Women’s Responses to a Mindfulness-Based Body Scan

Abstract

Background: Mind-body therapies can improve mental and physical health outcomes for women with trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, greater awareness of body sensations can lead to adverse responses that interfere with the efficacy and completion of mind-body therapies. Purpose: The purposes of this study are to (1) explore how women with varying levels of PTSD symptoms respond to one exposure to a mindfulness-based body scan in terms of self-report measures and subjective experience and, (2) identify characteristics of women at risk for adverse responses to mind-body therapies. Methods: A single-group, pre-post study of a mindfulness-based body scan intervention was conducted to assess changes in state anxiety and affect in a sample of 60 women with a history of trauma and varying levels of PTSD symptoms. The associations of PTSD, depressive, and dissociative symptoms as well as trauma history with changes in outcome measures were examined. A subset of 20 women were interviewed about their experiences during the body scan. Results: Overall, women had pre-post decreases in anxiety (Median change= -11.0, p<.001) and negative affect (Median change= -4.0, p<.001), while positive affect did not change (Median change= 1.0, p>.05). Higher levels of total PTSD symptoms and Arousal symptoms were associated with decreases in anxiety (d=0.63, p=.021; d=0.76, p=.006; respectively). Greater total PTSD, Cognitions/Mood, and Arousal symptoms were associated with decreases in negative affect (d=0.54, p=.045; d=0.54, p=.047; d=0.57, p=.034; respectively). Higher levels of depressive symptoms were associated with decreases in anxiety (d=0.61, p=.024), but depressive symptoms were not associated with changes in negative affect or positive affect (both p>.05). Those with a decrease in positive affect had lower levels of dissociative symptoms than those with no change (z= -2.59, p=.009) or increase (z= -2.97, p=.003) in positive affect. No association was observed between dissociative symptoms and change in negative affect or anxiety (p>.05). There were no associations of sexual trauma history with outcomes (all p>.05). Qualitatively, women’s experiences were summarized into four themes: overall positive experiences of the body scan, embodied awareness, perceived benefits, and barriers.