed to evoke and measure their neural responses to both positive and negative emotional stimuli. The emotional intensity ratings were recorded using a computer interface, ensuring precise synchronization with the brain activity data captured by the sEEG electrodes.
The researchers found that individuals with treatment-resistant depression exhibited a heightened and prolonged response in the amygdala when viewing sad faces compared to the control group. This increased activity began around 300 milliseconds after the sad faces were presented, indicating an overactive bottom-up processing system.
The treatment-resistant depression group also showed a reduced amygdala response to happy faces at a later stage (around 600 milliseconds). This finding suggests a diminished ability to process positive emotional stimuli, which may play a role in the persistent low mood characteristic of depression.
The researchers observed increased alpha-band power in the prefrontal cortex of the treatment-resistant depression patients during the late stage of processing happy faces. Alpha-band power is thought to reflect inhibitory processes in the brain.
Additionally, there was enhanced alpha-band synchrony between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, indicating stronger top-down regulation of the amygdala by the prefrontal cortex in these patients. This suggests that the prefrontal cortex may excessively inhibit the amygdala, contributing to the reduced emotional response to positive stimuli.
“sEEG can provide data with high temporal resolution and reliable anatomical precision of signal sources,” Bijanki and Fan told PsyPost. “With the help of sEEG, our results clearly revealed that different neural mechanisms are responsible for the biased negative and positive emotion processing in TRD patients.
The study also explored the effects of deep brain stimulation on neural responses in treatment-resistant depression patients. After deep brain stimulation was administered to the subcallosal cingulate and ventral capsule/ventral striatum regions, the neural responses to emotional stimuli in the patients showed significant changes.
The amygdala response to both sad and happy faces increased, and the alpha-band power in the prefrontal cortex decreased during happy-face processing. Furthermore, the alpha-band synchrony between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala during happy-face processing was reduced, bringing the neural activity patterns closer to those observed in the control group.
“Treatment-resistant depression has a signature in the firing pattern of neurons in the brain, especially during an emotional task,” Bijanki and Fan explained. “We see the brain being perhaps overly sensitive to negative emotional information in depression patients, and we see evidence of increased top-down inhibition from a moderating brain region that may explain the abnormality. Further, we see after therapeutic brain stimulation, this pattern is normalized. We hope with further study this signal may help clarify the mechanism of depression and suggest new potential treatments.”
The small sample size limits the ability to generalize the findings. Additionally, using epilepsy patients as controls, who may have varying levels of depressive symptoms themselves, might affect the comparison. Future research should aim to include larger and more diverse samples to validate these findings.
The researchers also plan to explore how these neural markers can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of depression treatments. “We hope to use the biased emotional processing signature as a biomarker to evaluate the effects of depression treatments and as an indicator of the severity of depression symptoms in future patients,” the researchers said.
The study, “Brain mechanisms underlying the emotion processing bias in treatment-resistant depression,” was authored by Xiaoxu Fan, Madaline Mocchi, Bailey Pascuzzi, Jiayang Xiao, Brian A. Metzger, Raissa K. Mathura, Carl Hacker, Joshua A. Adkinson, Eleonora Bartoli, Salma Elhassa, Andrew J. Watrous, Yue Zhang, Anusha Allawala, Victoria Pirtle, Sanjay J. Mathew, Wayne Goodman, Nader Pouratian, and Kelly R. Bijanki.
