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Negative body experience in a clinical sample of mental disorders: associations with PTSD, mood disorders, and personality disorders
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  • Minke M. van de Kamp,
  • Mia Scheffers,
  • Claudia Emck,
  • Pim Cuijpers,
  • Peter J. Beek
Minke M. van de Kamp
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Faculteit der Gedrags- en Bewegingswetenschappen

Corresponding Author:m.m.vande.kamp@vu.nl

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Mia Scheffers
Stichting Christelijke Hogeschool Windesheim
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Claudia Emck
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Faculteit der Gedrags- en Bewegingswetenschappen
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Pim Cuijpers
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Faculteit der Gedrags- en Bewegingswetenschappen
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Peter J. Beek
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Faculteit der Gedrags- en Bewegingswetenschappen
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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 non-clinical 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 aforementioned body experience domains. One sample t-tests revealed that patients had significantly more negative body satisfaction and body attitude than non-clinical 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 significantly predicted 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 patterns in disturbances on domains of body experience.
17 Jun 2024Submitted to Journal of Clinical Psychology
18 Jun 2024Submission Checks Completed
18 Jun 2024Assigned to Editor
09 Jul 2024Reviewer(s) Assigned
19 Aug 2024Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending