AND HYPOTHESIS
Previous research in both clinical and non-clinical populations has suggested an association between intelligence quotient (IQ) and psychosis. The social defeat hypothesis posits that low status and repeated humiliation increase the risk of psychosis. The present study investigated the relationship between IQ and subclinical psychosis in the general population, while also examining the potential mediating and confounding roles of psychosocial stressors and core schemata.
STUDY
Design
We analyzed data from 1497 healthy controls in the EU-GEI dataset, a multicenter study conducted across six countries. IQ and the positive dimension of subclinical psychosis (measured by the positive dimension of the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences questionnaire) were analyzed using linear regression models adjusting for age, sex, childhood trauma, stressful life events, and core schemata (positive and negative schemata). Mediation analysis was conducted to explore indirect effects.
STUDY
Results
IQ was associated with subclinical psychosis. The results remained statistically significant after adjustment for several confounders. In the mediation analysis, IQ had no total or direct effect, but a small negative indirect effect through negative-other schemata (ß = -0.040; 95% Confidence Interval: -0.55, -0.024), childhood trauma (ß = -0.029; 95% CI -0.042, -0.016), negative-self schemata (ß = -0.009; 95% CI -0.017, -0.001), and stressful life events (ß = -0.012; 95% CI -0.021, -0.003).
Conclusion
These findings support the idea that cognitive vulnerability is associated with an increased risk of subclinical psychotic symptoms, with psychosocial stressors and core schemata possibly playing a mediating role, in line with the social defeat hypothesis.
Background: Adolescent major depressive disorder (MDD) is heterogeneous, with diverse and frequently co-occurring psychopathological manifestations. Although family-related experiences, childhood trauma, rumination, and psychological resilience have each been linked to adolescent mental health, less is known about how they are interrelated and jointly associated with distinct psychopathological domains. This study examined these associations within an integrative framework. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 80 adolescents with MDD and 53 healthy controls. Family functioning, parenting, childhood trauma, rumination, psychological resilience, and four clinical domains, including affective distress, suicidal ideation, the non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) spectrum, and self-regulation difficulties, were assessed using validated instruments. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) examined their multivariate associations. Sensitivity analyses restricted to the MDD sample and covariate-adjusted regression models assessed the robustness of the findings. Results: The four clinical domains showed high reliability and acceptable discriminant validity. Family dysfunction was associated with maladaptive parenting and childhood trauma, and maladaptive parenting was associated with childhood trauma (beta = .383-.600; all p < .001). Childhood trauma was associated with greater rumination (beta = .625) and lower psychological resilience (beta = -.405; both p < .001). Rumination and psychological resilience showed opposing associations with all four domains (rumination: beta = .280-.559; resilience: beta = -.265 to -.399; all p <= .006). Family dysfunction, maladaptive parenting, and childhood trauma showed significant total indirect associations with each domain (all p < .001). The model explained 53%-85% of the variance across the four domains. The MDD-only analysis reproduced the principal associations observed in the combined sample and additionally showed direct associations between maladaptive parenting and all four clinical domains. Covariate-adjusted analyses retained all principal associations except the resilience-NSSI association. Conclusions: The findings support a multidimensional characterization of adolescent MDD comprising distinguishable yet interrelated domains of affective-psychosomatic distress, suicidal ideation, the NSSI spectrum, and self-regulation difficulties. The partly shared and partly distinct associations of these domains with family-related adversity, rumination, and psychological resilience support considering domain-level psychopathology alongside diagnostic status and global depression severity in research on adolescent MDD.