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DATE: June 16, 2024 at 12:02PM
SOURCE: Psychiatric Times
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Insights on Major Depressive Disorder. Dr. Roger McIntyre provides a comprehensive analysis in a recent Partner Perspectives article sponsored by Takeda Pharmaceuticals & Lundbeck. Read more: https://t.co/XRFYWB394fhttps://t.co/lwrJAfEFsl
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DATE:
June 16, 2024 at 10:00AM
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TITLE:
Older adults who have used psychedelics tend to have better executive functioning
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URL: https://www.psypost.org/older-adults-who-have-used-psychedelics-tend-to-have-better-executive-functioning/
<p>Older individuals who have used psychedelics tend to exhibit better cognitive functioning and fewer depressive symptoms compared to those who have not, according to new research published in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23337214241250108"><em>Gerontology & Geriatric Medicine</em></a>. However, psychedelic usage was not linked to improvements in episodic memory.</p>
<p>Psychedelics are substances that profoundly alter perception, mood, and cognitive processes, often inducing hallucinogenic, euphoric, or introspective experiences. Popular psychedelics include LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), psilocybin (found in certain mushrooms), and ecstasy (MDMA or 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine). Historically, some psychedelics have been used in cultural and religious rituals to induce spiritual experiences and enhance self-awareness.</p>
<p>In modern times, psychedelics are considered illicit substances in most jurisdictions. However, studies in recent decades indicated that they can also have beneficial therapeutic effects on various mental disorders. This led to their partial decriminalization in many countries and the development of psychedelic therapy.</p>
<p>Psychedelic therapy involves the supervised use of these substances in a controlled setting to promote emotional and psychological healing. During these sessions, a therapist guides the individual through their experience, helping them to explore and integrate their thoughts and feelings. Research into the effectiveness of psychedelic therapy has shown promise in treating depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and anxiety, especially when traditional treatments have failed.</p>
<p>The study, conducted by Kaeleigh Fearn and Kallol Kumar Bhattacharyya, addresses cognitive decline, a significant health concern in older adults. The researchers hypothesized that psychedelic use could improve cognitive functions and reduce depressive symptoms in middle-aged and older adults. To test this hypothesis, they analyzed data from the Midlife in the United States study.</p>
<p>The Midlife in the United States study is a national longitudinal research project that examines the physical, mental, and social health of Americans as they age. The data analyzed in this study included 2,503 English-speaking participants from 48 U.S. states, with an average age of 64 years; 55% of the participants were women.</p>
<p>Participants completed phone surveys and mailed self-administered questionnaires. They reported their use of marijuana, LSD, or other hallucinogens (such as PCP, peyote, ecstasy (MDMA), mescaline, and Prozac) in the past 12 months. They also completed assessments of executive functioning, episodic memory (using the Brief Test of Adult Cognition by Telephone), and depressive symptoms lasting two or more weeks in the past year (using the 7-item DEPCON scale).</p>
<p>The results showed higher rates of psychedelic use among younger participants, women, individuals who were separated, divorced, or never married, the unemployed, tobacco and alcohol users, and those with more chronic conditions.</p>
<p>Despite these demographic differences, psychedelic users generally had better cognitive functioning and fewer depressive symptoms, even after accounting for various factors. However, psychedelic use was not associated with episodic memory improvements.</p>
<p>“The current findings revealed that psychedelic use was associated with improved cognitive function, assessed by executive function, partially supporting our hypothesis; however, the same association was not evident with episodic memory. Further, psychedelic use was associated with a reduction in depressive symptoms. Although our participants were limited, the results corroborated earlier findings in a lesser-explored area of research,” the study authors concluded.</p>
<p>The study sheds light on the links between psychedelic use, cognitive functioning and mental health in middle-aged and older adults. However, it also has limitations that need to be taken into account. Notably, the study design does not allow any cause-and-effect inferences to be drawn from the data. Additionally, data about psychedelic use came exclusively from self-reports leaving room for reporting bias to affect the results.</p>
<p>The paper, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/23337214241250108">Is Use of Psychedelic Drugs a Risk or Protective Factor for Late-Life Cognitive Decline?</a>”, was authored by Kaeleigh Fearn and Kallol Kumar Bhattacharyya.</p>
DATE:
June 15, 2024 at 10:00AM
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TITLE:
Facial emotion recognition: How social anxiety impacts autistic and learning-disabled children
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URL: https://www.psypost.org/facial-emotion-recognition-how-social-anxiety-impacts-autistic-and-learning-disabled-children/
<p>A study of schoolchildren in Italy found that children with autism and specific learning disorders have more trouble recognizing facial emotions compared to non-diagnosed children. In autistic children, higher social anxiety is associated with better emotion recognition, while in those with learning disorders, higher anxiety is associated with more difficulty recognizing emotions. The research was published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579424000038"><em>Development and Psychopathology</em></a><em>.</em></p>
