Functional somatic disorders

and (embodied) mentalization:

A mentalization-based

approach to the understanding

and treatment of functional

somatic complaints

Patrick Luyten, PhD

University of Leuven, Belgium

University College London, UK

Overview

• Functional Somatic Syndromes (FSS)

• Causation of FSS

▫ Biological

▫ Psychosocial

Personality

Embodied mentalization

• Implications for treatment

▫ Implications for body and mind in therapy

▫ New treatment: DIT-FSD

=> Building on basic research concerning the emergence of the embodied mind

Research Team

University of Leuven (Belgium): Boudewijn Van Houdenhove, Stefan Kempke, Nicole Vliegen

University College London and the Anna Freud Center (UK): Peter Fonagy, Alessandra Lemma, Mary Target

Tavistock Clinic, London: Brian Rock

Yale University (USA): Linda Mayes, Sidney J. Blatt, Michael Crowley

Functional Somatic Disorders (FSS)

• Spectrum of disorders

▫ High comorbidity

▫ High familial co-aggregation

• Pain- and fatigue-related conditions

▫ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

▫ Fibromyalgia

▫ Irritable Bowel Syndrome

▫ Temporomandibular Pain Syndrome

Depression

Addiction and Anxiety Disorders

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Cardio- vascular Disease

Fibromyalgia and Chronic

Fatigue Syndrome

Stress and Emotional Reactivity

Part of Spectrum of Stress-Related

Disorders?

1. Heim C, et al. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2006; 63:1258-66. 2. Imbierowicz K, et al. Eur J Pain. 2003;7:113-9. 3. Dong M, et al. Circulation. 2004;110:1761-6. 4. Drossman DA, et al. Ann Intern Med. 1990;113:828-33. 5. McCauley J, et al. JAMA. 1997;277:1362-8.

Example

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)

• Medically unexplained fatigue for at least six months that does not improve with rest

• Other symptoms

▫ Muscle pain

▫ Sore throat

▫ Headaches

▫ Tender glands

▫ Unrefreshing sleep

▫ Impaired memory or concentration

▫ Post-exertional malaise

Causation • Precise causation remains elusive

• However

▫ Biological abnormalities have been identified

HPA axis (stress system)

Immunological systems

Neurotransmitter systems

▫ Psychological factors have been shown to influence the onset and course of CFS

Personality

(embodied) Mentalization

Early childhood adversity/attachment disruptions

Van Houdenhove, B., & Luyten, P. (2011). Listen to the story. CFS patients don’t live in a vacuum. Psychotherapy and

Psychosomatics, 80(2), 113-115.

Early life stress (ELS) and morning cortisol

in CFS patients and normal controls

Heim, C et al. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2009; 66: 72-80.

LN

(S

AL

IVA

RY

CO

RT

ISO

L [

g/d

l])

Minutes after Awakening

CON/No ELS (n=82)

CON/ELS (n=26)

CFS/No ELS (n=30)

CFS/ELS (n=51)

0 15 30 45 60

0.30

0.35

0.40

0.45

0.50

0.55

LN

(S

AL

IVA

RY

CO

RT

ISO

L [

g/d

l])

Minutes after Awakening

CON/No ELS (n=82)

CON/ELS (n=26)

CFS/No ELS (n=30)

CFS/ELS (n=51)

0 15 30 45 60

0.30

0.35

0.40

0.45

0.50

0.55

Early Adversity and Inflammation

Danese A, et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2007;104:1319-24.

Treatment

• Controversies about treatment

▫ Treatment effects of “evidence-based” treatments are relatively limited

▫ Often known as “difficult” patients: major transference-countertransference problems

Luyten, P., Kempke, S., & Van Houdenhove, B. (2009). Treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Findings, Principles and

Strategies. Psychiatry Investigation, 5(4), 209-212.

Luyten, P., & Van Houdenhove, B. (in press). Common versus specific factors in the psychotherapeutic treatment of

patients suffering from chronic fatigue and pain disorders. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration

Van Houdenhove, B., & Luyten, P. (2008). Customizing treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia: the role of

perpetuating factors. Psychosomatics, 49(6), 470-477.

