Articles

Brief, Multi-Sensory Activation (BMSA)

Brief, Multi-Sensory Activation (BMSA) is a neuro-physiological technique designed to help break conditioned patterns, which is extremely useful in the treatment of depression, anxiety, PTSD, addictions and chronic pain. Conditioned patterns include emotional reactions to certain thoughts or experiences, e.g. phobias, acquired irritation to a person, post-traumatic stress responses, anxiety responses, etc. Essentially the brain learns to react in certain maladaptive ways. BMSA uses sensory stimulation to "confuse" or interrupt conditioned brain patterns. The below video explains BMSA in more detail:

What is BMSA? (video)

Research.

Two studies have been performed to investigate the effectiveness of BMSA for chronic pain and depression.

Theoretical basis.

Briefly and simplistically stated, the theoretical basis of BMSA is: 1) Sensory-based therapies may be highly-effective when used to treat specific types of problems or disorders. These are any disorders which are essentially amygdala based; ie implicating conditioned responsed (not unconditioned responses, not physical/medical issues, and not existential issues or issues strictly relating to lack of skills or knowledge). 2) Many physical/medical, existential, learning, or skill-based issues have components which certainly are amygdala based, because each is accompanied by a set of internal states which is conditioned. 3) Conditioned responses are very vulnerable to extinction, and depend utterly on uninterrupted replay. If replay can be precisely and accurately disrupted, then extinction will occur. The conditioned response cannot recur without a fresh initiating incident (eg, re-trauma). 4) The key factor in BMSA is the "A", or Activation. If the conditioned response is not in the process of replay, either no extinction can occur, or extinction is less than total. 5) The stronger the conditioned response which we wish to extinguish, the more intense and/or more complex must be the sensory stimulation which is used as an interrupt to the replay. 6) Each individual differs in their sensory perception, and some will find kinaesthetic perception the most "intense" while others may find auditory, visual, gustatory or olfactory stimulation more effective.

Briefly and simplistically stated, the theoretical basis of BMSA is:

1) Sensory-based therapies may be highly-effective when used to treat specific types of problems or disorders. These are any disorders which are essentially amygdala based; ie implicating conditioned responsed (not unconditioned responses, not physical/medical issues, and not existential issues or issues strictly relating to lack of skills or knowledge).

2) Many physical/medical, existential, learning, or skill-based issues have components which certainly are amygdala based, because each is accompanied by a set of internal states which is conditioned.

3) Conditioned responses are very vulnerable to extinction, and depend utterly on uninterrupted replay. If replay can be precisely and accurately disrupted, then extinction will occur. The conditioned response cannot recur without a fresh initiating incident (eg, re-trauma).

4) The key factor in BMSA is the "A", or Activation. If the conditioned response is not in the process of replay, either no extinction can occur, or extinction is less than total.

5) The stronger the conditioned response which we wish to extinguish, the more intense and/or more complex must be the sensory stimulation which is used as an interrupt to the replay.

6) Each individual differs in their sensory perception, and some will find kinaesthetic perception the most "intense" while others may find auditory, visual, gustatory or olfactory stimulation more effective.

Articles

Brief, Multi-Sensory Activation (BMSA)

Research.

Theoretical basis.

Application and support.