<p>Being able to recognize the emotional state of another person by looking at his/her face is a crucial ability for social functioning. Many individuals can derive a wealth of information about internal psychological states or characteristics of another person just from nonverbal cues. This ability to recognize emotions of another person by looking at his/her facial expression is called facial emotion recognition.</p>
<p>Autism spectrum disorder, commonly referred to as autism, is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by challenges in social interaction, communication, and repetitive behaviors or restricted interests. The severity of these symptoms can vary greatly. Those with milder forms of autism can live independently, complete their education, maintain employment, and have fulfilling social relationships. However, individuals with more severe forms might require continuous support throughout their lives.</p>
<p>One of the prominent characteristics of autism are difficulties in social interactions. Studies suggest that at least a part of these difficulties might be because of the reduced ability of autistic individuals to recognize emotional and mental expressions using nonverbal cues.</p>
<p>Study author Rachele Lievore and her colleagues sought to explore the ability to recognize facial emotions, social anxiety levels, and cognitive factors in schoolchildren with and without autism and specific learning disabilities. Children with specific learning disabilities experience significant challenges in reading, writing, and/or mathematics. While distinct from autism, previous studies have shown these children often have lower levels of various cognitive abilities, prompting the researchers to investigate their emotion recognition capabilities.</p>
<p>The study involved 263 children and adolescents aged 8 to 16. Among them, 60 had autism, 63 had specific learning disabilities, and 140 had neither diagnosis. All participants were native Italian speakers.</p>
<p>Participants completed a facial emotion recognition task, where they were shown pairs of images of actors expressing specific emotions. Their task was to determine whether the actors expressed the same or different emotions in each pair of images. There were 144 pairs in total, with half showing the same emotion and the other half showing different emotions.</p>
<p>Parents of the participants completed an assessment of their children’s social anxiety using the parent-report form of the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children. The children also completed three tests of executive functions, which assessed inhibitory control, updating, and set-shifting.</p>
<p>Inhibitory control is the ability to suppress impulsive responses and resist distractions to maintain goal-directed behavior. Updating refers to the capacity to monitor and revise working memory with new, relevant information. Set-shifting is the ability to switch attention and adapt to changing tasks, rules, or perspectives flexibly.</p>
<p>The results showed that participants with autism and specific learning disabilities were less capable of recognizing facial emotions compared to children without these diagnoses. Those with autism also had poorer executive functioning than the other two groups. Children and adolescents with autism and specific learning disabilities exhibited higher levels of social anxiety.</p>
<p>In children suffering from autism, those with high social anxiety tended to be better at recognizing emotions on faces. In their peers with specific learning disabilities, lower social anxiety was associated with better facial emotion recognition abilities.</p>
<p>“Overall, despite similar weaknesses in FER [facial emotion recognition] in ASD [autism spectrum disorder] and SLD [specific learning disabilities], different underlying mechanisms may lie behind such performances in these two different neurodevelopmental conditions. Understanding these differences can guide practitioners in designing individualized interventions, tailored to the specific challenges of the examined clinical profile,” the study authors concluded.</p>
<p>The study makes a valuable contribution to the scientific understanding of the links between autism, specific learning disabilities, social anxiety, and facial emotion recognition abilities. However, it is important to note that the facial emotion recognition abilities were measured using static images of actors who were simulating emotional expressions, rather than experiencing them. This, along with the static nature of the images, differs from how emotions are recognized in real-world situations.</p>
<p>The paper, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579424000038">Let’s face it! The role of social anxiety and executive functions in recognizing others’ emotions from faces: Evidence from autism and specific learning disorders,</a>” was authored by Rachele Lievore, Ramona Cardillo and Irene C. Mammarella.</p>
DATE: June 14, 2024 at 12:02PM
SOURCE: Psychiatric Times
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Physician-assisted suicide is now legal in 11 jurisdictions in the US. To this, several clinicians say: “We must care for the dying, not make them dead.” Learn more in our June cover story. https://t.co/tA3ewiiyzGhttps://t.co/ntwXzLUx2B
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DATE:
June 14, 2024 at 12:00PM
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TITLE:
New research uncovers the unexpected benefits of positive secrets
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URL: https://www.psypost.org/new-research-uncovers-the-unexpected-benefits-of-positive-secrets/
<p>Secrecy has often been associated with negative consequences. However, a recent study published in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000352"><em>Journal of Personality and Social Psychology</em></a> offers a surprising twist, revealing that positive secrets can actually increase feelings of energy.</p>
<p>Positive secrecy is the intention to keep positive information from others. Classic theories have suggested that any form of secrecy depletes cognitive resources due to the continuous effort to hide information. However, newer perspectives suggest that the effects of secrecy may instead be about how individuals reflect on the hidden information rather than the act of concealment itself.</p>
<p>Michael L. Slepian and colleagues conducted five experiments, recruiting 1800 participants between 18 to 78 years across the U.S via online crowdsourcing platforms.</p>
