Theta waves could be a new marker for emotional dysregulation, which means trouble controlling your feelings. Researchers found they can track it through theta brain waves on an EEG, a brain wave test. Today no lab test can confirm anxiety, mood disorders or borderline personality disorder. This could help show how bad they are and whether treatment works.
Summary: Disorders of mood and feeling are quite common. Yet there are no reliable biomarkers (lab signs) to diagnose them. Without them, there is also no solid way to tell if treatment works. Now researchers think they have found a way to track how well people control their feelings. These changes show up in theta waves, read with an electroencephalograph. Researchers think this will help show how severe these disorders are and find treatments that work.
Disorders like anxiety, mood problems, and borderline personality disorders are common. But they are hard to diagnose and treat. Doctors do not know which exact brain changes cause them.
Worse, no dependable lab test can confirm most emotional disorders. That leaves doctors in a tough spot. It makes these conditions hard to diagnose. It also makes it hard to track how treatment is going. And it is a big problem for researchers, too.
With no reliable way to diagnose and track these conditions, research on them is tricky. So finding treatments that work is hard, too.
Take anxiety as an example. Almost everyone feels anxiety at some point. Not every case needs treatment. But the choice to treat is made only on what the doctor sees and hears. No test checks how severe the anxiety is. Once treatment starts, doctors rely on what patients tell them. They have no other reliable way to know if treatment is working.
Researchers have long hunted for reliable biomarkers. They want hard tests, not just what patients report. Such tests could help diagnose these disorders, show how severe they are, and measure whether treatment works.
Can theta waves measure emotional dysregulation?
The human brain makes different wave patterns. Doctors can easily record them with electroencephalography (EEG). These brain waves shift with the body’s state and with our emotions. Disease can also change the wave patterns.
In 2013, researchers first found that theta brain waves have much to do with emotional regulation. In the new study, Montreal University researchers tested these findings further on 24 adults.
It is a fairly simple test of a complex idea. They put electrodes on the scalps of 10 men and 14 women. Then they watched how each person reacted to upsetting images, especially threats. They showed pictures of armed men and threatening dogs.
During the test, they tracked the brain waves the whole time. They saw the wave patterns shift as each person’s feelings changed. They also confirmed that theta waves were a strong marker of how people control their feelings.
Of course, theta waves were not the only waves recorded. But other waves, like alpha waves in the 8 to 13 Hz range, did not shift when feelings changed.
The changes showed up most in the front of the brain. That area mainly handles self-control and focus.
Researchers think this work may one day help find a reliable way to measure trouble controlling feelings. That matters most in severe anxiety and schizophrenia.
Once doctors can measure how well people control their feelings, they can diagnose these disorders better. Researchers can also find better treatments. And these waves can show whether any treatment is working. For people living with these disorders, telehealth shaped by these studies can be a way out.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a test for emotional dysregulation?
Not yet. No lab test confirms anxiety, mood disorders or borderline personality disorder. So doctors judge them by what they see and hear. They track treatment by what patients report. The theta-wave research aims to change that. An EEG records brain waves through pads on the scalp. Theta waves shifted when feelings changed. Other waves, such as alpha waves, did not.
What conditions involve emotional dysregulation?
Trouble controlling feelings runs through anxiety, many mood problems and borderline personality disorder. All of them are common. The researchers expect a reliable measure to matter most in severe anxiety and schizophrenia. In each of these, the roadblock is the same. Doctors do not know the exact brain changes behind the symptoms. That makes both diagnosis and treatment harder.
How do doctors know if treatment for emotional dysregulation is working?
Today they rely on what patients tell them, because no test measures how severe it is. Theta waves could give them one. In the Montreal study, scalp pads on 24 adults tracked brain waves while they looked at threatening images. The changes showed most in the front of the brain, which handles self-control and focus. A marker like that could show whether a treatment really helps people control their feelings.
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