Working model • „Switch' of the stress system from a state of

'overdrive' to 'under-drive‟ as a result of prolonged physical and/or psychological stress

• Often triggered by physical/emotional event

• Leading to persisting impairments in the stress response involving disturbances in:

▫ Disturbed balance between glucocorticoid and inflammatory signaling pathways

▫ Pathological cytokine-induced sickness response effort/stress intolerance and pain hypersensitivity

▫ (embodied) mentalization

Luyten, P., & Van Houdenhove, B. (in press). Common versus specific factors in the psychotherapeutic treatment of

patients suffering from chronic fatigue and pain disorders. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration.

Van Houdenhove, B., & Luyten, P. (2011). Listen to the story. CFS patients don’t live in a vacuum. Psychotherapy and

Psychosomatics, 80(2), 113-115.

Working model

• Several of these factors are more likely to be consequence, rather than cause of FSS!!

(e.g., “alexithymia”, interpersonal features)

▫ CFS as “internal object” that threatens the self from within (Schattner, Shahar, & Abu-Shakra, 2008)

• Research program aimed at studying various factors involved and their interaction

• Focus today is on

▫ attachment and (embodied) mentalization

Luyten, P., & Van Houdenhove, B. (in press). Common versus specific factors in the psychotherapeutic treatment of

patients suffering from chronic fatigue and pain disorders. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration.

Van Houdenhove, B., & Luyten, P. (2011). Listen to the story. CFS patients don’t live in a vacuum. Psychotherapy and

Psychosomatics, 80(2), 113-115.

Attachment, personality, and

(embodied) mentalization in FSS

Attachment Deactivating,

Self-Critical Perfectionistic (SCP)

features

• FSS patients often described as hard-working, overactive, over-achieving

• High personal standards + high self-criticism

• Assert autonomy and independence as defense against underlying attachment needs (wish to be cared for, loved, recognized)

• Typical attachment deactivating strategy

Luyten, P., & Blatt, S. J. (2011). Integrating theory-driven and empirically-derived models of personality development and

psychopathology: A proposal for DSM-V. Clinical Psychology Review, 31, 52-68.

Van Houdenhove, B., & Luyten, P. (2009). Central Sensitivity Syndromes: Stress System Failure May Explain the Whole

Picture. Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism, 39(3), 218-219.

selfself

Intensity of emotional

investment

Most involved

Least involved

Mother

Partner

DaughterTeacher

Best friend

Colleague

Figure 3. Hierarchy of relationships associated with attachment avoidance in self-critical/autonomous

depressed individuals

Attachment Deactivating,

Self-Critical Perfectionism

• Developmental origins: high parental demands and/or a (defensive) reaction against harsh parenting

• “dominant-goal oriented”: overactivity as overcompensation, effort to affirm the self and soothe negative introjects by an often excessive focus on achievements

• May in part and in interaction with other (genetic) vulnerabilities explain “biopsychosocial crash”

• Associated with dysfunctional interpersonal transactional cycles

-> Interpersonal Affective Foci (IPAF)

▫ Self-fulfilling prophecies

▫ Contribute to active stress-generation

▫ Also recur in the transference-countertransference

▫ Bring specific needs and expectations into treatment

IPAF dimensions

Object Representation

Self Representation

Affect

1. A self-representation (eg. Demanding but neglected,

misunderstood, unloved)

2. An object representation (eg. Rejecting others)

3. An affect linking the two (eg. Helplessness)

4. The defensive function of this configuration

(eg. avoidance of own aggression)

SCP features and CFS

• SCP features are associated with CFS in both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies*

• Is clearly distinct from adaptive perfectionism**

• SCP is associated with low self-esteem, which explains higher levels of depression***

*Luyten, P., Van Houdenhove, B., Cosyns, N., & Van den Broeck, A. (2006). Are patients with Chronic Fatigue

Syndrome perfectionistic – or were they? A case-control study. Personality and Individual Differences, 40, 1473-

1483.

