The effect of a single yoga class on interoceptive accuracy in patients affected by anorexia nervosa and in healthy controls : a pilot study

Purpose: To evaluate interoceptive accuracy (Iac) before and after a single yoga class in a population of patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) and in a population of healthy controls (HC). Methods: Fifteen patients with AN and twenty HC were included in the study. All individuals participated in a single yoga class. Before (T0) and after (T1) the yoga class, they underwent the heartbeat detection task for the evaluation of Iac. At T0, all participants also underwent a psychological assessment, including evaluation of depression, anxiety, body awareness, alexithymia, self-objectification and eating disorders psychopathology. Results: Patients with AN had lower Iac than HC at T0. A significant improvement of Iac at T1 was found in the HC group but not in the group of patients with AN. Conclusion: We infer that our findings might be linked to the fact that patients with AN, differently from HC, did not properly attend to their bodies, despite the yoga class. This hypothesis is consistent with previous studies showing that patients with AN have decreased Iac during self-focused behavior because of body-related avoidance. Moreover, we surmise that HC might be keener to improve their perception of internal body signals even after a single yoga class because their emotional awareness system is not impaired. Patients with AN, on the contrary, may have an intrinsic impairment of their emotional awareness, making it harder for them to modulate their Iac. Level of evidence: Level III, evidence obtained from well-designed cohort or case–control analytical studies.