From adversity to psychosis: pathways and mechanisms from specific adversities to specific symptoms

Abstract

Few studies have considered symptoms, underlying mechanisms and different kinds of adversity at the same time. Future research along these lines will have the potential to elucidate the mechanisms that lead to severe mental illness, and may have considerable clinical implications.

Impact of childhood adversities on specific symptom dimensions in first-episode psychosis

“…These findings add further weight to the suggestion that there may be distinct pathways from specific forms of CA to particular types of psychotic symptoms (Bentall et al 2014) and these warrant further investigation. In terms of clinical implications, our findings reiterate the need for a history of childhood adversity to be taken during routine psychiatric assessments of individuals presenting with psychosis in order to facilitate meaningful and comprehensive treatment plans (Read & Bentall, 2012).…”

“…Given previous research that has explored associations between CA and individual symptoms of psychosis and schizotypy, we hypothesised that all forms of CA would be associated with the positive dimension (Read et al 2003;Janssen et al 2004;Whitfield et al 2005;Schürhoff et al 2009;Bentall et al 2012;Stilo et al 2013;Velikonja et al 2015). As there is a consistent body of literature linking CSA with depression (e.g., Bifulco et al 1991;Kendler & Aggen, 2014;Sitko et al 2014) we also hypothesised that this type of CA would be associated with the depressed symptom dimension.…”

Trauma-related altered states of consciousness in post-traumatic stress disorder patients with or without comorbid dissociative disorders

“…This is in line with a recent meta-analytic review (Vonderlin et al, 2018) that also found CSA to be especially strongly related to dissociation, when compared to neglect and emotional abuse. CSA has also been identified as a potent risk factor for auditory hallucinations (Bentall et al, 2014), which are conceptualized as a symptom of TRASC in the 4-D model. Furthermore, higher reporting of childhood emotional neglect emerged as the only significant difference between patients with and without CDD comorbidity.…”

Hearing voices, dissociation, and the self: A functional-analytic perspective

“…A wealth of studies has reported direct correlations between voice hearing and trauma (see Bentall et al, 2014). In a review, McCarthy-Jones (2011) reported that child sexual abuse predicted a two-fold risk of voice hearing and a six-fold risk of commenting/commanding voices.…”

“…But, at its more extreme end, this continuum may involve externalising biases (i.e. misattributions of internal events to external sources; Allen, Aleman, & McGuire, 2007;Bentall et al, 2014).…”