P. Wang, Y. Zhang, X. Wang et al.· medRxiv· 0 citations
Abstract Background Childhood trauma increases the risk for psychosis. However, mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unclear. In the present study, we aimed to investigate whether negative cognitive self-schemas or basic self-disturbance mediate the association between childhood trauma subtypes (abuse and neglect) and psychotic experiences in patients with psychotic disorders, unaffected siblings, and healthy controls. Methods This study was performed in a subsample of 110 patients, 120 siblings, and 48 healthy controls within the Genetic Risk and Outcome of Psychosis (GROUP) study. Parallel mediation models were used while correcting for age and sex. Abuse and neglect were measured with the childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ), psychotic experiences with the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE), self-disturbance phenomena with the Self-Experience Lifetime Frequency Scale (SELF), and negative self-schemas with the Brief Core Schemas Scale (BCSS). Results In patients, negative self-schemas fully mediated the association between abuse and psychotic experiences, whereas self-disturbance partly mediated the effect of neglect on psychotic experiences. In siblings, both negative self-schemas and self-disturbance fully mediated the association between abuse/neglect and psychotic experiences. In controls, only negative self-schemas mediated the association between abuse and neglect and psychotic experiences. Conclusions Our findings suggest that negative self-schemas and self-disturbance phenomena are relevant factors in explaining the association between childhood trauma and psychotic experiences across illness liability groups. Further research is needed to explore the causal pathways between trauma, negative self-schemas, self-disturbance phenomena, and psychotic experiences.
A. Jelsma, Justine de With, M. van der Pluijm et al.· Psychological Medicine· 0 citations
BACKGROUND
Childhood trauma (CT) is robustly associated with suicide ideation (SI) and attempts (SA) in individuals with depressive and/or anxiety disorders. However, pathways underlying these associations and whether they differ between suicide ideation only (SI + SA-) and suicide ideation with attempt (SI + SA+) remain unclear. Variables that may statistically account for CT-SI + SA- and CT-SI + SA+ associations were examined.
METHODS
Data from 1572 respondents with a 12-month depressive and/or anxiety disorder from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety were used. The NEMESIS childhood trauma interview (0-8 score) measured CT severity. Single and multiple-mediator models via generalized structural equation modeling (GSEM) were used to investigate whether psychosocial, personality, lifestyle and biological variables showed indirect associations consistent with mediation of the association between CT and suicide outcomes.
RESULTS
Higher CT scores were associated with SI + SA- (OR = 1.51, 95% CI: 1.32-1.73) and SI + SA+ (OR = 2.68, 95% CI: 2.21-3.27). In single mediator models, personality traits, insomnia, low social support and loneliness statistically accounted for a part of the association between CT and both outcomes. Interleukin-6 statistically accounted for a small portion of the CT-SI + SA+ link. In multiple-mediator models, direct effects reduced by 65.6% (SI + SA-) and 39.1% (SI + SA+) and aggression, insomnia, social support (both outcomes), neuroticism, introversion, hopelessness (SI + SA-) and locus of control (SI + SA+) remained significant.
LIMITATIONS
The cross-sectional design limits causal inferences.
CONCLUSION
Multiple personality traits, insomnia and lower social support statistically accounted for a portion of the association between CT and suicide outcomes. Especially aggression, insomnia and social support may represent actionable suicide prevention targets, pending longitudinal validation.
Jasper X. M. Wiebenga, L. Lokhorst, A. Hoogendoorn et al.· Journal of Affective Disorde...· 0 citations
Childhood trauma may influence clinical presentation in first-episode schizophrenia (FES), but its specific associations with cognitive function and clinical symptoms remain unclear.
Seventy-one FES participants and 62 healthy controls were assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-SF), MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB), Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and Calgary Depression Scale (CDSS). Group comparisons, Spearman correlations, hierarchical regression, and mediation analyses (PROCESS macro) were performed.
FES participants reported significantly higher childhood trauma (except physical abuse) and performed worse on all MCCB domains (all *p* < 0.00625). Within the clinical group, those with childhood trauma (71.8%) showed nominally lower MCCB total scores (*p* = 0.042) and a trend toward higher negative symptoms (*p* = 0.083). Exploratory analyses indicated that physical neglect was associated with attention/vigilance (r = -0.54) and overall cognition (*r* = -0.69); physical abuse with social cognition (*r* = -0.54); sexual abuse with general psychopathology (*r* = 0.56). No independent associations of trauma subtypes were found in regression analyses. Attention/vigilance was significantly associated with negative symptoms (β = -0.43, *p* = 0.002) but did not mediate the trauma-symptom relationship.
