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Interoception can be broadly defined as the sense of signals originating within the body. As such, interoception is critical for our sense of embodiment, motivation, and well-being. And yet, despite its importance, interoception remains poorly understood within modern science. This paper reviews interdisciplinary perspectives on interoception, with the goal of presenting a unified perspective from diverse fields such as neuroscience, clinical practice, and contemplative studies. It is hoped that this integrative effort will advance our understanding of how interoception determines well-being, and identify the central challenges to such understanding. To this end, we introduce an expanded taxonomy of interoceptive processes, arguing that many of these processes can be understood through an emerging predictive coding model for mind-body integration. The model, which describes the tension between expected and felt body sensation, parallels contemplative theories, and implicates interoception in a variety of affective and psychosomatic disorders. We conclude that maladaptive construal of bodily sensations may lie at the heart of many contemporary maladies, and that contemplative practices may attenuate these interpretative biases, restoring a person's sense of presence and agency in the world.

Mind-body interactions play a major role in the prognosis of chronic pain, and mind-body therapies such as meditation, yoga, Tai Chi, and Feldenkrais presumably provide benefits for pain patients. The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) scales, designed to measure key aspects of mind-body interaction, were developed and validated with individuals practicing mind-body therapies, but have never been used in pain patients.We administered the MAIA to primary care patients with past or current low back pain and explored differences in the performance of the MAIA scales between this and the original validation sample. We compared scale means, exploratory item cluster and confirmatory factor analyses, scale-scale correlations, and internal-consistency reliability between the two samples and explored correlations with validity measures.Responses were analyzed from 435 patients, of whom 40% reported current pain. Cross-sectional comparison between the two groups showed marked differences in eight aspects of interoceptive awareness. Factor and cluster analyses generally confirmed the conceptual model with its eight dimensions in a pain population. Correlations with validity measures were in the expected direction. Internal-consistency reliability was good for six of eight MAIA scales. We provided specific suggestions for their further development.Self-reported aspects of interoceptive awareness differ between primary care patients with past or current low back pain and mind-body trained individuals, suggesting further research is warranted on the question whether mind-body therapies can alter interoceptive attentional styles with pain. The MAIA may be useful in assessing changes in aspects of interoceptive awareness and in exploring the mechanism of action in trials of mind-body interventions in pain patients.

Abstract Enhancing body awareness has been described as a key element or a mechanism of action for therapeutic approaches often categorized as mind-body approaches, such as yoga, TaiChi, Body-Oriented Psychotherapy, Body Awareness Therapy, mindfulness based therapies/meditation, Feldenkrais, Alexander Method, Breath Therapy and others with reported benefits for a variety of health conditions. To better understand the conceptualization of body awareness in mind-body therapies, leading practitioners and teaching faculty of these approaches were invited as well as their patients to participate in focus groups. The qualitative analysis of these focus groups with representative practitioners of body awareness practices, and the perspectives of their patients, elucidated the common ground of their understanding of body awareness. For them body awareness is an inseparable aspect of embodied self awareness realized in action and interaction with the environment and world. It is the awareness of embodiment as an innate tendency of our organism for emergent self-organization and wholeness. The process that patients undergo in these therapies was seen as a progression towards greater unity between body and self, very similar to the conceptualization of embodiment as dialectic of body and self described by some philosophers as being experienced in distinct developmental levels.

Purpose: The purpose of this measurement study was to examine the Scale of Body Connection (SBC) sensitivity to change among mind--body or bodywork interventions and to explore the concurrent validity in relation to emotion dysregulation and mindfulness skills. Methods: This study was based on multiple clinical trials that had used the SBC to evaluate changes in body awareness (BA) and bodily dissociation (BD) in response to a mind--body or bodywork intervention. To test for sensitivity to change, t tests were used to examine change and estimate effect sizes. To explore convergent validity, Pearson's product--moment correlations between the SBC subscales and Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) were calculated among a subset of the studies, which also included these measures. Results: The BA and BD scales consistently detected significant positive responses to a range of intervention types (yoga, mindfulness meditation, BA, multimodal therapy, and bodywork), demonstrating SBC sensitivity to change. With a few exceptions, the effect sizes across studies for BA were above 0.35, indicating near moderate-to-large effect sizes. The effect sizes for BD, as a measure of responsiveness, were much smaller than for BA; however, four of the studies had effect sizes between 0.54 and 0.86. Concurrent validity with the DERS was supported by moderate-to-large correlations, and with the FFMQ, it was significant with the BA scale in one included study. Conclusions: The results of this study further establish SBC validity and sensitivity to change across a range of mind--body therapies and confirm prior findings of moderate-to-strong internal consistency reliability. The findings support the use of this brief scale to assess key dimensions of BA and BD in practice and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing welfare laws are influenced by the prevailing attitudes, beliefs and values. White middle-class work ethics, beliefs regarding male-female roles and the concept of self-sufficiency inform welfare laws and do not take into account the findings of research done on poverty, its causes and its dynamics. The main reason for this is that the findings do not conform to the above-mentioned beliefs.

