Long-term effectiveness of Basic Body Awareness Therapy in psychiatric outpatient care. A randomized controlled study

Abstract

The long-term effects of Basic Body Awareness Therapy (BBAT) in addition to treatment as usual (TAU) were studied in a randomized, controlled design in psychiatric outpatient care. Seventy-seven patients with mood, stress-related somatoform, behavioural or personality disorders were studied at baseline, after a 3-month treatment period and at a 6-month follow-up. The use of psychiatric healthcare and social services were studied during 12 months, starting with baseline. The study comprised a control group (n=39) that received TAU and a treatment group (n=38) that in addition to TAU also received 12 sessions of BBAT. The aim was to study the effects of BBAT in addition to TAU compared with TAU only, regarding: body awareness, health-related factors and coping strategies as well as the use of the social services and psychiatric healthcare. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) repeated-measures analysis of the intention-to-treat population (n=77) revealed that the BBAT group had a significantly improved body awarene...