Body-Related Emotions in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Following Childhood Sexual Abuse.

Traumatic experiences are associated with emotions such as anxiety, shame, guilt, disgust, and anger. For patients who have experienced child sexual abuse, these emotions might be triggered by perceptions of their own body. The aim of this study was to investigate the extent of the association of the body to traumatic experiences and to discern the emotions linked to trauma-associated body areas.

Body-related attentional biases in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder resulting from childhood sexual abuse with and without co-occurring borderline personality disorder.

Background And Objectives: Disturbed body perception is a common characteristic of patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after childhood sexual abuse (CSA). We examined the extent to which biased information processing of body related stimuli was related to CSA.

Methods: Patients with PTSD after CSA (PTSD group; n = 61) were compared to healthy controls (HC group; n = 30).

Standardized mirror confrontation: Body-related emotions, cognitions and level of dissociation in patients with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder after childhood sexual abuse.

Background: A criterion for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is the avoidance of trauma-associated stimuli that trigger emotional suffering. First studies on body image of patients with PTSD after childhood sexual abuse (CSA) support the hypothesis that awareness of the own body triggers emotional suffering.

Methods: Body-related emotions, cognitions and level of dissociation of n = 17 patients meeting DSM-IV criteria for PTSD and n = 29 healthy controls (HCs) during a standardized mirror confrontation while wearing a standard bikini were assessed.

Body self-evaluation and physical scars in patients with borderline personality disorder: an observational study.

Background: Data from general psychology suggest that body self-evaluation is linked to self-esteem and social emotions. Although these emotions are fragile in individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD), body self-evaluation is clearly understudied in BPD research.

Methods: A total of 200 women took part in the study: 80 female BPD patients, and 47 healthy and 73 clinical controls including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after childhood sexual abuse (CSA).