Monitoring Embodied Mentalization with Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA): a pilot study

Abstract

This pilot study is an extension of body awareness research and embodied mentalization to improve the assessment of people suffering from somatic symptoms. Self-report questionnaires were completed by 64 young (18-30 years) male (34%) and female (66%) participants to establish two groups of somatic symptom severity (PHQ-15). Then, the IAQ-19 examined the adaptive and maladaptive body awareness of 58 participants. Finally, 48 participants were asked about their mental and physical states through Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) at five times each day for 14 days. The daily measurements were processed using multilevel analyses with the most parsimonious models comparing log likelihoods. The simple regressions between adaptive and maladaptive body awareness and somatic symptom severity were non-significant. However, daily repeated measures of affective states and self-reports of physical states were significantly associated. For participants with severe somatic symptoms, high irritation was correlated with relatively slow breathing and, low irritation with relatively fast breathing. All other interactions were non-significant. Conclusively, the findings confirm a link between bodily signals and mental states like stress, sadness, irritation and happiness. Additionally, these associations tentatively support the idea that through manipulation of our bodily state we may be able to change our mental states. This pilot study is a very first step in the understanding of the role of body awareness, affects and physical sensations in relation to somatic symptoms although improvements of the procedure and more sophisticated analyses are necessary before EMA could have practical implications for diagnosing and treatment planning in therapy.