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Mirror exposure therapies: Effect of the distance to the mirror on the attentional pattern in a Virtual Reality immersive environment
- F.-A. Meschberger-Annweiler, M. Ascione, B. Porras-Garcia, H. Miquel, E. Exposito, E. Serrano-Troncoso, M. Carulla-Roig, M. Ferrer-Garcia, J. Gutierrez-Maldonado
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- Journal:
- European Psychiatry / Volume 66 / Issue S1 / March 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 19 July 2023, p. S422
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Introduction
Mirror exposure therapies (MET) have been proposed to reduce symptomatology in patients with Anorexia Nervosa. However, most MET protocols or related studies do not specify the patients’ distance to the mirror, or when they do so, such a distance may differ significantly (from 0,5 to 3 meters). Such modifications of mirror positioning could imply variations in patients’ fixation patterns on different body parts (i.e., attentional bias between weight-related and non-weight related body parts), since previous studies shown that dissociated neural systems (either in left or right cerebral hemispheres) are involved in the attentional patterns and scanning strategies depending on the distance (i.e., in near and far space). Furthermore, as the body-related attentional bias (AB) has been shown to be a part of the maintenance mechanism of AN symptomatology, any modification of attentional patterns due to mirror’s distance variations may influence the efficacy of MET.
ObjectivesThis study aims to use Virtual Reality (VR) and Eye-Tracking (ET) technologies to precisely analyse the effect of the distance to the mirror on the attentional patterns.
Methods137 female college students were immersed in a VR environment in which they could look in the mirror at their respective avatars created from the measurements and photos of their real bodies. The mirror was positioned at 3.30m in front of the participants in “group 1” (n1 = 54), and at 1.54m in front of the participants in “group 2” (n2 = 83). Eye-Tracking feature and OGAMA software (Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany) were used to record and process the visual attentional pattern of each participant, during a 30-second free viewing task at her avatar. Complete Fixation Time (CFT) was assessed as the fixation time difference between weight- and non-weight- related body parts, defined from the weight scale of the PASTAS questionnaire. Independent Sample t-Test was conducted to analyse CFT mean difference between both groups.
ResultsIndependent Samples t-Test shows statistically significant CFT mean difference (F (1, 135) = 1.571, p < 0.001, 95% IC [1717; 5581]) between both groups. While fixation pattern of the group positioned further to the mirror (group 1) was more focused on weight-related body parts (CFT mean = 2282ms, SD = 809), the fixation pattern of the group positioned closer to the mirror (group 2) was more focused on non-weight-related body parts (CFT mean = -1367ms, SD = 587).
ConclusionsThis study shows new opportunities to use VR and ET technologies to precisely analyse the variations of fixation patterns as a function of mirror position in MET. Such information may contribute to adapt and develop new MET’s protocols for AN patients, optimizing the distance to the mirror. It also underscores the importance of specifying the distance to the mirror in MET-related studies to improve replicability.
Disclosure of InterestNone Declared
Effects of Music Therapy On Hospitalized Patients with Severe Mental Illnesses
- U. Volpe, C. Gianoglio, P. Punzo, A. Suraci, O. Petrillo, M. Reale, T. Tallerico, D. De Lisi, A. De Novellis, S. De Simone, L. Autiero, M.L. Marino, F. Molfini, G. Catuogno, P. Ferrucci, G. Ascione, G. Barone, D. Facchini, A. Mucci, S. Galderisi
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- Journal:
- European Psychiatry / Volume 30 / Issue S1 / March 2015
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 15 April 2020, p. 1
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Previous studies reported that music therapy (MT) exerts a positive effect on many medical and neuropsychiatric disorders. The use of MT has been proposed also for patients with severe mental illnesse (SMI), altrough further studies are still needed. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects on a structured MT program on clinical and social functioning indices of patient with SMI, hospitalized in an psychiatric emergency ward.
The MT intervention followed the Benenzon model of MT and was delivered biweekly to 61 patients consecutively admittted to the psychiatric emergency ward. Subjects who did not complete the two-week MT intervention (N=45) were considered as the control group. all subjects were administred the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) to evaluate the general psychopatology, the Hospital Anxiety And Depression Scale (HADS) for affective symptomatology, the Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI-S) for severity of symptoms and the Global Assestment of Functioning (GAF) for psychosocial functioning.
A repeated measures analysis of variance revealed that patients who unerwent the MT intervention had a statistically significant reduction of general and affective psychopatology scores and of symptoms severity with respect to the control group, after observation period.
Our result are in line with previous studies confirming that MT may exert positive effects on psychopatology (in particular, on affective symptomatology) of patient with SMI, and extend this observation to an emergency setting, with short period of hospital stay.