Alteration of complex negative emotions induced by music in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder

- Complex emotions may be induced by classical music excerpts.
- For data of subjective emotions in patients with BD we ran mixed models.
- Emotions experienced in response to music are different between participants with BD and HC.
- For positive musical excerpts, the patients experienced more negative emotions in comparison with HC.

BackgroundResearch has shown bipolar disorder to be characterized by dysregulation of emotion processing, including biases in facial expression recognition that is most prevalent during depressive and manic states. Very few studies have examined induced emotions when patients are in a euthymic phase, and there has been no research on complex emotions. We therefore set out to test emotional hyperreactivity in response to musical excerpts inducing complex emotions in bipolar disorder during euthymia.MethodsWe recruited 21 patients with bipolar disorder (BD) in a euthymic phase and 21 matched healthy controls. Participants first rated their emotional reactivity on two validated self-report scales (ERS and MAThyS). They then rated their music-induced emotions on nine continuous scales. The targeted emotions were wonder, power, melancholy and tension. We used a specific generalized linear mixed model to analyze the behavioral data.ResultsWe found that participants in the euthymic bipolar group experienced more intense complex negative emotions than controls when the musical excerpts induced wonder. Moreover, patients exhibited greater emotional reactivity in daily life (ERS). Finally, a greater experience of tension while listening to positive music seemed to be mediated by greater emotional reactivity and a deficit in executive functions.LimitationsThe heterogeneity of the BD group in terms of clinical characteristics may have influenced the results.ConclusionsEuthymic patients with bipolar disorder exhibit more complex negative emotions than controls in response to positive music.