Basic Body Awareness Therapy for Persons With Autism

NCT03723876 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: Ingrid Bertilsson
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 57
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 2

Brief Summary

Autism is a diagnosis with certain criteria, especially social and communicative disabilities. Several body functions may be affected to create these disabilities, such as lack of ability to understand that other people think or feel differently than the person with autism, difficulty to experience bodily signals or deviant function of sensory modalities. Several theories describe that our physical, physiological, psychological and existential being can not be separated from each other. The combination of described difficulties in autism makes the perception of the surrounding world or the people within it difficult to understand or interpret, i.e., lack of a sense of coherence. The inner experience of the person as well as the expression of his/her movement qualities will be the effects. There are physiotherapeutic intervention techniques of body awareness, with the purpose to increase the connection to the body and to work with more functional movements. Instead of working with improving the well-being by cognitive top-down techniques, body awareness techniques work bottom-up. The hypothesis is that an intervention with body awareness therapy will increase the possibility for persons with autism to improve movement quality, and increase contact with bodily signals. It will give a better chance to understand and interpret the world and people in different context, conquering a sense of coherence. The study include at least 40 participants with autism randomized to two groups: 1.) intervention once a week for 12 weeks and 2. ) a control group (who will be invited to the therapy after ending study participation). They will be recruited from patient records in habilitation care. The criteria are: having autism, being 15-30 years, not having an intellectual impairment and not having a severe depression. The participants are to have been assessed with the standardized "Basic Body Awareness Scale Movement Quality and Experience", BAS MQ-E, and been found to being relevant participants for body awareness intervention in regard to the expressed individual health problem. Two assessments will be used. The primary one addresses each participants´s individual health problem, using a visual 11-graded scale (NRS), grading the present experience of the health problem. The secondary one is BAS MQ-E. The assessments will be administered as follows: i) prior to; NRS + BAS MQ-E, ii) after 7 occasions; NRS and iii) maximum 2 months after intervention; NRS + BAS MQ-E.

Conditions

Autism

Keywords

Autism; Movement; Body-mind therapy; Physiotherapy

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Change of experienced health problem from Numeric rating scale

  The scale is a Numeric rating scale, 15 cm long with 11 vertical lines, marked from 0 to 10. One individual health problem will be identified by the participant. The health problem needs to be judged by the physiotherapist as relevant to meet with body awareness intervention. If so, the sentence will be typed above the scale before rating. A health problem could for instance be "I experience muscle tensions". 0=no problems experienced and 10=extreme problems, i.e. 0 is the best value. In order to follow any process of change, an intermediate measure will be performed.

  1.) Maximum 2 months prior to intervention, 2.) after 7 occasions of therapy and 3.) maximum 2 months after last occasion of intervention at 12 weeks, approximately 20 weeks total

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Change of results of Body Awareness Scale Movement Quality and Experiences, BAS MQ-E

  1.) Maximum 2 months prior to intervention and 2.) maximum 2 months after last occasion of intervention at 12 weeks, approximately 20 weeks total

Study Arms (2)

Intervention group

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Twelve occasions of Basic body awareness therapy, administered once a week, alongside treatment as usual (such as structured everyday support, medicine, contact with social worker).

Behavioral: Body awareness therapy

Control group

NO INTERVENTION

No extra intervention except treatment as usual.

Interventions

Body awareness therapy BEHAVIORAL

The physiotherapist uses body awareness techniques, i.e. guiding the participant in movement qualities such as stability, breathing, flow and grounding. Conscious awareness focused on bodily experiences is a key component to be able to reflect on what your body signals. As a baseline a standardized observation of the movement quality of the individual is performed. The physiotherapist needs special education in the body awareness technique used, to rightly perform and analyse the observation and administer the intervention. The aim of the body awareness therapy is to raise physical and mental awareness by strengthening the interplay between sensory impressions and motor ability and to gain knowledge of own movement patterns that are not functional and to form alternatives to these.

Also known as: Basic body awareness therapy

Intervention group

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 15 Years - 30 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• diagnosed with an autism diagnosis (F84\* in ICD-10)
• years
• accepted for care at habilitation unit

You may not qualify if:

• diagnosed with intellectual disability (F70\*-F73\*, F78\*-F79\* in ICD-10)
• medium or severe depression
• major problems with country´s native language

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Lund University: lead
• Vastra Gotaland Region: collaborator

Study Sites (2)

Vuxenhabiliteringen

Vaxjo, Kronoberg County, Sweden

Location

Habiliteringen Vastra Gotalandsregionen

Skövde, Västra Götaland County, 54150, Sweden

Location

Related Publications (16)

• Bertilsson I, Gyllensten AL, Opheim A, Gard G, Sjodahl Hammarlund C. Understanding one's body and movements from the perspective of young adults with autism: A mixed-methods study. Res Dev Disabil. 2018 Jul;78:44-54. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2018.05.002. Epub 2018 May 15.

  PMID: 29772450 BACKGROUND

• Bhat AN, Landa RJ, Galloway JC. Current perspectives on motor functioning in infants, children, and adults with autism spectrum disorders. Phys Ther. 2011 Jul;91(7):1116-29. doi: 10.2522/ptj.20100294. Epub 2011 May 5.

  PMID: 21546566 BACKGROUND

• Cesaroni L, Garber M. Exploring the experience of autism through firsthand accounts. J Autism Dev Disord. 1991 Sep;21(3):303-13. doi: 10.1007/BF02207327.

  PMID: 1938776 BACKGROUND

• Einspieler C, Sigafoos J, Bolte S, Bratl-Pokorny KD, Landa R, Marschik PB. Highlighting the first 5 months of life: General movements in infants later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder or Rett Syndrome. Res Autism Spectr Disord. 2014 Mar;8(3):286-291. doi: 10.1016/j.rasd.2013.12.013. Epub 2014 Jan 9.

  PMID: 29770159 BACKGROUND

• Frith U, Happe F. Autism: beyond "theory of mind". Cognition. 1994 Apr-Jun;50(1-3):115-32. doi: 10.1016/0010-0277(94)90024-8.

  PMID: 8039356 BACKGROUND

• Gyllensten, A. L. (2012). Basal kroppskännedom. i G. Biguet, R. Keskinen-Rosenqvist, & A. Levy Berg, Att förstå kroppens signaler - sjukgymnastiska perspektiv (ss. 189-206). Lund: Studentlitteratur.

  BACKGROUND

• Gyllensten, A. L., Hansson, L., & Ekdahl, C. (2003). Patient experiences of basic body awareness therapy and the relationship with the physiotherapist. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, 7, 173-183.

  BACKGROUND

• Hedlund, L. (2014). Basal kroppskännedom och psykomotorisk funktion hos personer med allvarlig psykisk sjukdom. Doctoral thesis, Lund: Department of Health Science, Division of Physiotherapy.

  BACKGROUND

• Kopp S, Beckung E, Gillberg C. Developmental coordination disorder and other motor control problems in girls with autism spectrum disorder and/or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Res Dev Disabil. 2010 Mar-Apr;31(2):350-61. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2009.09.017. Epub 2009 Nov 11.

  PMID: 19910158 BACKGROUND

• Lai MC, Lombardo MV, Baron-Cohen S. Autism. Lancet. 2014 Mar 8;383(9920):896-910. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(13)61539-1. Epub 2013 Sep 26.

  PMID: 24074734 BACKGROUND

• Norman, G., & Streiner, D. (2014). Biostatistics. The bare essentials. Ontario: PMPH-USA Limited.

  BACKGROUND

• Regeringskansliet. (2008). FN:s konvention om rättigheter för personer med funktionsnedsättning. Hämtat från http://www.regeringen.se/contentassets/0b52fa83450445aebbf88827ec3eecb8/fns-konvention-om-rattigheter-for-personer-med-funktionsnedsattning-ds-200823

  BACKGROUND

• Rizzolatti G, Fabbri-Destro M. Mirror neurons: from discovery to autism. Exp Brain Res. 2010 Jan;200(3-4):223-37. doi: 10.1007/s00221-009-2002-3. Epub 2009 Sep 18. No abstract available.

  PMID: 19760408 BACKGROUND

• Simons J, Leitschuh C, Raymaekers A, Vandenbussche I. Body awareness in preschool children with psychiatric disorder. Res Dev Disabil. 2011 Sep-Oct;32(5):1623-30. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2011.02.011. Epub 2011 Mar 24.

  PMID: 21435833 BACKGROUND

• Skjaerven, L., Gard, G., & Kristoffersen, K. (2003). Basic elements and dimensions to the phenomenon of quality of movement - a case study. Journal of bodywork and movement therapies.

  BACKGROUND

• Whyatt C, Craig C. Sensory-motor problems in Autism. Front Integr Neurosci. 2013 Jul 18;7:51. doi: 10.3389/fnint.2013.00051. eCollection 2013.

  PMID: 23882194 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Autistic Disorder

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Autism Spectrum Disorder; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Mental Disorders

Study Officials

• Catharina Sjödahl Hammarlund, As.professo

  Lund University

  STUDY CHAIR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: June 21, 2018
• First Posted: October 30, 2018
• Study Start: May 1, 2018
• Primary Completion: June 15, 2022
• Study Completion: June 15, 2022
• Last Updated: July 1, 2022

Record last verified: 2022-06

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

SE (2)