Body awareness therapy: a new strategy for relief of symptoms in irritable bowel syndrome patients.

AIM: To compare irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients with apparently healthy persons and to evaluate body awareness therapy, which is a physiotherapeutic remedy focusing on normalising tensions in the body, for the treatment of IBS with the hypothesis that altered body tension is associated with the syndrome.
METHODS: Twenty-one IBS patients received body awareness therapy two hours weekly for 24 wk. At baseline as well as after 12 and 24 wk, they underwent examinations including resource oriented body examination in combination with body awareness scale evaluation and filled in gastrointestinal and psychological symptom questionnaires. Saliva cortisol was analysed. A group of 21 apparently healthy persons underwent the same examinations once.
RESULTS: Compared to the apparently healthy group, IBS patients scored higher at baseline for gastrointestinal and psychological symptoms. They showed more often alterations in normal body tension patterns, as well as deviating cortisol slopes in saliva. After 24 wk of body awareness therapy, their gastrointestinal and psychological symptoms were reduced overall. Somatic symptoms decreased in parallel with depressive symptoms. Whole body pain score decreased, coping ability as well as biochemical stress markers improved.
CONCLUSION: IBS patients scored higher for gastrointestinal and psychological symptoms, and presented with altered biochemical stress markers. Their body tension deviated compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, body awareness therapy gave relief of both somatic complaints, psychological symptoms and normalised body tension. These findings indicate that distorted tension constitutes an important part of the symptoms in IBS.