Patients expressed mostly neutral, joy, and anger emotions, while Avatar expressed interest, disgust/contempt, and neutral emotions
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, June 16, 2023 (HealthDay News) — The predominant emotions expressed by patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia undergoing virtual reality-based Avatar therapy (AT) are mostly neutral, joy, and anger emotions, according to a study published online June 12 in BMC Psychiatry.
Alexandre Hudon, M.D., from the Centre de recherche de l’Institut Universitaire en Sant © Mentale de Montr ©al, and colleagues used content analysis of immersive sessions transcripts and audio recordings for 16 patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia who underwent AT between 2017 and 2022 to identify the underlying emotions at the core of the patient-Avatar interaction during AT.
The researchers identified anger, contempt/disgust, fear, sadness, shame/embarrassment, interest, surprise, joy, and neutral emotions in the study. Patients mostly expressed neutral, joy, and anger emotions, while interest, disgust/contempt, and neutral emotions were the predominant emotions expressed by the Avatar.
“This study portrays a first qualitative insight on the emotions that are expressed in AT and serves as a steppingstone for further investigation in the role of emotions in the therapeutic outcomes of AT,” the authors write.
Copyright © 2023 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