Abstract Enhancing body awareness has been described as a key element or a mechanism of action for therapeutic approaches often categorized as mind-body approaches, such as yoga, TaiChi, Body-Oriented Psychotherapy, Body Awareness Therapy, mindfulness based therapies/meditation, Feldenkrais, Alexander Method, Breath Therapy and others with reported benefits for a variety of health conditions. To better understand the conceptualization of body awareness in mind-body therapies, leading practitioners and teaching faculty of these approaches were invited as well as their patients to participate in focus groups. The qualitative analysis of these focus groups with representative practitioners of body awareness practices, and the perspectives of their patients, elucidated the common ground of their understanding of body awareness. For them body awareness is an inseparable aspect of embodied self awareness realized in action and interaction with the environment and world. It is the awareness of embodiment as an innate tendency of our organism for emergent self-organization and wholeness. The process that patients undergo in these therapies was seen as a progression towards greater unity between body and self, very similar to the conceptualization of embodiment as dialectic of body and self described by some philosophers as being experienced in distinct developmental levels.

Eighth-graders' (N=1,513) responses to a smoking questionnaire and a self-esteem scale revealed that 15 percent currently smoked, with another 17 percent intending to smoke. Self-esteem and parental smoking behavior significantly influenced students' smoking behavior, as did family involvement in the tobacco industry. (Author/CB)

Background: Emotion regulation is increasingly recognized as important for the prevention and treatment of substance use disorder (SUD). However, there is an identified lack of physiological indexes of emotion dysregulation in SUD treatment studies, critically needed to better understand the link between emotion regulation capacity (measured physiologically) and self-report health outcomes among individuals in SUD treatment. Objective: To examine the association between respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and self-report health outcomes among women in SUD treatment. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study based on baseline data from 217 women enrolled in a randomized control trial to study a mind-body intervention as an adjunct to SUD treatment. All participants were enrolled in community-based outpatient treatment. Participants were administered questionnaires to examine sample characteristics, mental health symptoms, and interoceptive awareness and mindfulness skills. RSA data was gathered as an index of emotion dysregulation. Descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, and regression were used in the analyses. Results: Findings highlight the extensive trauma histories, low SES, and the high symptoms of distress in this sample. RSA was only significantly correlated with interoceptive awareness after controlling for age and BMI. Measures of symptomatic distress and mindfulness were not correlated with RSA. Conclusions/Importance: Results provide the first evidence of RSA as an index of interoceptive awareness in this population. The inclusion of biomarkers such as RSA in SUD clinical studies may help identify individuals that are in need of targeted treatments that include interoceptive awareness training focused on improving emotion regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mind-body interactions play a major role in the prognosis of chronic pain, and mind-body therapies such as meditation, yoga, Tai Chi, and Feldenkrais presumably provide benefits for pain patients. The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) scales, designed to measure key aspects of mind-body interaction, were developed and validated with individuals practicing mind-body therapies, but have never been used in pain patients. Methods: We administered the MAIA to primary care patients with past or current low back pain and explored differences in the performance of the MAIA scales between this and the original validation sample. We compared scale means, exploratory item cluster and confirmatory factor analyses, scale-scale correlations, and internal-consistency reliability between the two samples and explored correlations with validity measures. Results: Responses were analyzed from 435 patients, of whom 40% reported current pain. Cross-sectional comparison between the two groups showed marked differences in eight aspects of interoceptive awareness. Factor and cluster analyses generally confirmed the conceptual model with its eight dimensions in a pain population. Correlations with validity measures were in the expected direction. Internal-consistency reliability was good for six of eight MAIA scales. We provided specific suggestions for their further development. Conclusion: Self-reported aspects of interoceptive awareness differ between primary care patients with past or current low back pain and mind-body trained individuals, suggesting further research is warranted on the question whether mind-body therapies can alter interoceptive attentional styles with pain. The MAIA may be useful in assessing changes in aspects of interoceptive awareness and in exploring the mechanism of action in trials of mind-body interventions in pain patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context Preliminary studies of body therapy for women in trauma recovery suggest positive results but are not specific to women with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and chronic pain. Objective and Participants To examine the feasibility and acceptability of body-oriented therapy for female veterans with PTSD and chronic pain taking prescription analgesics. Design and Setting: A 2-group, randomized, repeated-measures design was employed. Female veterans (N=14) were recruited from a Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare system in the Northwest United States (VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, Washington). Participants were assigned to either treatment as usual (TAU) or treatment as usual and 8 weekly individual body-oriented therapy sessions (mindful awareness in body-oriented therapy group). Measures Written questionnaires and interviews were used to assess intervention acceptability; reliable and valid measures were administered at 3 time points to evaluate measurement acceptability and performance; and within-treatment process measures and a participant post-intervention questionnaire assessed treatment fidelity. Intervention A body-oriented therapy protocol, ‘Mindful Awareness in Body-oriented Therapy’ (MABT) was used. This is a mind-body approach that incorporates massage, mindfulness, and the emotional processing of psychotherapy. Results Over 10 weeks of recruitment, 31 women expressed interest in study participation. The primary reason for exclusion was the lack of prescription analgesic use for chronic pain. Study participants adhered to study procedures, and 100% attended at least 7 of 8 sessions; all completed in-person post-treatment assessment. Written questionnaires about intervention experience suggest increased tools for pain relief/relaxation, increased body/mind connection, and increased trust/safety. Ten of 14 responded to mailed 3-month follow-up. The response-to-process measures indicated the feasibility of implementing the manualized protocol and point to the need for longer sessions and a longer intervention period with this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the study "Body Awareness and the Practice of Yoga or Meditation in 435 Primary Care Patients With Past or Current Low Back Pain" by Wolf E. Mehling and colleagues is presented.