Is there an association between caregiver antipathy and psychosis? A systematic review

Abstract

Purpose. Existing reviews of trauma and psychosis have identified associations between childhood emotional abuse (CEA) and psychosis. However, conceptual issues relating to assessment of CEA limit the conclusions that can be drawn from the literature. The aim of this review was to identify and evaluate studies reporting an association between childhood experiences of caregiver antipathy (i.e. criticism, hostility, coldness, or rejection from a parental figure experienced prior to age 17 years) and psychosis symptoms/diagnosis. Methods. Five databases were systematically searched for articles published until May 2020. Studies were evaluated against inclusion/exclusion criteria, and a narrative synthesis of findings was completed. Study quality was assessed by two independent raters.Results. Fourteen studies comprised of 1,848 participants met inclusion criteria. Twelve of these studies found significant associations between caregiver antipathy and psychosis, and two did not. There was evidence that adults with schizophrenia-spectrum diagnoses report more severe caregiver antipathy in childhood than non-clinical controls and that caregiver antipathy severity is positively correlated with psychosis symptom severity. Most studies received weak or moderate quality ratings and all used crosssectional or case-control designs which showed associations, rather than causal relationships, between childhood caregiver antipathy and later psychosis.Conclusions. Future research would benefit from more rigorous and valid assessment of CEA, use of multivariate methods to account for possible patterns of co-occurrence, and longitudinal study designs to make more robust causal claims. The findings may have important implications for the delivery of psychological care for people with psychosis who report adverse caregiving experiences.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The Structure of Temperament in Caregivers of Patients with Schizophrenia

“…The question of the relationship between the structure of temperament and the choice to be a caregiver requires a thorough and careful analysis of the results of empirical research. It is interesting, however, that schizophrenic patients were more likely to have mutual antipathy with their caregivers than in non-clinical groups, which contradicts the results of our research discussed below [20].…”