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Anxiety sensitivity depending on presence of positive symptoms in psychosis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

E. Fernândez-Jiménez
Affiliation:
Departamento de Personalidad, Evaluaciôn y Tratamiento Psicolôgicos, University of Seville, Seville, Spain
J. Pastor-Morales
Affiliation:
Equipo de Salud Mental de Distrito Guadalquivir, Area Hospitalaria Virgen del Rocîo, Seville, Spain
V. Sanz-Largo
Affiliation:
Equipo de Salud Mental de Distrito Guadalquivir, Area Hospitalaria Virgen del Rocîo, Seville, Spain
E. Castillo-Gordillo
Affiliation:
Equipo de Salud Mental de Distrito Guadalquivir, Area Hospitalaria Virgen del Rocîo, Seville, Spain
F. Rivas-Marîn
Affiliation:
Equipo de Salud Mental de Distrito Guadalquivir, Area Hospitalaria Virgen del Rocîo, Seville, Spain

Abstract

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Introduction

An important corpus of scientist evidence is linking psychotic activity and anxiety-related processes (Freeman and Garety, 2003).

Objectives

We intended to assess differences in Anxiety Sensitivity dimensions between patients diagnosed by psychosis with and without positive symptoms.

Methods

Participants: 49 patients with DSM psychosis diagnosis (42 men and 7 women; mean age: 40), who attended a Mental Health Rehabilitation Service in 2008, of whom 24 patients had positive symptomatology.

Design, materials and procedure: A Cross-sectional design (one measurement) for a co-relational method of comparison between groups.

We used the Spanish validated Anxiety Sensitivity lndex-3 -ASI 3- (Sandîn et al, 2007), a 18-item Likert self-report that assesses fears of anxious symptoms. It presents a hierarchical structure (a general factor and three subscales -Physical, Cognitive and Social Concerns-). It's also used the first and third items (delusions and hallucinatory behaviour) of The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale -PANSS- (Kay, Opler and Lindenmayer, 1988) to detect positive symptoms.

Results

Patients with positive symptoms showed a higher sensitivity to cognitive (z = -3.22, p < 0.01) and social anxiety (z = -2.66, p < 0.01), as well as higher punctuations in ASI-total (z = -2.91, p < 0.01), than patients without positive symptoms.

Conclusions

Patients with positive symptoms show significant fears of symptoms of different anxious domains (ASI-total) with regard to patients without this kind of symptomatology. Specially, they are worried about the possibility that concentration difficulties and restlessness lead to mental incapacitation (ASI-cognitive) and about social reactions before their own publicly observable anxiety manifestations (ASI-social).

Type
P03-214
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2011
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