Differential effects of a brief body scan session on pain and anxiety levels

Summary & key facts

The study tested a single 14-minute body scan session with 355 undergraduate and graduate students. Participants filled out questionnaires before and after the exercise and were grouped by low or high everyday symptom levels (anxiety and somatic symptoms). The brief body scan reduced current anxiety and pain more for students who had higher symptom levels, with the clearest benefit for those high in anxiety.

Key facts:

• The study included 355 participants who were undergraduate or graduate students.
• Participants completed questionnaires, did a 14-minute body scan exercise, and then completed some questionnaires again to measure change.
• Researchers split participants into low- and high-symptom groups using questionnaires for anxiety and somatic (body) symptoms.
• Body scanning produced larger decreases in current anxiety and pain for the high-symptom group than for the low-symptom group.
• The clearest benefit was seen for participants with higher anxiety symptoms.
• The study tested immediate, short-term changes after one single 14-minute session rather than long-term effects.

Abstract

Abstract Objective This study aimed to examine the impact of a brief body scan session on individuals' anxiety and pain levels considering individuals' levels of symptom severity (low vs. high). Method The sample was composed of 355 undergraduate or graduate students. Participants completed a series of questionnaires, performed a 14‐min body scan exercise and completed some of the questionnaires a second time. Two questionnaires were aimed at identifying individuals reporting high and low levels of symptomatology (i.e. anxiety and somatic symptoms) in their everyday life, while other questionnaires were aimed at assessing the effectiveness of the body scan session in reducing current symptoms. Results As hypothesised, body scanning was more effective in decreasing anxiety and pain for students with high‐symptom severity than for those with low‐symptom severity. Discussion We demonstrated that individuals with high levels of symptoms, and especially anxiety symptoms, can benefit from a brief form of body scan.

Topics

Art Therapy and Mental Health Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts

Categories

Clinical Psychology Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Anxiety Clinical psychology Computer science Differential effects Internal medicine Medicine Physical medicine and rehabilitation Physical therapy Psychiatry Psychology Session (web analytics) World Wide Web

Conditions & symptoms

Anxiety Anxiety or worry Chronic pain