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In the psychotherapeutic treatment of social phobia, the hand movement behaviour exhibited during the interaction provides information about the success of the therapy. In particular, the degree of mutual somatosensory stimulation of the hands (hands moving on each other, as a unit, apart) appears to be relevant regarding the patient's mental state. To test this hypothesis, the present study investigates hand coordination in the course of psychotherapy in patients with and without symptom improvement and in the corresponding therapeutic dyads. Forty‐two videos of patient–therapist dyads consisting of 21 patients (n = 11 non‐improved; n = 10 improved; according to Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale self‐assessment) from the Social Phobia Research Network project were investigated in early psychotherapy sessions and in pre‐last sessions. Hand movements of four randomised video sequences per dyad were analysed with NEUROGES®‐ELAN. Patients with non‐improved symptoms displayed shorter act apart coordination and more act on each other coordination than patients with improved symptoms. Patients displayed more act apart and act on each other and less act as a unit coordination than therapists. In therapeutic dyads, act on each other coordination in early sessions, as well as short act apart coordination, was significantly related to non‐improvement. Patients with non‐improved symptoms are characterised by more hand coordination associated with a high degree of somatosensory stimulation serving self‐regulation (act on each other), as well as short complex gestural expressions (act apart). Thus, hand coordination constitutes a progression and outcome parameter informing on somatosensory stimulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hands are, compared to other body parts, the body parts that display the most gestural movements during an interaction and their movement is sensitive to reveal anxiety states. However, psychotherapy research focuses on movement synchrony of different body parts to be an indicator of improved symptoms. The present study investigates symptoms in social anxiety disorder and considers both, individual and simultaneous hand movements. 56 video recordings of 28 patient-therapist dyads with patients with social anxiety at the beginning and in the end of psychotherapy were analyzed. Two independent blind certified raters analyzed the hand movement behavior using the NEUROGES® analysis system for nonverbal behavior concerning individual movement units and the simultaneous overlaps between the patients' and therapists' movement units. Simultaneous overlap change negatively correlated with symptoms (LSAS week eight-measurement, r = −.52; and week 15-measurement, r = −.52; BDI pre-measurement, r = −.54). The patients' right hand movement at the end of the psychotherapy correlated significantly with therapeutic alliance (HAQ post-measurement; r =.55). Hand movement behavior analysis should be considered in psychotherapy research in combination with movement synchrony as a measurement parameter related to therapeutic process and outcome. Enriching previous findings, this study indicates that simultaneous movement change is related to symptoms and therefore a process-sensitive parameter in psychotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]