**Kempke, S., Van Houdenhove, B., Luyten, P., Goossens, L., Bekaert, P., & Van Wambeke, P. (in press).

Unraveling the role of perfectionism in chronic fatigue syndrome: Is there a distinction between adaptive and

maladaptive perfectionism? Psychiatry Research.

***Kempke, S., Luyten, P., et al. (in press). Self-esteem mediates the relationship between maladaptive

perfectionism and depression in chronic fatigue syndrome. Clinical Rheumatology.

SCP features and CFS

• SCP is associated with stress generation in the daily flow of life, leading to exacerbation of symptoms*

• SCP mediates the relationship between early adversity and stress reactivity in the daily flow of life**

• SCP is negatively associated with treatment outcome***

*Luyten, P., Kempke, S., Van Wambeke, P., Claes, S. J., Blatt, S. J., & Van Houdenhove, B. (2011). Self-critical

Perfectionism, Stress Generation and Stress Sensitivity in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Relationship with

Severity of Depression. Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes, 74(1), 21-30.

** Kempke, Luyten et al. (2011). Early adversity in patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: prevalence and effects

on daily symptoms. Manuscript submitted for publication.

*** Kempke, Luyten et al. (2011). Self-critical perfectionism, but not interpersonal dependency, predicts treatment

response in patients with chronic pain. Manuscript submitted for publication.

(Embodied) Mentalizing and FSS

• Dissociation between stress channels?

▫ Typically associated with attachment deactivating strategies

• Paradox: hypo- and hypermentalizing in FSS patients -> “hyperembodiment”-”disembodiment”

▫ Hypomentalizing:

Prementalizing modes of experiencing subjectivity

Importance of “somatic markers” in patients with FSS

▫ Hypermentalizing: “mentalization on the loose”

Luyten, P., Mayes, L. C., Fonagy, P., & van Houdenhove, B. (2010). The interpersonal regulation of stress: A

developmental framework. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Four polarities

• Automatic – controlled

• Internal – external

• Self – other

• Cognitive - affective

Luyten, P., Fonagy, P., Mayes, L., & Vermote, R., Lowyck, B., Bateman, A., & Target (2009). Broadening the scope of the mentalization based approach to psychopathology. Submitted. Fonagy, P., & Luyten, P. (2009). A developmental, mentalization-based approach to the understanding and treatment of borderline personality disorder. Development and Psychopathology, 21(4), 1355-1381. Fonagy, P., Luyten, P., & Strathearn, L. (in press). The roots of borderline personality disorder in

infancy: A review of evidence from the standpoint of the mentalization based approach.

Infant Mental Health Journal.

Dissociation between stress

channels

• Stress response to experimental stress in CFS

(Trier Social Stress Test; TSST and personalized stress test: Sinha) ▫ T1: Baseline

▫ T2: pre-test (10min)

▫ T3: post-test

▫ T4: +10min

▫ T5: +10min

▫ T6: +10 min

▫ T7: +15min

▫ T8: +45min

Kempke, Luyten, Van Houdenhove, Claes et al. (2011).

Lupien et al., 2009

Psychological

Self:

2nd Order

Representations

Physical Self:

Primary

Representations

Representation

of self-state:

Internalization

of object’s image

Constitutional self

in state of arousal

Expression

Reflection

Resonance

Infant CAREGIVER

symbolic organisation

of internal state

Affect & Self Regulation Through

Mirroring

With apologies to Gergely & Watson (1996) Fonagy, Gergely, Jurist & Target (2002)

Re-emergence of non-mentalizing

modes under increasing arousal

= maladaptive attempts at affect

regulation

• Teleological mode

• Psychic equivalence mode

• Extreme pretend mode

Psychic equivalence mode

• What is thought is felt as real

• Everything becomes too real (e.g., thoughts, feelings)

• Decoupling of Mz or de-symbolization (concreteness of thought): Rejection literally hurts (Eisenberger et al., 2003)

• No room for “pretend”, “play”, symbolization, or inner security of mental exploration

• Particularly in traumatized patients

Psychic equivalence mode • Very painful feelings of shame, sadness,

emptiness, badness, which threaten to disintegrate the self -> evacuation by means of projection, projective identification, dissociation, self-harm

