Acceptability of Somatic Therapy for PTSD
Faculty in the Section of General Internal Medicine (GIM), Assistant Professor Karim Sariahmed and Associate Professor Natalia Morone, collaborated with Assistant Professor Nuha Alshabani from Psychiatry to assess the acceptability of somatic therapies for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and staff in a safety net hospital setting. The faculty conducted a qualitative study interviewing patients with PTSD and staff at GIM’s primary care clinic. They published their findings in an article titled “The Acceptability of Somatic Therapy for PTSD Among Patients at an Urban Safety Net Primary Care Clinic” in Global Advances in Integrative Medicine and Health.
As outlined in the publication abstract, “PTSD has higher prevalence in safety net settings, which also face structural barriers to the use of gold-standard, exposure-focused treatments. Somatic therapies (STs) are used to treat PTSD with a focus on sensations. STs may be a culturally relevant option not requiring exposure. They have not been rigorously studied.” STs are a “subcategory of mind and body therapies used to treat trauma and PTSD,” and they “emphasize interoception (sensing and interpreting signals from within the body), proprioception (sensing and interpreting body position), and kinesthesis (sensing and interpreting body movement).” While the media describes STs as increasingly popular and some argue that STs can ‘fill a gap’ in treatment, there have been no studies on the acceptability of STs.
The study interviewed 14 patients, who were diverse in terms of race and traumatic exposures, and most had a chronic pain condition. “Analysis yielded five major themes: the somatic experience of PTSD, patient perspectives on exposure-based therapy, past experiences with mind and body practices, patient mind and body beliefs, and acceptability of ST. ST was congruent with many patients’ lived experiences and their beliefs about mental health. Challenges faced in seeking care for PTSD, including negative past therapy experiences and poor access, promoted openness to ST.”
Patients’ beliefs about the mind and the body reflected “interlocked psychological and somatic symptoms of PTSD” experiences and they expressed these through personal narratives. Most notably, the study found that the patients “actively seek a variety of treatments, and are generally open to trying ST.” This study confirms that ST may be “culturally relevant to diverse patients with PTSD in an urban safety net setting.”