"We Dance and Find Each Other"1: Effects of Dance/Movement Therapy on Negative Symptoms in Autism Spectrum Disorder.
The treatment of deficits in social interaction, a shared symptom cluster in persons with schizophrenia (negative symptoms) and autism spectrum disorder (DSM-5 A-criterion), has so far remained widely unsuccessful in common approaches of psychotherapy. The alternative approach ofembodimentbrings to focus body-oriented intervention methods based on a theoretic framework that explains the disorders on a more basic level than common theory of mind approaches. The randomized controlled trial at hand investigated the effects of a 10-week manualized dance and movement therapy intervention on negative symptoms in participants with autism spectrum disorder. Although the observed effects failed to reach significance at the conventional 0.05 threshold, possibly due to an undersized sample, an encouraging trend towards stronger symptom reduction in the treatment group for overall negative symptoms and for almost all subtypes was found at the 0.10-level. Effect sizes were small but clinically meaningful, and the resulting patterns were in accordance with theoretical expectations. The study at hand contributes to finding an effective treatment approach for autism spectrum disorder in accordance with the notion ofembodiment.
Department of Psychology, University of Heidelberg, Hauptstr. 48-52, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany. malin.hildebrandt@stud.uni-heidelberg.de.
Malin K
MK
Hildebrandt
Department of Creative Arts Therapies and Therapy Sciences, Alanus University, Villestr. 3, 53347 Alfter/Bonn, Germany. malin.hildebrandt@gmx.net.|Department of Therapy Sciences, SRH University Heidelberg, Maria-Probst-Str. 3, 69123 Heidelberg, Germany. malin.hildebrandt@gmx.net.
Sabine C
SC
Koch
Department of General Psychiatry, University of Heidelberg, Vossstr. 2-4, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany. thomas.fuchs@med.uni-heidelberg.de.
Thomas
T
Fuchs
autism spectrum disorder; dance movement therapy; embodiment; intervention methods; negative symptoms; randomized control trial