The Interoceptive Sensitivity and Attention Questionnaire: Evaluating aspects of self-reported interoception in patients with [PPS]..., 2021, Bogaerts

Full title: The Interoceptive Sensitivity and Attention Questionnaire: Evaluating aspects of self-reported interoception in patients with persistent somatic symptoms, stress-related syndromes and healthy controls.

Abstract
To validate the Interoceptive Sensitivity and Attention Questionnaire (ISAQ), a 17-item self-report measure assessing sensitivity and attention to interoceptive signals.In study 1, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was performed in a student convenience sample (n = 1868). In study 2, ISAQ data of a healthy sample (n = 144) and various patient groups experiencing stress-related syndromes [overstrain; n = 63; burnout; n = 37; panic disorder (PD; n = 60)] and/or persistent somatic symptoms in daily life [irritable bowel syndrome (IBS; n = 38); fibromyalgia and/or chronic fatigue syndrome (FM/CFS; n = 151); medically unexplained dyspnea (MUD; n = 29)] were compared.

Three subscales were revealed: (F1) sensitivity to neutral bodily sensations, (F2) attention to unpleasant bodily sensations, and (F3) difficulty disengaging from unpleasant bodily sensations. Overall, patients with FM/CFS and patients with MUD scored significantly higher on F1 (p = .009 resp. p = .027) and F2 (p = .002 resp. p < .001) than healthy controls. Patients with PD had higher scores on subscales F2 (p < .001) and F3 (p < .001) compared with healthy controls, as well as higher scores on F2 compared with all other patient groups (p-value PD vs. MUD = .008, all other p-values <.001).Interoceptive sensibility - the self-reported aspect of interoception - is not a homogeneous or unitary construct.

The subscales of the ISAQ differentiate healthy controls from patients with persistent somatic and/or stress-related complaints in daily life and distinguish different patient groups. The ISAQ can be used as a concise, reliable, and clinically relevant research tool to further disentangle adaptive and maladaptive aspects of interoceptive ability.

Paywall, https://journals.lww.com/psychosoma...oceptive_Sensitivity_and_Attention.98349.aspx

 

Wow. So if you ask sick people about their health, they will report poor health. And if you ask healthy people about their health, they don't. And of course it's the core assumption that does all the work: they assume no actual ill health in the sick people. So basically studying their own imagination. Groundbreaking stuff.

 

I've often wondered of there's an ME/CFS bodysuit available. ( you get pregnancy ones which effectively add the weight and size of an average 8 month term - works wonders for any unsympathetic partners and used to great effect at ante natal classes)

Researchers should have to spend a couple of days in one before drafting a protocol.

 

Perhaps we should have a thread for what an ME/CFS bodysuit might comprise/ seek to capture .
Surely worthy of a thesis study somewhere ?

 

This paper mostly seemed to be measuring perception of dysautonomia. That shouldn't be too hard to do - give them a treatment that messes up their autonomic system so that they too can feel pounding heart beats, temperature dysregulation, shortness of breath, weird digestion etc.