Psychosis proneness, loneliness, and hallucinations in nonclinical individuals

Abstract

Hallucinations occur along a continuum of normal functioning. Investigating the factors related to this experience in nonclinical individuals may offer important information for understanding the etiology of hallucinations in psychiatric populations. In this study we test the relationship between psychosis proneness, loneliness, and auditory hallucinations in a nonclinical sample using the White Christmas paradigm. Seventy-six undergraduate students participated in this study. We found that slightly more than half of our participants endorsed a hallucinatory experience during the White Christmas paradigm. However, we did not observe a relationship between the number of hallucinatory experiences and schizotypy, propensity to hallucinate, or loneliness. Moreover, there were no differences on these measures between individuals who reported hearing a hallucination during the White Christmas paradigm relative to those who did not. Thus, there may be other contextual factors not investigated in this study that might clarify the mechanism by which auditory hallucinations are experienced in a nonclinical population.

The prevalence and severity of loneliness and deficits in perceived social support among who have received a ‘personality disorder’ diagnosis or have relevant traits: a systematic review

“…Two cross-sectional studies investigated the relationship between loneliness and ‘schizotypal’ symptoms among students in the general population. Findings from the Australian sample [ 77 ] and from US sample [ 80 ], both rated as low-quality, were similar in finding a positive association between negative ‘schizotypal’ symptoms and loneliness ( r = .51 - .60). Negative ‘schizotypal’ is characterised by social anxiety, anhedonia, diminished positive affect [ 77 , 80 ].…”

Activity system, schizotypal personality, and mentalization: A study between halted activity and COVID-19 conducted in Henan, China

“…Regarding schizotypal traits, our results showed lower levels on all the MSS subscales comparing previous studies in the Chinese context and higher than other studies in other contexts. Our scores were 3.99, 2.41, and 1.87, showing lower levels compared to 6.73, 3.54, and 3.63 in Wang et al ( 38 ), and showing higher levels compared to 1.55, 2.03, and 1.81 in Gross et al ( 91 ) (among college students in the U.S.), and compared to 0.93, 1.10, and 1.15 in Lincoln et al ( 87 ) (among university students in the U.S.), and compared to 1.73, 1.30, and 1.56 in Kemp et al ( 88 ), on Negative, Positive, and Disorganized subscales, respectively.…”

“…In addition, in line with existing research, our sample size exceeds previous studies' sample sizes. For instance, the sample size in a study by Lincoln et al ( 87 ) to measure the MMS in a non-clinical sample was 76 participants, and 575 participants from workers and students of one university in a study by Kemp et al ( 88 ). Also, our study's sample exceeds the sample size (105 participants) in a study by Salaminios et al ( 45 ) investigating the association between schizotypal personality features and mentalization and exceeds the sample size of another study ( 89 ) investigating psychological wellbeing of hospital medical staff (668 participants).…”

Social Deafferentation and the Relation Between Loneliness and Hallucinations

“… 11 In previous studies, the exact content of the hallucinations (ie, social or nonsocial) was not examined or not specified, leaving it unclear whether the reported hallucinations can indeed be interpreted as social deafferentation (ie, spurious socially-related brain activity). An exception is a study by Lincoln et al, 12 which showed that loneliness does not affect the proneness to hallucinate music (ie, a nonsocial hallucination) in a white-noise paradigm, which is consistent with the SDA.…”