A Study of Symptom Content of Perceptual Abnormalities in Individuals at Clinical High Risk of Psychosis
Abstract
Perceptual abnormalities (PA) are frequently endorsed attenuated psychotic symptoms in youth at clinical high risk (CHR) of psychosis. However, few studies have explored the subtypes of PA and their relationships with the above environmental and affective factors in CHR. Four hundred and forty one CHR individuals who met criteria for attenuated psychotic symptom syndrome (APSS) determined by the Structured Interview for Psychosis-risk Syndromes (SIPS) were assessed on content of PA, early traumatic experience, cannabis use and self-reported anxiety, attention and auditory sensory processing. Overall, it was found that both simple auditory and simple visual PA were associated with traumatic experiences, current cannabis use and increased anxiety. In addition, complex auditory PA were found to be linked to reduced attention. There was no evidence to support a relationship between auditory PA and electrophysiological measure of auditory sensory processing. Furthermore, those who made the transition to a full-blown psychosis were more likely to have complex auditory PA. Finally, for those who did convert to psychosis, an examination of any changes in content from baseline to the time of conversions suggested that PA content progressed to being more specific and concrete, with more modalities involved and with a development of delusional attributions. The results of this study suggest that simple PA might be secondary symptoms of trauma, cannabis use and anxiety rather than early signs of a psychotic disorder. Early presence of complex auditory PA at prodromal stage could potentially be considered as an indicator for later psychotic outcome.
Description
Keywords
Mental Health
Citation
Lu, Y. (2017). A Study of Symptom Content of Perceptual Abnormalities in Individuals at Clinical High Risk of Psychosis (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/25043