Identifying potential predictors of traumatic reactions to psychotic episodes.

OBJECTIVES: The experience of a psychotic episode can sometimes lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The objective of the research was to identify candidate predictors of such negative reactions for future prospective study. We examined six predictors identified from the PTSD and...

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Main Authors: Chisholm, B, Freeman, D, Cooke, A
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2006
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author Chisholm, B
Freeman, D
Cooke, A
author_facet Chisholm, B
Freeman, D
Cooke, A
author_sort Chisholm, B
collection OXFORD
description OBJECTIVES: The experience of a psychotic episode can sometimes lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The objective of the research was to identify candidate predictors of such negative reactions for future prospective study. We examined six predictors identified from the PTSD and psychosis literatures in a retrospective study: a history of previous trauma, a history of previous episodes of psychosis, perceived helplessness and uncontrollability at the time of the index psychotic episode, the content of persecutory delusions at episode and the perceived presence of crisis support after the psychotic episode. DESIGN: The design was a cross-sectional self-report and interview study of people with recently remitted symptoms of psychosis. METHOD: 36 individuals with delusions and hallucinations that had remitted in the past year were assessed for the presence of PTSD symptoms in reaction to their most recent psychotic episode. Measures of the potential predictors were also taken at this point and associations with PTSD symptoms tested. RESULTS: 61% of the individuals with remitted positive symptoms had a reaction to their psychotic episode that was potentially severe enough to receive a PTSD diagnosis. Higher levels of PTSD symptoms were associated with all six predictors tested. CONCLUSIONS: The study provides further evidence that negative reactions to psychotic episodes are relatively common. Clinicians may wish to assess for such symptoms. The study extended these findings by identifying a number of candidate psychological predictors of PTSD reactions such as perceptions of uncontrollability and absence of support. Prospective longitudinal studies are required to test the causal significance of these factors. More broadly, the findings indicate that traumatic stress in response to intra-psychic events such as delusions can be understood in similar ways to traumatic stress arising from physical traumas such as disasters.
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spelling oxford-uuid:8ac9b15f-9d5c-47bd-bfd0-bfd6b33ca3a62022-03-26T22:33:52ZIdentifying potential predictors of traumatic reactions to psychotic episodes.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:8ac9b15f-9d5c-47bd-bfd0-bfd6b33ca3a6EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2006Chisholm, BFreeman, DCooke, A OBJECTIVES: The experience of a psychotic episode can sometimes lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The objective of the research was to identify candidate predictors of such negative reactions for future prospective study. We examined six predictors identified from the PTSD and psychosis literatures in a retrospective study: a history of previous trauma, a history of previous episodes of psychosis, perceived helplessness and uncontrollability at the time of the index psychotic episode, the content of persecutory delusions at episode and the perceived presence of crisis support after the psychotic episode. DESIGN: The design was a cross-sectional self-report and interview study of people with recently remitted symptoms of psychosis. METHOD: 36 individuals with delusions and hallucinations that had remitted in the past year were assessed for the presence of PTSD symptoms in reaction to their most recent psychotic episode. Measures of the potential predictors were also taken at this point and associations with PTSD symptoms tested. RESULTS: 61% of the individuals with remitted positive symptoms had a reaction to their psychotic episode that was potentially severe enough to receive a PTSD diagnosis. Higher levels of PTSD symptoms were associated with all six predictors tested. CONCLUSIONS: The study provides further evidence that negative reactions to psychotic episodes are relatively common. Clinicians may wish to assess for such symptoms. The study extended these findings by identifying a number of candidate psychological predictors of PTSD reactions such as perceptions of uncontrollability and absence of support. Prospective longitudinal studies are required to test the causal significance of these factors. More broadly, the findings indicate that traumatic stress in response to intra-psychic events such as delusions can be understood in similar ways to traumatic stress arising from physical traumas such as disasters.
spellingShingle Chisholm, B
Freeman, D
Cooke, A
Identifying potential predictors of traumatic reactions to psychotic episodes.
title Identifying potential predictors of traumatic reactions to psychotic episodes.
title_full Identifying potential predictors of traumatic reactions to psychotic episodes.
title_fullStr Identifying potential predictors of traumatic reactions to psychotic episodes.
title_full_unstemmed Identifying potential predictors of traumatic reactions to psychotic episodes.
title_short Identifying potential predictors of traumatic reactions to psychotic episodes.
title_sort identifying potential predictors of traumatic reactions to psychotic episodes
work_keys_str_mv AT chisholmb identifyingpotentialpredictorsoftraumaticreactionstopsychoticepisodes
AT freemand identifyingpotentialpredictorsoftraumaticreactionstopsychoticepisodes
AT cookea identifyingpotentialpredictorsoftraumaticreactionstopsychoticepisodes