<p>Study 1 involved 200 participants who were presented with a list of 38 common categories of good news (e.g., receiving a promotion, winning an award) and asked to indicate which pieces of good news they currently held as secrets and which were non-secrets. They were then randomly assigned to reflect on either their secret or non-secret good news. Measures included feelings of energy using the six-item subjective vitality scale (e.g., “feeling awake and alert,” rated from 1 = not at all to 7 = very), positive affect using two items from the PANAS-X joy scale (i.e., “How good does it make you feel?” and “How happy does it make you?” rated from 1 = not at all to 7 = very), and intent to share the good news with others (“I intend to tell people/someone about this,” rated from 1 = not at all to 7 = very much).</p>
<p>Participants who reflected on secret good news reported significantly higher feelings of energy compared to those who reflected on non-secret good news. This effect was independent of positive affect and intent to share, suggesting that keeping good news secret itself contributes to increased energy levels. Intent to share also had an independent positive effect on energy.</p>
<p>Study 2 included 600 participants in committed relationships. Participants selected a piece of good news that could plausibly happen to them and would make them happy but was not yet known by their partner. They were then randomly assigned to one of three conditions: intrinsic motivation (choosing to keep the secret), extrinsic motivation (unable to share due to external constraints), or a baseline condition (no reason specified). Feelings of energy were measured using an expanded energy scale (10 items, e.g., tired, depleted, energized, alive, rated from 1 = not at all to 7 = very much).</p>
<p>Participants who kept their good news secret for intrinsic reasons (i.e., personal choice) reported higher feelings of energy compared to those who kept it secret for extrinsic reasons (i.e., external constraints) or no specified reason. The intrinsic motivation condition reported feeling more energized than both the extrinsic motivation and baseline conditions, supporting the hypothesis that intrinsic motivation enhances the energizing effect of positive secrets.</p>
<p>Study 3 included 700 participants to compare positive secrets to negative secrets and secrets of unspecified valence. Participants were randomly assigned to recall a positive, negative, or unspecified secret. They reported their intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation for keeping the secret using a binary measure (intrinsic = 1, extrinsic = 0) and rated their positive affect with the PANAS-X joy scale (i.e., happy, joyful, delighted, cheerful, rated from 1 = not at all to 5 = extremely).</p>
<p>Positive secrets were found to be more intrinsically motivated than negative secrets or secrets of unspecified valence. Participants who recalled positive secrets reported higher levels of intrinsic motivation (78%) compared to those with unspecified secrets (55%) and negative secrets (61%). Additionally, positive secrets were associated with higher positive affect and greater feelings of energy, suggesting that intrinsic motivation plays an important role in the energizing effects of positive secrets.</p>
<p>Study 4 involving 500 participants focused on comparing positive secrets to secrets of unspecified valence. Participants recalled either a positive secret or a secret of unspecified valence and reported their intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation, feelings of energy, and positive affect. The measures included the same intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation binary measure, the 10-item energy scale used in Study 2, and the PANAS-X joy scale.</p>
<p>Positive secrets were more intrinsically motivated (69%) than secrets of unspecified valence (52%). Participants who recalled positive secrets reported higher energy compared to those with unspecified secrets. The intrinsic motivation behind positive secrets mediated the energizing effect, independent of positive affect. This suggests that the motivational quality of positive secrets contributes to their energizing effects.</p>
<p>The final study included 800 participants recruited from Prolific. Participants were randomly assigned to recall positive or unspecified valence information relevant to an upcoming conversation with their partner, either as a secret or non-secret. Measures included intrinsic and extrinsic motivation scales, feelings of energy, and intentions to share the information.</p>
<p>Positive secrets were found to be more intrinsically motivated and more energizing than unspecified valence secrets and non-secrets. The intention to share the information did not significantly influence feelings of energy, highlighting that the energizing effects of positive secrets are primarily driven by intrinsic motivation. This study confirmed that self-alignment and intrinsic motivation are key mechanisms behind the increased feelings of energy associated with positive secrets.</p>
<p>Overall, this research suggests that positive secrets can be a significant source of energy and vitality, challenging the traditional view that all secrecy is inherently burdensome.</p>
<p>One limitation is the reliance on self-reported measures of energy and motivation, which can be subject to bias.</p>
<p>The research, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000352">The bright side of secrecy: The energizing effect of positive secrets</a>”, was authored by Michael L. Slepian, Katharine H. Greenaway, Nicholas P. Camp, and Adam D. Galinsky.</p>
DATE: June 14, 2024 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: Psychiatric Times
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The capacity to adjust beliefs about one's actions and their consequences in a constantly changing environment is a defining characteristic of advanced cognition. Disruptions to this ability, however, can negatively affect cognition and behavior, leading to such states of mind as paranoia, or the belief that others intend to harm us. In a new study, scientists uncover how one specific region of the brain might causally provoke these feelings of paranoia. Their novel approach -- which involved aligning data collected from monkeys with human data -- also offers a new cross-species framework through which scientists might better understand human cognition through the study of other species.
