Event-related potentials reveal hypnotherapy's impact on attention bias in social anxiety disorder.

Abstract

Background: Exploring hypnotherapy's potential to modulate attention bias offers promising avenues for treating social anxiety disorder (SAD).

Aim: To determine if hypnotherapy can alleviate social anxiety by influencing attention bias, specifically identifying the aspects of attention processes affected by hypnosis.

Methods: In this study, 69 SAD participants were divided into three groups based on their Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale scores: Experimental group, control group, and baseline group. The experimental group (n = 23) underwent six weekly hypnosis sessions, while the control (n = 23) and baseline groups (n = 23) received no treatment. To evaluate alterations in SAD severity and attention bias towards threatening stimuli following hypnotherapy, we employed a combination of self-report questionnaires, an odd-one-out task, and electroencephalography recordings.

Results: The experimental group showed significant reductions in P1, N170, N2pc, and late positive potential (LPP) brain wave activities during attention sensitivity and disengagement conditions. This indicates that hypnotherapy modulates early-stage face processing and later-stage emotional evaluation of threat-related stimuli in SAD patients.

Conclusion: Our findings highlight P1, N170, N2pc, and LPP as key neural markers in SAD treatment. By identifying these neural markers influenced by hypnotherapy, we offer insight into the mechanisms by which this treatment modality impacts attentional processes, potentially easing SAD symptoms.