Philosophy Ethics and Humanities in Medicine
January 1, 2011
Wolf E Mehling, Judith Wrubel, Jennifer J Daubenmier et al.
465 citations
Body awareness is a key element in mind-body therapies such as yoga, Tai Chi, and mindfulness meditation, yet its meaning across these approaches is not always clear. Through focus groups with leading practitioners and their patients, the study finds that body awareness is understood as an inseparable part of embodied self-awareness, realized through action and interaction with the environment. It is seen as an innate tendency of the organism toward self-organization and wholeness. Patients experience a progression toward greater unity between body and self, mirroring a philosophical concept of embodiment as a dialectic experienced at distinct developmental levels.
Mindfulness
November 1, 2024
Cynthia J Price, Kenneth C Pike, Anna Treadway et al.
9 citations
A mindfulness-based intervention teaching interoceptive awareness skills, added to medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD), did not reduce substance use more than MOUD alone in a stable treatment population. However, participants who received the mindfulness training showed significant improvements in PTSD symptoms, interoceptive awareness, pain severity, pain-related activity interference, and physical symptom frequency. The study involved 303 adults stabilized on MOUD from six community clinics in the Northwestern United States, randomly assigned to either the mindfulness intervention plus MOUD or MOUD only. Findings suggest that interoceptive training can improve multiple health outcomes critical for supporting MOUD treatment, even when substance use levels are already low.
Global advances in integrative medicine and health
January 1, 2025
Cynthia J Price, Dana Dharmakaya Colgan, Erin Abu-Rish Blakeney et al.
A pilot program integrating Mindful Awareness in Body-oriented Therapy (MABT) into a chronic pain clinic proved feasible and showed significant improvements. Of 70 referred patients, 41 started the program and 30 completed eight individual sessions with a trained massage therapist. Statistically and clinically significant improvements were found in physical function, fatigue, anxiety, sleep, social roles, and pain interference, along with large effects on interoceptive sensibility and emotion regulation. MABT offers a promising non-pharmacological approach for chronic pain.