FES participants report more childhood trauma and exhibit widespread cognitive impairment, with physical neglect most strongly linked to attentional deficits. Attention/vigilance was associated with negative symptoms, suggesting that trauma-informed cognitive rehabilitation may have potential value.
Ru Wang, Xiang-Qin Qin, Xue-Qi Wang et al.· Frontiers in Psychiatry· 0 citations
BACKGROUND
A high prevalence of somatisation is associated with a strong impairment of quality of life. Recent research suggests common underlying mechanism of central sensitisation in functional syndromes and chronic pain, with emotion regulation (ER) processes closely linked to somatic symptoms. This study examines the relationship between negative affect (NA) and anger rumination (AR) and its influence on somatisation.
METHODS
Five hundred seven individuals participated (mean age = 34.60 ± 13.22 years; 380 women). They completed the Patient Health Questionnaire, Negative Affect Scale, and Displaced Aggression Questionnaire. A cross-sectional multivariate factorial relational design was used. Descriptive, multiple linear regression, and mediation analyses were conducted on the total and sex-separated samples.
RESULTS
Data analysis revealed a significant positive relationship between NA and AR (r = 0.55, p < 0.01), and both were significantly associated with somatisation (rumination: r = 0.37, p < 0.01; NA: r = 0.54, p < 0.01). Simple linear regressions confirmed that higher levels of NA and AR individually predicted increased somatic symptoms in both sexes. However, multiple regression analyses revealed that the effect of AR on somatisation was reduced in women and became non-significant in men when accounting for NA. Mediation analysis showed a significant indirect effect of AR on somatisation through negative affect (B = 0.005, 95% bootstrap confidence interval [0.004, 0.006]), accounting for 62.5% of the total effect. The mediation pattern was replicated in both women (indirect effect B = 0.005, 95% confidence interval [0.004, 0.007]) and men (indirect effect B = 0.004, 95% confidence interval [0.002, 0.006]). These findings indicated that part of the effect of AR on somatisation occurred under the influence of NA.
CONCLUSIONS
NA and AR were associated with increased somatic symptoms. These findings suggest the benefit of developing interventions that encourage the use of functional ER strategies. These can help to reduce NA, which in a prolonged form can constitute a vulnerability for organisms, especially in those people with a tendency to somatise.
C. J. Muñoz Sosa, Bárbara Luque, E. García-Sancho et al.· Actas espanolas de psiquiatr...· 0 citations
Introduction: Anxiety and depression are the most prevalent mental health disorders worldwide, placing an increasing burden on public health systems. However, certain transdiagnostic factors may modulate vulnerability to these disorders: personality traits, emotional regulation, and social support. Objective: To examined these factors, classifying them as either risk or protective through correlation analyses and qualitative comparative analyses in a clinical sample. Methods: After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, the final sample consisted of 61 participants (73.8% female, 24.6% male, 1.6% other genders) aged between 20 and 66 years (M = 43.79; SD = 12.75). Results: Neuroticism was associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression, whereas extraversion predicted better mental health. Additionally, emotion dysregulation correlated positively with both psychopathologies. Finally, perceived social support emerged as a sufficient condition for lower anxiety levels; conversely, its absence was linked to higher levels of both anxiety and depression. Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of further investigating risk and protective factors related to highly prevalent mental health problems like anxiety and depression. Better understanding these factors can help improve assessment, diagnosis, and treatment within clinical practice.
Selene Valero-Moreno, Olga Ribera-Asensi, Saray Giménez-Benavent et al.· Universitas Médica· 0 citations
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