Work

Negative Body Experience in a Clinical Sample of Mental Disorders: Associations With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Mood Disorders, and Personality Disorders

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: While body experience is a key focus of treatment in psychomotor therapy (PMT), research has largely overlooked this important topic. In this study we explored three domains of body experience-body satisfaction, body attitude, and interoceptive awareness-in individuals with mental disorders in a clinical sample receiving PMT. We expected these patients to have a more negative body experience than nonclinical controls, with PTSD, mood disorders, personality disorders, and sex negatively affecting all three domains of body experience. The study involved 235 participants aged 18-59 with various mental disorders that were referred to PMT between 2008 and 2017 at a mental health center in the Netherlands. They completed questionnaires on all three of the body experience domains of interest. One sample t-tests revealed that patients had significantly greater negative body satisfaction and body attitude than nonclinical control samples obtained from the literature, with no significant difference in interoceptive awareness. Regression analyses within the patient sample revealed that female patients and patients with mood disorders or PTSD, displayed more negative body satisfaction than patients with other mental disorders. Additionally, female patients and patients with mood disorders displayed more negative body attitude. Although the total patient group and controls had comparable interoceptive awareness, only PTSD had significantly lower interoceptive awareness. Age and personality disorders did not predict differences on any domain of body experience. This research demonstrates that body experience is disturbed in patients with mental disorders who received PMT, and that there are disorder-specific disturbances on domains of body experience domains.

Source: Journal of Clinical Psychology

DOI: 10.1002/jclp.23776

Authors: Minke M. van de Kamp, Mia Scheffers, Claudia Emck, Pim Cuijpers, Peter J. Beek

Institutions: Amsterdam Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Windesheim University of Applied Sciences

Language: English

Topic: Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,710