Running as Interoceptive Exposure for Decreasing Anxiety Sensitivity: Replication and Extension

Abstract

A brief, group cognitive behavioural therapy with running as the interoceptive exposure (IE; exposure to physiological sensations) component was effective in decreasing anxiety sensitivity (AS; fear of arousal sensations) levels in female undergraduates (Watt et al., Anxiety and Substance Use Disorders: The Vicious Cycle of Comorbidity, 201–219, 2008). Additionally, repeated exposure to running resulted in decreases in cognitive (i.e., catastrophic thoughts) and affective (i.e., feelings of anxiety) reactions to running over time for high AS, but not low AS, participants (Sabourin et al., “Physical exercise as interoceptive exposure within a brief cognitive-behavioral treatment for anxiety-sensitive women”, Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 22:302–320, 2008). A follow-up study including the above-mentioned intervention with an expanded IE component also resulted in decreases in AS levels (Sabourin et al., under review). The goals of the present process study were (1) to replicate the original process study, with the expanded IE component, and (2) to determine whether decreases in cognitive, affective, and/or somatic (physiological sensations) reactions to running would be related to decreases in AS. Eighteen high AS and 10 low AS participants completed 20 IE running trials following the 3-day group intervention. As predicted, high AS participants, but not low AS participants, experienced decreases in cognitive, affective, and somatic reactions to running over time. Furthermore, decreases in cognitive and affective, but not in somatic, reactions to running were related to decreases in AS levels. These results suggest that the therapeutic effects of repeated exposure to running in decreasing sensitivity to anxiety-related sensations are not related to decreasing the experience of somatic sensations themselves. Rather, they are related to altering the cognitive and affective reactions to these sensations.

Keywords::

• brief intervention
• cognitive behaviour therapy
• physical exercise
• interoceptive exposure

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the faculty member and graduate students who acted as therapists/facilitators in the current study's interventions: Dr. Kim MacLean, Kerry MacSwain, Anne-Elise O'Regan, and Janine Olthuis. The authors are also grateful to Leslie Terry, Erin Gillis, Emma MacDonald, Catherine Hilchey, Alicia Derouin, Anne Brochu, and Brittany Orchard for their assistance in participant recruitment and data input. The current research was funded by an operating grant from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council – Sport Canada Research Initiative to the third author. The first author was supported through a doctoral fellowship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and a Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation doctoral fellowship when parts of this research were conducted. The second author was supported through an Investigator Award from CIHR and a Killam Research Professorship from the Dalhousie University Faculty of Science at the time this research was conducted.

Disclosure statement

The authors have declared that no conflict of interest exists.