title: The impact of gender on treatment effectiveness of body psychotherapy for negative symptoms of schizophrenia: A secondary analysis of the NESS trial data.
abstract: Despite promising findings from small-scale studies suggesting that body psychotherapy may be an effective treatment for negative symptoms, these results were not replicated in a recent multisite trial. In this trial a far smaller proportion of women were recruited relative to earlier studies, which may be an issue given the gender mix of the sample evaluated has been found to affect trial outcomes in schizophrenia. Using data from our multisite trial, the interaction between gender and treatment allocation as a predictor of outcomes was examined in 275 participants (72 women and 203 men) randomised to either a body psychotherapy or Pilates group. Negative symptoms were found to significantly reduce in women randomised to the body psychotherapy condition in comparison to Pilates, while no such effect was detected in men. Consistent with the smaller trials, this improvement was found to relate predominantly to expressive deficits. These findings suggest that body psychotherapy may be an effective treatment for negative symptoms in women. These findings emphasise the importance of sample characteristics in determining trial outcome in psychological treatment studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California San Francisco, Box 0984 266, 401 Parnassus Avenue, LP-255, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. Electronic address: mark.savill@ucsf.edu.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Savill
authors.affiliation: Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry, WHO Collaborating Centre for Mental Health Services Development, Queen Mary University of London, UK.
authors.forename: Stavros
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Orfanos
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bentall
authors.affiliation: MHeNS School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Reininghaus
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Kings College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Til
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wykes
authors.affiliation: Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry, WHO Collaborating Centre for Mental Health Services Development, Queen Mary University of London, UK.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Priebe
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000628:therapy*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012737:Sex Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Arts therapies; Men; Psychosis; Subgroup analysis; Women