The Nithsdale Schizophrenia Surveys

Abstract

Schizophrenic patients saw their parents as showing much less warmth, and the severity of currents symptoms was associated with perceived parental rearing attitudes. The hostility component of high expressed emotion may be a parental trait which exists before the illness begins.

Can attachment theory help explain the relationship between childhood adversity and psychosis?

“…As the authors point out 'MZ twins are genetically identical and any differences between such twins are due to non-genetic causes' (ibid., p. 67). The Scottish study, moreover, found no significant relationship between 'premorbid personality and social adjustment' (as assessed by the patients' mothers), and parental rearing styles (McCreadie, Williamson, Athawes, Connolly, & Tilak-Singh, 1994). Also, when we consider the relationship between early trauma and attachment disorganization, meta-analytic evidence shows that disorganized infant attachment does not arise through temperamental (van Ijzendoorn, or genetic variables (Bokhorst, Bakermans-Kranenburg, Fearon, van Ijzendoorn, Fonagy, & Schuengel, 2003;Bakermans-Kranenburg & van Ijzendoorn, 2004).…”

“…In one study, of seventy-two people diagnosed with 'schizophrenia', those who experienced one or both parents as low care and high over-protection had an earlier age of first hospitalization and were more likely to be readmitted (Parker, Fairley, Greenwood, Jurd, & Silove, 1982). Other studies have not found any relationship between perceived parental rearing styles and age of onset (Warner & Atkinson, 1988;McCreadie, Williamson, Athawes, Connolly, & Tilak-Singh, 1994). However, it has been found that patients who scored their parents positively on the PBI 'tended to experience a milder course of illness if they were in frequent contact with them, and a more severe course if they were not' (Warner & Atkinson, 1988, p. 344).…”

“…Table 2 presents the data from this important study in a format allowing comparison with the studies in Table 1. In addition, a Scottish study, using a different measure of perceived parental rearing patterns, found that the parents of 'schizophrenia' subjects were not seen as more 'over-protective' or 'rejecting' than the parents of 'normal' subjects, but they were (both mothers and fathers) seen as exhibiting significantly less 'warmth' (McCreadie, Williamson, Athawes, Connolly, & Tilak-Singh, 1994).…”

“…There has been little research into the relationship between PBI scores and specific psychotic symptoms. The Scottish study that used an alternate measure of parenting styles (McCreadie, Williamson, Athawes, Connolly, & Tilak-Singh, 1994) found that 'rejection' is correlated with positive symptoms for both mothers and fathers but is also correlated with negative symptoms but for mothers only and not so strongly. 'Over-protection' is correlated with positive symptoms, but for fathers only, and is not correlated with negative symptoms.…”