• psychological pain means bodily pain, worries feel like a painful weight on one‟s shoulders, and depressive thoughts literally “de-press” the self

• “hyperembodiment” => de-symbolization

• Risk of fundamental “mis-understanding”, that can be interpreted as unresponsive, rejecting, but also as a re-traumatization, and wilful misunderstanding by a cruel, sadistic therapist

“Somatic markers” of inner mental

states* • Hand clenching, tension, sighing, transpiration,

cramps, head ache, dizziness, pseudoseizures, fainting, throwing up

• Face, Voice (inflections, speech-like vocalizations, …)

• Moving away or towards (e.g., moving head away, closing eyes, mouth, sitting back)

• Little or no awareness of link with inner mental states and interpersonal relationships

*Abbass, A., Campbell, S., Magee, K., & Tarzwell, R. (2009). Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy to reduce

rates of emergency department return visits for patients with medically unexplained symptoms: preliminary evidence

from a pre-post intervention study. Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine, 11, 529-534.

Psychological

Self:

2nd Order

Representations

Physical Self:

Primary

Representations

Representation

of self-state:

Internalization

of object’s image

Constitutional self

in state of arousal

Expression

Reflection

Resonance

Infant CAREGIVER

symbolic organisation

of internal state

Affect & Self Regulation Through

Mirroring

With apologies to Gergely & Watson (1996) Fonagy, Gergely, Jurist & Target (2002)

Teleological mode

• Behavior and thoughts are equated

• Primacy of the physical/observable

• “I only believe it when I see it”

▫ Only what you see is real

▫ Strong belief in biological causes of disorder (“somatic attributions”)

Extreme pretend mode and

intellectualisation • Cognitive hypermentalization and

intellectualization/rationalisation

▫ Mentalization severed from reality

(“the educated neurotic”, “canned language”)

▫ May lead to wrong impression of therapeutic work and progress

• Affective hypermentalization

▫ Elaborate, overwhelming, confusing narratives (e.g., on TAT, Rorschach)

• Dissociation/”driving oneself crazy”

• “Hypomentalizers”: Sometimes derogation of mental life as such (“alexithymic”)

• Sometimes “hypermentalizers”: may look as highly sophisticated, insightful on first impression, but this often reflects cognitive hypermentalization

= collapses under increasing stress, leading to resurgence of symbiotic needs and negative self-views that are defended against

*Shaver, P. R., & Mikulincer, M. (2005). Attachment theory and research: Resurrection of the

psychodynamic approach to personality. Journal of Research in Personality, 39, 22-45.

Luyten, P., & Van Houdenhove, B. (in press). Common versus specific factors in the psychotherapeutic

treatment of patients suffering from chronic fatigue and pain disorders. Journal of Psychotherapy

Integration.

Hypo-hypermentalizing in FSS

A biobehavioral switch model of the relationship

between stress and controlled versus automatic

mentalization (Based on Mayes, 2000)

Attachment - Arousal/Stress

Evidence for hypomentalizing • Alexithymia*

▫ Only small subsample, mainly traumatized/ patients with attachment disorganization

▫ In others patients more likely to be a consequence rather than cause under high arousal conditions

• Subic-Wrana et al.**: reduced theory of mind assessed with a computer animation task in 30 hospitalized SFD patients compared to 30 healthy controls

*Pedrosa Gil, F., Weigl, M., Wessels, T., Irnich, D., Baumuller, E., & Winkelmann, A. (2008). Parental bonding and

alexithymia in adults with fibromyalgia. Psychosomatics, 49(2), 115-122.

Pedrosa Gil, F., Scheidt, C. E., Hoeger, D., & Nickel, M. (2008). Relationship between attachment style, parental bonding

and alexithymia in adults with somatoform disorders. Int J Psychiatry Med, 38(4), 437-451.

**Subic-Wrana, C., Beutel, M. E., Knebel, A., & Lane, R. D. (2010). Theory of Mind and Emotional Awareness Deficits in

Patients With Somatoform Disorders. Psychosomatic Medicine, 72(4), 404-411.

