Frontier mental health research: psychedelics & drug studies

Interoceptive Awareness Skills for Emotion Regulation: Theory and Approach of Mindful Awareness in Body-Oriented Therapy (MABT)

Price, Cynthia J., Hooven, Carole

www.frontiersin.org • Summary & key facts • 2018 • 388 citations

This paper explains how being aware of internal body signals (called interoceptive awareness) is tied to understanding and managing emotions. It describes a therapy named Mindful Awareness in Body-Oriented Therapy (MABT) that teaches three core interoceptive skills—identifying, accessing, and appraising bodily signals—using education and hands-on body work. The authors present…

Action Observation and Synchronization Personality Disorders and Psychopathology Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

Somatic experiencing: using interoception and proprioception as core elements of trauma therapy

Peter Payne, Peter A. Levine, Mardi A. Crane‐Godreau

Frontiers in Psychology • Summary & key facts • 2015 • 306 citations

This paper explains Somatic Experiencing (SE), a form of trauma therapy that focuses on guiding a person's attention to internal body sensations (like heartbeat, breathing, muscle feeling) instead of mainly talking about thoughts or memories. The authors describe how SE claims these bodily sensations can help complete interrupted defensive responses…

Mental Health and Psychiatry Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications

Polyvagal Theory: A Science of Safety

Stephen W. Porges

Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience • Summary & key facts • 2022 • 290 citations

This 2022 paper by Stephen Porges presents Polyvagal Theory as a way to study how feelings of safety come from the body's nervous system. It proposes that safety is not just a mood but has measurable brain–body signals. The paper explains neural pathways (like the ventral vagal complex and a…

Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

Moderate Pressure Massage Elicits a Parasympathetic Nervous System Response

Miguel Diego, Tiffany Field

International Journal of Neuroscience • Summary & key facts • 2009 • 180 citations

In a randomized trial of 20 healthy adults, researchers recorded EKGs during a 3-minute baseline, a 15-minute massage, and a 3-minute postmassage period. Moderate pressure massage raised the high-frequency (HF) heart-rate variability measure and lowered the LF/HF ratio, which the authors say indicates increased parasympathetic (vagal) activity peaking in the…

Acupuncture Treatment Research Studies Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

Prevalence and course of somatic symptoms in patients with stress-related exhaustion: does sex or age matter

Kristina Glise, Gunnar Ahlborg, Ingibjörg H. Jónsdóttir

BMC Psychiatry • Summary & key facts • 2014 • 119 citations

This study followed 228 patients diagnosed with stress-related Exhaustion Disorder (mean age 43, 69% women). Almost all patients (98%) reported at least one physical symptom and 45% reported six or more. The most common symptoms were nausea/gas/indigestion (67%), headaches (65%) and dizziness (57%). Over 18 months of individualized treatment for…

Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments Workplace Health and Well-being

The brain-body disconnect: A somatic sensory basis for trauma-related disorders

Breanne E Kearney, Ruth A Lanius

PubMed Central (PMC) • Summary & key facts • 2022 • 116 citations

This review paper suggests that problems in body-based senses — especially the vestibular system (balance/motion) and the somatosensory system (touch and body position) — may help explain many symptoms of trauma-related disorders. The authors propose that trauma can disrupt low-level, brainstem sensory processing and that this disruption can cascade into…

Action Observation and Synchronization Mental Health and Psychiatry Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

Absolute and relative outcomes of psychotherapies for eight mental disorders: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

Pim Cuijpers, Clara Miguel, Marketa Ciharova, Mathias Harrer, Djordje Basic, Ioana A Cristea, et al.

PubMed Central (PMC) • Summary & key facts • 2024 • 107 citations

This large review combined 441 randomized trials with 33,881 patients to measure how many people show a clear response to psychotherapy across eight mental disorders. Response was defined as at least a 50% reduction in symptoms from before to after treatment. Pooled response rates were modest (for example, about 42%…

Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments Treatment of Major Depression

Somatic experiencing – effectiveness and key factors of a body-oriented trauma therapy: a scoping literature review

Marie Kuhfuß, Tobias Maldei, Andreas Hetmanek, Nicola Baumann

European journal of psychotraumatology • Summary & key facts • 2021 • 87 citations

The results concerning effectiveness and method-specific key factors of SE are promising; yet, require more support from unbiased RCT-research. Future research should focus on filling this gap.

Art Therapy and Mental Health Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications

Links among emotional awareness, somatic awareness and autonomic homeostatic processing

Kanbara, Kenji, Fukunaga, Mikihiko

SpringerLink • Summary & key facts • 2016 • 77 citations

This review looks at research on emotional awareness, awareness of bodily signals (interoception), and the body's autonomic homeostatic processes. The authors say limbic brain systems link these processes, that measures of autonomic activity and stress reactivity relate to both kinds of awareness, and that problems in autonomic function may be…

Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes Mental Health and Psychiatry Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

Progressive brain changes in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome: A longitudinal MRI study

Zack Shan, Richard Kwiatek, Richard Burnet, Peter Del Fante, Donald Staines, Sonya Marshall‐Gradisnik, et al.

Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging • Summary & key facts • 2016 • 72 citations

The results suggested that CFS is associated with IFOF WM deficits which continue to deteriorate at an abnormal rate. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2016;44:1301-1311.

Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

The Neurobiology of Pathological Fatigue: New Models, New Questions

Annapoorna Kuppuswamy

The Neuroscientist • Summary & key facts • 2021 • 48 citations

This review compares three recent brain-based ideas for pathological fatigue and the evidence for them. One idea, the sensory attenuation model (SAF), says poor suppression of self-generated sensory signals makes movements feel harder and so raises perceived effort; a study found that long-term (trait) fatigue, but not day-to-day (state) fatigue,…

Mental Health and Psychiatry Neurology and Historical Studies Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

Clinical Manifestations of Body Memories: The Impact of Past Bodily Experiences on Mental Health

Antje Gentsch, Esther Kuehn

Brain Sciences • Summary & key facts • 2022 • 32 citations

The authors review research and suggest that negative "body memories" — past bodily experiences of touch, pain, movement, or inner signals that are stored in memory — may help explain why some mental health problems have strong physical or bodily symptoms. They bring together findings from neuroscience, clinical cases, and…

Action Observation and Synchronization Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments