Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Dissociation mediates the relationship between childhood trauma and hallucination-proneness
AU - Varese, F.
AU - Barkus, E.
AU - Bentall, R. P.
PY - 2012/5
Y1 - 2012/5
N2 - Background. It has been proposed that the relationship between childhood trauma and hallucinations can be explained by dissociative processes. The present study examined whether the effect of childhood trauma on hallucination-proneness is mediated by dissociative tendencies. In addition, the influence of dissociative symptoms on a cognitive process believed to underlie hallucinatory experiences (i.e. reality discrimination; the capacity to discriminate between internal and external cognitive events) was also investigated.Method. Patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (n=45) and healthy controls (with no history of hallucinations; n=20) completed questionnaire measures of hallucination-proneness, dissociative tendencies and childhood trauma, as well as performing an auditory signal detection task.Results. Compared to both healthy and non-hallucinating clinical controls, hallucinating patients reported both significantly higher dissociative tendencies and childhood sexual abuse. Dissociation positively mediated the effect of childhood trauma on hallucination-proneness. This mediational role was particularly robust for sexual abuse over other types of trauma. Signal detection abnormalities were evident in hallucinating patients and patients with a history of hallucinations, but were not associated with pathological dissociative symptoms.Conclusions. These results are consistent with dissociative accounts of the trauma-hallucinations link. Dissociation, however, does not affect reality discrimination. Future research should examine whether other cognitive processes associated with both dissociative states and hallucinations (e. g. deficits in cognitive inhibition) may explain the relationship between dissociation and hallucinatory experiences.
AB - Background. It has been proposed that the relationship between childhood trauma and hallucinations can be explained by dissociative processes. The present study examined whether the effect of childhood trauma on hallucination-proneness is mediated by dissociative tendencies. In addition, the influence of dissociative symptoms on a cognitive process believed to underlie hallucinatory experiences (i.e. reality discrimination; the capacity to discriminate between internal and external cognitive events) was also investigated.Method. Patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (n=45) and healthy controls (with no history of hallucinations; n=20) completed questionnaire measures of hallucination-proneness, dissociative tendencies and childhood trauma, as well as performing an auditory signal detection task.Results. Compared to both healthy and non-hallucinating clinical controls, hallucinating patients reported both significantly higher dissociative tendencies and childhood sexual abuse. Dissociation positively mediated the effect of childhood trauma on hallucination-proneness. This mediational role was particularly robust for sexual abuse over other types of trauma. Signal detection abnormalities were evident in hallucinating patients and patients with a history of hallucinations, but were not associated with pathological dissociative symptoms.Conclusions. These results are consistent with dissociative accounts of the trauma-hallucinations link. Dissociation, however, does not affect reality discrimination. Future research should examine whether other cognitive processes associated with both dissociative states and hallucinations (e. g. deficits in cognitive inhibition) may explain the relationship between dissociation and hallucinatory experiences.
KW - Dissociation
KW - hallucinations
KW - psychosis
KW - signal detection
KW - trauma
KW - AUDITORY VERBAL HALLUCINATIONS
KW - NEGATIVE SYNDROME SCALE
KW - PSYCHOTIC SYMPTOMS
KW - THOUGHT-DISORDER
KW - COMMUNITY SAMPLE
KW - HEARING VOICES
KW - SCHIZOPHRENIA
KW - EXPERIENCES
KW - ABUSE
KW - RELIABILITY
U2 - 10.1017/S0033291711001826
DO - 10.1017/S0033291711001826
M3 - Journal article
VL - 42
SP - 1025
EP - 1036
JO - Psychological Medicine
JF - Psychological Medicine
SN - 0033-2917
IS - 5
ER -