Evidence for hypomentalizing

• Leithner-Dziubas et al. (2010):*

▫ low RF (M=2.3)

▫ But chronic pelvic pain patients, with high rates of Axis I and axs II comorbidity (54.5% and 36.4% respectively), and high rates of affectionless and neglectful parenting

*Leithner-Dziubas, K., Blüml, V., Naderer, A., Tmej, A., & FIsher-Kern, M. (2010). Mentalisierungsfähighkeit und Bindung

bei Patientinnen met chronischen Unterbauchschmerzen: Eine Pilotstudie. Zeitschrift für Psychosomatik und Medische

Psychotherapie, 56, 179-190.

Figure 2. SCORS Dimension of Understanding of Social

Causality as Moderated by the Level of Personality

Organization

Koelen, J., Eurelings-Bontekoe, E. H., Veselka, L., Snellen, W., Bühring, M. E. F., & Luyten,

P. (2011). Social Cognition and Level of Personality Organization in Patients with

Somatoform Disorders: A case control study Manuscript submitted for publication.

Figure 1. SCORS Dimension of Complexity of Representations of

Others in Both Groups by the Level of Personality Organization

Koelen, J., Eurelings-Bontekoe, E. H., Veselka, L., Snellen, W., Bühring, M. E. F., & Luyten,

P. (2011). Social Cognition and Level of Personality Organization in Patients with

Somatoform Disorders: A case control study Manuscript submitted for publication.

hypomentalizing

• Rudimentary insight into social interactions based on stimulus-response causality logic

• Extreme difficulty in describing other people in terms of inner mental states, or character dispositions

• Instead generally „stick‟ to external attributes

Figure 3. SCORS Dimension of Emotional Investment in

Relationships by Level of Personality Organization

Investment in social relationships

• SFD patients are preoccupied with their own need-fulfilment in relationships, and are unable to hold conflicts and discrepancies in mind

Figure 4. SCORS Dimension of Affective Quality of Interactions

as Moderated by the Level of Personality Organization

Affective quality

• Scores for the SFD patients approached normality, in that their expectations from others and relationships are relatively neutral, as opposed to hostile and malevolent

Hypomentalizing with regard to self?

• Oldershaw et al. (2011)

• 45 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), 50 healthy controls

• CFS patients had no impairments in different ToM tasks, but did have impairments with regard to social cognition pertaining to the self (levels of emotional awareness) = more complex social cognition

• No impairments in mentalizing outside interpersonal relationships (eg. music emotion test)

• These impairments were associated with lower ability to establish interpersonal relationships

Hypomentalizing with regard to self?

• CFS patients are less likely to interpret physical sensations as emotions (Dendy et al., 2001)

• Have negative beliefs about emotions, and the control and expression of emotions which are highly correlated with SCP (r=.59) (Rimes & Chalder, 2010; Maher et al., in press)

• Associated with socially compliant attitude with underlying hostility (Hambrook et al., 2010)

• Changes in CBT in beliefs about emotions are correlated with decreases in SCP (Rimes & Chalder, 2010)

Hypomentalizing with regard to self?

• consistent with general findings concerning MUS patients in that these are less interoceptively accurate in a symptom-related context (Bogaerts et al.,2008, 2010)

Hypermentalizing?

• Dziobek et al. (in press)

▫ Fibromyalgia participants did not differ from controls on overall theory of mind as measured by the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC)

▫ But did have higher scores on one subscale which taps into overly elaborated/interpreted social cognition (so called „exceeding theory of mind‟).

Developmental roots?

• Attachment trauma, and particularly emotional neglect, is associated with mentalizing impairments

• In FSS?

