The impact of neuropsychological functioning and coping style on perceived stress in individuals with first-episode psychosis and healthy controls

Abstract

Stress is implicated in the development and course of psychotic illness, but the factors that influence stress levels are not well understood. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of neuropsychological functioning and coping styles on perceived stress in people with first-episode psychosis (FEP) and healthy controls (HC). Thirty-four minimally treated FEP patients from the Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre, Melbourne, Australia, and 26 HC participants from a similar demographic area participated in the study. Participants completed a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery as well as the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (task-, emotion- and avoidance-focussed coping styles) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Linear regressions were used to determine the contribution of neuropsychological functioning and coping style to perceived stress in the two groups. In the FEP group, higher levels of emotion-focussed and lower levels of task-focussed coping were associated with elevated stress. Higher premorbid IQ and working memory were also associated with higher subjective stress. In the HC group, higher levels of emotion-focussed coping, and contrary to the FEP group, lower premorbid IQ, working memory and executive functioning, were associated with increased stress. Lower intellectual functioning may provide some protection against perceived stress in FEP.

Mental simulation and experience as determinants of performance expectancies in people with schizophrenia spectrum disorder

“…Similar to findings on retrospectively measured stress (Allott et al, 2015), we found people with SZSPEC also imagined greater distress than the healthy controls on this prospective thinking task. However, we also did not find any association between imagined distress and either performance expectancies or simulation coherence.…”

“…However, we also did not find any association between imagined distress and either performance expectancies or simulation coherence. One explanation for this is that imagining a scenario involves remembering past experiences (Schacter et al, 2012) and for people SZSPEC these experiences are likely to be associated with distress (Allott et al, 2015), regardless of their outcome, eliminating any relationship between performance and distress.…”

“…We created composite measures of the five scenarios for all measures; there was acceptable reliabili . For the purposes of the current study we focused analysis on the distress in the situation, rather than worry about the outcome, because the former variable is more relevant to the existing literature on perceived stress (Allott et al, 2015). (Zigmond and Snaith, 1983) The HADS is a brief measure of both anxiety and depression that has been shown to have well established reliability and psychometric properties.…”

“…Compared with healthy participants those with schizophrenia report higher per ceived stress (Allott et al, 2015) and higher negative affect in response to disturbances or hassles of daily life (MyinGermeys et al, 2001). These studies focused on current or past experience of stress in everyday life, leaving open the possibility that the mental simulation of future stressors is also accompanied by increased anticipated distress.…”

An exploration of the relationship between use of safety‐seeking behaviours and psychosis: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…The two papers of Freeman et al, find that avoidance was reported by 92% of participants in the first study (Freeman et al, ) and 78% in the second (Freeman et al, ). No differences have been reported between clinical and non‐clinical groups on use of avoidance (Allott et al, ; Ritsner et al, ), or within a group of participants at exacerbation and stabilisation phases (Strous, Ratner, Gibel, Ponizovsky, & Ritsner, ). In contrast, one study found a group with a diagnosis of schizophrenia used significantly more avoidant coping than a control group (MacAulay & Cohen, ).…”