Immediate effects of interoceptive awareness training through Mindful Awareness in Body-oriented Therapy (MABT) for women in substance use disorder treatment.
Cynthia J Price, Elaine A Thompson, Sheila E Crowell, Kenneth Pike, Sunny C Cheng, Sara Parent, Carole Hooven
Substance Abuse September 20, 2018 DOI: 10.1080/08897077.2018.1488335 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 217 |
| Population | Women in intensive outpatient treatment for chemical dependency at three community clinics in the Pacific Northwest of the United States |
| Interventions | Mindful Awareness in Body-oriented Therapy (MABT) treatment as usual women's health education |
| Duration | 3 months post-intervention follow-up |
| Topics | Addiction Meditation |
| Keywords | Humans Substance-related disorders Treatment outcome Awareness Middle aged Female Mind-body therapies Young adult Self report Interoception Craving Psychological distress Emotional regulation Women Complementary therapies Emotion regulation |
| Key findings | Women randomly assigned to MABT plus treatment as usual showed significant improvements in interoceptive awareness and mindfulness skills, emotion dysregulation (self-report and psychophysiology), and days abstinent compared with the other study groups. Among women completing at least 75% of MABT sessions, depressive symptoms and substance craving also decreased. The authors argue these findings are consistent with neurocognitive models linking interoception to emotion regulation and health outcomes. |
Abstract
Background: Sensory information gained through interoceptive awareness may play an important role in affective behavior and successful inhibition of drug use. This study examined the immediate pre-post effects of the mind-body intervention Mindful Awareness in Body-oriented Therapy (MABT) as an adjunct to women's substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. MABT teaches interoceptive awareness skills to promote self-care and emotion regulation.
Methods: Women in intensive outpatient treatment (IOP) for chemical dependency (N = 217) at 3 community clinics in the Pacific Northwest of the United States were recruited and randomly assigned to one of 3 study conditions: MABT + treatment as usual (TAU), women's health education (WHE) +TAU (active control condition), and TAU only. At baseline and 3 months post-intervention, assessments were made of interoceptive awareness skills and mindfulness, emotion regulation (self-report and psychophysiological measures), symptomatic distress (depression and trauma-related symptoms), and substance use (days abstinent) and craving. Changes in outcomes across time were assessed using multilevel mixed-effects linear regression.
Results: Findings based on an intent-to-treat approach demonstrated significant improvements in interoceptive awareness and mindfulness skills, emotion dysregulation (self-report and psychophysiology), and days abstinent for women who received MABT compared with the other study groups. Additional analyses based on participants who completed the major components of MABT (at least 75% of the intervention sessions) revealed these same improvements as well as reductions in depressive symptoms and substance craving.
Conclusions: Findings that interoceptive training is associated with health outcomes for women in SUD treatment are consistent with emerging neurocognitive models that link interoception to emotion regulation and to related health outcomes, providing knowledge critical to supporting and improving SUD treatment.