One-year follow-up of basic body awareness therapy in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder. A small intervention study of effects on movement quality, PTSD symptoms, and movement experiences

ABSTRACT

The present study with mixed methods design evaluated the long-term effects of Basic Body Awareness Therapy (BBAT) for patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Fifteen patients received 12 individual sessions of BBAT treatment as usual (TAU) when needed. The patients were assessed at baseline (T0), directly after treatment (T1) and at one-year follow-up (T2), using the Body Awareness Scale Movement Quality and Experience (BAS MQ-E), the Visual Analog Scale (VAS), and the Impact of Event Scale—Revised (IES-R). The results at T1 showed significant improvement in the quality of movement (p = 0.001), body experience (p = 0.007), and symptoms (p = 0.001). At T2, the improvements were sustained. Pain in stillness (p = 0.017) and during movement (p = 0.007) had decreased. The verbal ability to describe the body experiences in words was poor at T0, but became more detailed at T1 and even more so at T2. Our findings suggest that BBAT in addition to TAU can be a viable physiotherapeutic treatment for patients with PTSD. This knowledge may influence future treatment strategies for patients with PTSD and be of guidance to physiotherapists working with persons with trauma experiences in the community or psychiatry/mental healthcare areas.

KEYWORDS:

• Anxiety
• body function
• breathing
• mixed methods
• pain
• physiotherapy

Acknowledgments

We thank all the patients who participated in this study. We thank Brita Bolin and Karin Damgaard for their invaluable help with the assessments and Maria Klässbo for the help with the ethical review.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Funding

This study was supported by grants from the Swedish Association of Physiotherapists and Värmlands County Council (FoU) has contributed with funding for the ethical review.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by grants from the Swedish Association of Physiotherapists and Värmlands County Council (FoU) has contributed with funding for the ethical review.