Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T22:52:52.360Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A transdiagnostic investigation of ‘theory of mind’ and ‘jumping to conclusions’ in patients with persecutory delusions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 November 2007

R. Corcoran ,
G. Rowse ,
R. Moore ,
N. Blackwood ,
P. Kinderman ,
R. Howard ,
S. Cummins  and
R. P. Bentall
R. Corcoran*
Affiliation:
Division of Psychiatry, School of Community Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, A Floor, South Block, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, UK
G. Rowse
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
R. Moore
Affiliation:
Section of Old Age Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, DeCrespigny Park, London, UK
N. Blackwood
Affiliation:
Section of Old Age Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, DeCrespigny Park, London, UK
P. Kinderman
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
R. Howard
Affiliation:
Section of Old Age Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, DeCrespigny Park, London, UK
S. Cummins
Affiliation:
School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, UK
R. P. Bentall
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Wales Bangor, Bangor, Gwynedd, UK
*
*Address for correspondence: R. Corcoran, Ph.D., Division of Psychiatry, School of Community Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, A Floor, South Block, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK. (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

A tendency to make hasty decisions on probabilistic reasoning tasks and a difficulty attributing mental states to others are key cognitive features of persecutory delusions (PDs) in the context of schizophrenia. This study examines whether these same psychological anomalies characterize PDs when they present in the context of psychotic depression.

Method

Performance on measures of probabilistic reasoning and theory of mind (ToM) was examined in five subgroups differing in diagnostic category and current illness status.

Results

The tendency to draw hasty decisions in probabilistic settings and poor ToM tested using story format feature in PDs irrespective of diagnosis. Furthermore, performance on the ToM story task correlated with the degree of distress caused by and preoccupation with the current PDs in the currently deluded groups. By contrast, performance on the non-verbal ToM task appears to be more sensitive to diagnosis, as patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders perform worse on this task than those with depression irrespective of the presence of PDs.

Conclusions

The psychological anomalies associated with PDs examined here are transdiagnostic but different measures of ToM may be more or less sensitive to indices of severity of the PDs, diagnosis and trait- or state-related cognitive effects.

Keywords

Paranoiapsychologytransdiagnostic
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 38 , Issue 11 , November 2008 , pp. 1577 - 1583
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bentall, RP (2003). Madness Explained. Psychosis and Human Nature. Penguin Books: London.Google Scholar
Bentall, RP, Corcoran, R, Howard, R, Blackwood, N, Kinderman, P (2001). Persecutory delusions: a review and theoretical integration. Clinical Psychology Review 21, 1143–1192.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bentall, RP, Corcoran, R, Rowse, G, Moore, R, Cummins, S, Blackwood, N, Howard, R, Kinderman, P (in press). Paranoid delusions in schizophrenia and depression: the transdiagnostic role of expectations of negative events and negative self-esteem. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.Google Scholar
Blackwood, NJ, Howard, RJ, Bentall, RP, Murray, RM (2001). Cognitive neuropsychiatric models of persecutory delusions. American Journal of Psychiatry 158, 527–539.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clinch, JJ, Keselman, HJ (1988). Parametric alternatives to the analysis of variance. Journal of Educational Statistics 7, 207–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corcoran, R, Frith, CD (2003). Autobiographical memory and theory of mind: evidence of a relationship in schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine 33, 897–905.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Corcoran, R, Frith, CD, Mercer, G (1995). Schizophrenia, symptomatology and social inference: investigating ‘theory of mind’ in people with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research 17, 5–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dudley, REJ, John, CH, Young, AW, Over, DE (1997). Normal and abnormal reasoning in people with delusions. British Journal of Clinical Psychology 36, 243–258.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Freeman, D (2007). Suspicious minds: the psychology of persecutory delusions. Clinical Psychology Review 27, 425–457.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frith, CD (1992). The Cognitive Neuropsychology of Schizophrenia. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Hove, UK.Google Scholar
Frith, CD & Corcoran, R (1996). Exploring theory of mind in people with schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine 26, 521–530.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garety, PA, Freeman, D (1999). Cognitive approaches to delusions: a critical review of theories and evidence. British Journal of Clinical Psychology 38, 113–154.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garety, PA, Freeman, D, Jolley, S, Dunn, G, Bebbington, PE, Fowler, DG, Kuipers, E, Dudley, R (2005). Reasoning, emotions, and delusional conviction in psychosis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 114, 373–384.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garety, PA, Hemsley, DR, Wessely, S (1991). Reasoning in deluded schizophrenic and paranoid patients. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 179, 194–201.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harrington, L, Langdon, R, Siegert, RJ, McClure, J (2005). Schizophrenia, theory of mind, and persecutory delusions. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry 10, 87–104.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harrington, L, Siegert, RJ, McClure, J (2005). Theory of mind in schizophrenia: a critical review. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry 10, 249–286.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huq, SF, Garety, PA, Hemsley, DR (1988). Probabilistic judgements in deluded and nondeluded subjects. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 40A, 801–812.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langdon, R, Mitchie, PT, Ward, PB, McConaghy, N, Catts, SV, Coltheart, M (1997). Defective self and/or other mentalising in schizophrenia: a cognitive neuropsychological approach. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry 2, 167–193.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moore, R, Blackwood, N, Corcoran, R, Rowse, G, Kinderman, P, Bentall, R, Howard, R (2006). Misunderstanding the intentions of others: an exploratory study of the cognitive etiology of persecutory delusions in very late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 14, 410–418.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peters, ER, Garety, P (2006). Cognitive functioning in delusions: a longitudinal analysis. Behaviour Research and Therapy 44, 481–514.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peters, ER, Joseph, SA, Garety, P (1999). Measurement of delusional ideation in the normal population: introducing the PDI. Schizophrenia Bulletin 25, 553–576.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Phillips, LD, Edwards, W (1966). Conservatism in a simple probability inference task. Journal of Experimental Psychology 72, 346–354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Dael, F, Versmissen, D, Janssen, I, Myin Germeys, I, van Os, J, Krabbendam, L (2006). Data gathering: biased in psychosis? Schizophrenia Bulletin 32, 341–351.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wechsler, D (1999). Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence. The Psychological Corporation: San Antonio, TX.Google Scholar
WHO (1997). Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN), version 2. World Health Organization: Geneva.Google Scholar