▫ High levels of insecure attachment and emotional neglect in particular

▫ Only emotional neglect predicted attachment deactivating strategies in CFS patients which in turn predicted worse clinical functioning

▫ Poor “mind-reading” in parents of adolescents with CFS

Conclusions

• Impairments in (embodied) mentalizing related to combination of

▫ Early adversity (poor mirroring/emotional neglect)

▫ Use of attachment deactivating strategies

▫ High arousal (as a consequence of disorder and current interpersonal relationships) further impairs mentalizing

▫ Impairments in self versus other mentalizing

▫ Impairments in cognitive versus affective mentalizing

Four polarities

• Automatic – controlled

• Internal – external

• Self – other

• Cognitive - affective

Luyten, P., Fonagy, P., Mayes, L., & Vermote, R., Lowyck, B., Bateman, A., & Target (2009). Broadening the scope of the mentalization based approach to psychopathology. Submitted. Fonagy, P., & Luyten, P. (2009). A developmental, mentalization-based approach to the understanding and treatment of borderline personality disorder. Development and Psychopathology, 21(4), 1355-1381. Fonagy, P., Luyten, P., & Strathearn, L. (in press). The roots of borderline personality disorder in

infancy: A review of evidence from the standpoint of the mentalization based approach.

Infant Mental Health Journal.

Shared neural circuits for mentalizing about the

self and others (Lombardo et al., 2009; J. Cog.

Neurosc.)

Self mental state

Other mental state

Overlapping for

Self and Other

Implications for Treatment

Luyten, P., & Van Houdenhove, B. (in press). Common versus specific factors in the

psychotherapeutic treatment of patients suffering from chronic fatigue and pain

disorders. Journal of Psychotherapy Integration.

Dynamic Interpersonal Theory - FSD

• Builds on insights into the development of the embodied mind

• DIT-FSD assumptions:

▫ Symptoms are related to threats to attachment system

▫ Reflect impairments in stress/affect regulation associated with secondary attachment strategies and resulting mentalizing impairments

Lemma, A., Target, M., & Fonagy, P. (2009). Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy. London:

Oxford University Press.

Lemma, A., Target, M., & Fonagy, P. (in press). The development of a brief

psychodynamic intervention (Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy) and its application to

depression: A pilot study. Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes.

DIT-FSD

• Basic principles:

▫ Define and work through typical Interpersonal Affective Focus (IPAF)

▫ Starting from symptoms, “somatic markers” and often feeling of not being recognized/accepted/understood

• “Dangers” in SCP patients:

▫ Denial of role of psychological factors

▫ Pseudomentalization (“pseudoprofessional”)

▫ “pseudo-engagement”

Early Phase • Validation

▫ Validation of negative experiences resulting from the illness and response by others (“understanding lack of understanding”)

▫ Support the patient in seeking help for complaints • Inquisitive, mentalizing stance

▫ Immediate interest in mental states concerning self and others, and the link between both

▫ Modeling curiosity about mental states ▫ Using own experience as example ▫ Focus on “somatic markers” of emotions ▫ Linking emotions to interpersonal relationships

• Modesty ▫ Apologizing for mistakes ▫ Being modest about therapeutic aims

Defended Emotion

Figure. Triangle of Conflict

Defense Anxiety

Early Phase

• Aims:

▫ Engagement of patient

▫ Recovery of mentalizing, mainly through focus on symptoms and relationships-> sense of control and meaning

▫ Defining IPAF as focus of treatment

• Spectrum of interventions

▫ Supportive/empathic

▫ Simple mentalizing interventions focusing of affect: emotion recognition, emotion differentiation

▫ Linking inner mental states to symptoms and relationships

▫ Mentalizing the transference

▫ Directive

• Key role of IPAF

▫ Linking symptoms/mental states to relationships

▫ Identifying representation of self and other and linking affects and defensive strategy

Conclusions • Impairments in (embodied) mentalization may

play a role in onset and particularly course of FSS

• Has important implications for treatment, regardless of theoretical orientation

• May provide important insights into the origin of the embodied mind

• Current studies focus on

▫ Relationship with stress system (HPA axis), genetic polymorphisms, neural systems

▫ Intergenerational transmission

▫ Treatment development: process and outcome of DIT-FSD

For more information:

patrick.luyten@psy.kuleuven.be

http://ppw.kuleuven.be/psychotherapie/psychoanalyse/e/staff/patrickluyten.html

Password to download is psychoanalysis

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