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The capacity to adjust beliefs about one's actions and their consequences in a constantly changing environment is a defining characteristic of advanced cognition. Disruptions to this ability, however, can negatively affect cognition and behavior, leading to such states of mind as paranoia, or the belief that others intend to harm us. In a new study, scientists uncover how one specific region of the brain might causally provoke these feelings of paranoia. Their novel approach -- which involved aligning data collected from monkeys with human data -- also offers a new cross-species framework through which scientists might better understand human cognition through the study of other species.
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DATE:
June 14, 2024 at 08:00AM
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TITLE:
The impact of art therapy: Emotional shifts seen in masks made by veterans with PTSD
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URL: https://www.psypost.org/the-impact-of-art-therapy-emotional-shifts-seen-in-masks-made-by-veterans-with-ptsd/
<p>A recent study published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-57128-5"><em>Scientific Reports</em></a> reveals that art therapy, specifically mask-making, may reflect significant emotional changes in military personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress symptoms.</p>
<p>Art has long been recognized as a powerful form of non-verbal communication, capable of expressing complex emotions and experiences which may be challenging to articulate through language.</p>
<p>Post-traumatic stress symptoms, including irritability and aggressive behavior, affect a significant number of military service members. While medications such as antidepressants are commonly used to treat post-traumatic stress symptoms, complete remission is unlikely. Hence, finding effective interventions to address the emotional aftermath of traumatic experiences is crucial.</p>
<p>Researchers embarked on this study to explore whether the emotional states of military personnel with post-traumatic stress symptoms could be discerned through their art, specifically masks made during an art therapy program.</p>
<p>The team, led by V. Estrada Gonzalez from the University of Pennsylvania, hypothesized that the masks would show a transition from negative to positive emotional expressions as therapy progressed.</p>
<p>The methodology involved five service members undergoing an 8-session art therapy protocol, where they were instructed to alter masks using art materials at the beginning and end of the therapy sessions.</p>
<p>The 10 masks that were created were presented to 203 independent English-speaking individuals, who viewed digital images of the masks.</p>
<p>These viewers were unaware of the treatment details and the masks’ creation stage, and they were instructed to assess the emotions expressed through the art along 11 dimensions: angry, calm, compassionate, challenged, edified, enraptured, enlightened, interested, inspired, pleasure and upset.</p>
<p>Following data analysis, it was made clear that the masks created in earlier therapy sessions were associated with more negative emotions, such as feeling angry, challenged and upset.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the masks created later in therapy conveyed more positive emotions including increased feelings of calmness and pleasure. The authors suggest this reflects an emotional transition experienced by the participants.</p>
<p>Gonzalez and team concluded, “Our findings support the usefulness of art therapy within the array of treatment options for post-traumatic stress symptoms. As one of relatively few non-verbal approaches available, art therapy holds particular significance for patients who struggle with verbal expression of their trauma. By highlighting positive outcomes, our study advocates for a broader, more versatile therapeutic approach that accommodates the needs of patients who may find treatments based on verbal communication challenging.”</p>
<p>However, the findings are limited by the small sample of artwork. Furthermore, the progress of patients receiving therapy was not reported, and therefore clinical improvement cannot be correlated directly with art therapy.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-57128-5">Art therapy masks reflect emotional changes in military personnel with PTSS</a>”, was authored by V. Estrada Gonzalez, V. Meletaki, M. Walker, J. Payano Sosa, A. Stamper, R. Srikanchana, J. L. King, K. Scott, E. R. Cardillo, C. Sours Rhodes, A. P. Christensen, K. M. Darda, C. I. Workman, and A. Chatterjee.</p>
DATE: June 14, 2024 at 06:30AM
SOURCE: Psychiatric Times
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