Mindful awareness in body-oriented therapy as an adjunct to women’s substance use disorder treatment: a pilot feasibility study

Summary & key facts

This small randomized pilot study tested a therapy called Mindful Awareness in Body-Oriented Therapy (MABT) as an extra treatment for women in substance use disorder (SUD) care. Forty-six women were enrolled and those in the MABT group received eight weekly one-on-one sessions in addition to usual care. At the main test after treatment, the MABT group had significantly fewer days of substance use. At nine months, the MABT group showed better scores on several mental health measures. The authors say MABT is feasible to offer in SUD treatment but that larger trials are needed to confirm the effects.

Key facts:

• The study was a randomized controlled pilot trial done only with women who had substance use disorders.
• Sixty-one women were screened and 46 were enrolled and randomized into the study.
• Participants assigned to MABT received eight weekly individual therapy sessions in addition to treatment as usual.
• The primary outcome was days of substance use, and the MABT group had significantly fewer days of substance use at posttest compared with treatment as usual.
• At the 9-month follow-up, the MABT group showed improvements compared with treatment as usual in eating disorder symptoms, depression, anxiety, dissociation, perceived stress, physical symptom frequency, and bodily dissociation.
• The authors described the observed effects as moderate to large and concluded that MABT is feasible to implement in women's SUD treatment but said it warrants further efficacy testing (larger studies).

Abstract

This study examined mindful awareness in body-oriented therapy (MABT) feasibility as a novel adjunct to women's substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. As an individual therapy, MABT combines manual and mind-body approaches to develop interoception and self-care tools for emotion regulation. A 2-gro …

Topics

Eating Disorders and Behaviors Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

Categories

Clinical Psychology Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Adjunct Anxiety Clinical psychology Depression (economics) Economics Internal medicine Linguistics Macroeconomics Medicine Philosophy Physical therapy Psychiatry Psychology Randomized controlled trial Substance abuse Substance use