Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-68cz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-10T15:05:45.840Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Personal Beliefs about Experiences in those at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 June 2014

Jacqueline Stowkowy ,
Diana O. Perkins ,
Scott W. Woods ,
Karissa Nyman  and
Jean Addington
Jacqueline Stowkowy*
Affiliation:
Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Canada
Diana O. Perkins
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
Scott W. Woods
Affiliation:
Yale University, New Haven, USA
Karissa Nyman
Affiliation:
Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Canada
Jean Addington
Affiliation:
Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Canada
*
Reprint requests to Jacqueline Stowkowy, Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research and Education, TRW Building, Floor 1, 3280 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, CanadaT2N4Z6. E-mail: stowkowy@ucalgary.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background: Negative beliefs about illness in early psychosis have been shown to have an unfavourable impact on one's quality of life. A shift of focus in psychosis research has been on the detection of individuals considered to be at clinical high risk (CHR) of developing psychosis. Little is known about the impact that beliefs about psychotic like experiences or attenuated psychotic symptoms may have on CHR individuals. Aim: To explore these beliefs in a large sample of young people at CHR of developing psychosis using the Personal Beliefs about Experiences Questionnaire (PBEQ). Method: Beliefs about unusual experiences were assessed in 153 CHR individuals with the PBEQ. Prodromal symptoms (measured by the SIPS) and depression (measured by the CDSS) were also assessed. Results: In CHR individuals, holding more negative beliefs was associated with increased severity in depression and negative symptoms. Higher scores on suspiciousness were associated with increased negative beliefs, and higher levels of grandiosity were associated with decreased negative beliefs. Those who later transitioned to psychosis agreed significantly more with statements concerning control over experiences (i.e. “my experiences frighten me”, “I find it difficult to cope). Conclusions: The results suggest that targeting negative beliefs and other illness related appraisals is an important objective for intervention strategies.

Keywords

Beliefsappraisalspsychosisclinical high riskprodrome
Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 43 , Issue 6 , November 2015 , pp. 669 - 675
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Addington, D., Addington, J. and Maticka-Tyndale, E. (1993). Assessing depression in schizophrenia: the Calgary Depression Scale. British Journal of Psychiatry, 163, 39–44.Google Scholar
Addington, J., Cornblatt, B. A., Cadenhead, K. S., Cannon, T. D., McGlashan, T. H., Perkins, D. O., et al. (2011). At clinical high risk for psychosis: outcome for nonconverters. American Journal of Psychiatry, 168, 800–805.Google Scholar
Addington, J. and Heinssen, R. (2012). Prediction and prevention of psychosis in youth at clinical high risk. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 8, 269–289.Google Scholar
Birchwood, M., Mason, R., MacMillan, F. and Healy, J. (1993). Depression, demoralisation and control over psychotic illness: a comparison of depressed and non-depressed patients with a chronic psychosis. Psychological Medicine, 23, 387–395.Google Scholar
Birchwood, M., Jackson, C., Brunet, K., Holden, J. and Barton, K. (2012). Personal beliefs about illness questionnaire-revised (PBIQ-R): reliability and validation in a first episode sample. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 51, 448–458.Google Scholar
Byrne, R. and Morrison, A. P. (2010). Young people at risk of psychosis: a user-led exploration of interpersonal relationships and communication of psychological difficulties. Early Intervention Psychiatry, 4, 162–168.Google Scholar
First, M., Spitzter, R. L., Gibbon, M., Williams, B. and Williams, J. B. W. (1995). Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Disorders, Patient Edition. New York: Biometrics Research Department, New York State Psychiatric Institute.Google Scholar
Fusar-Poli, P., Bonoldi, I., Yung, A. R., Borgwardt, S., Kempton, M. J., Valmaggia, L., et al. (2012). Predicting psychosis: meta-analysis of transition outcomes in individuals at high clinical risk. Archives of General Psychiatry, 69, 220–229.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Freeman, D., Dunn, G., Fowler, D., Bebbington, P., Kuipers, E., Emsley, R., et al. (2013). Current paranoid thinking in patients with delusions: the presence of cognitive-affective biases. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 39, 1281–1287.Google Scholar
Iqbal, Z., Birchwood, M., Chadwick, P. and Trower, P. (2000). Cognitive approach to depression and suicidal thinking in psychosis: testing the validity of a social ranking model. British Journal of Psychiatry, 177, 522–528.Google Scholar
McGlashan, T., Walsh, B. C. and Woods, S. W. (2010). The Psychosis Risk Syndrome: handbook for diagnosis and follow-up. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Morrison, A. P., Birchwood, M., Pyle, M., Flach, C., Stewart, S. L. K., Byrne, R., et al. (2013). Impact of cognitive therapy on internalized stigma in people with at-risk mental states. British Journal of Psychiatry, 203, 140–146.Google Scholar
Pyle, M., Stewart, S. L., French, P., Byrne, R., Gumley, A., Birchwood, M., et al. (2013). Internalised stigma, emotional dysfunction and unusual experiences in young people at risk of psychosis. Early Intervention in Psychiatry. (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eip.12098/abstract)Google Scholar
Theodore, K., Johnson, S. and Chalmer-Brown, A. (2012). Quality of Life and illness beliefs in individuals with early psychosis. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 47, 545–551.Google Scholar
Thompson, A., Sullivan, S., Lewis, G., Zammit, S., Heron, J., Horwood, J., et al. (2011). Association between locus of control in childhood and psychotic symptoms in early adolescence: results from a large birth cohort study. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 16, 385–402.Google Scholar
Thompson, A., Papas, A., Bartholomeuz, C., Nelson, B. and Yung, A. (2013). Externalized attributional bias in the ultra high risk (UHR) for psychosis population. Psychiatry Research, 206, 200–205.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yang, L. H., Anglin, D. M., Wonpat-Borja, A. J., Opler, M. G., Greenspoon, M. and Corcoran, C. M. (2013). Public stigma associated with psychosis risk syndrome in a college population: implications for peer intervention, Psychiatric Services, 64, 284–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.