The aim of the current study was to examine theory of mind (ToM), the ability to infer the mental states of others, in young adults who are deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH), and to explore the influence of alexithymia, an inability to understand emotions of the self and others, on ToM performance in this group. Compared to participants with typical hearing, DHH participants displayed significantly lower affective ToM skills and greater alexithymia. After accounting for verbal intelligence quotient, hearing status and alexithymia significantly contributed to poorer ToM performance, accounting for over 14% of the variance. Having a parent who is deaf and being part of the Deaf community were associated with better emotion processing and appear to be important protective factors. Findings provide support that ToM difficulties may linger into young adulthood among DHH individuals and that alexithymia may be a contributing factor. Early intervention programs emphasizing emotional understanding, perspective-taking, and communication skills are warranted for DHH children as well as their caregivers.
Background and Hypotheses Several biological markers are believed to reflect accelerated aging in schizophrenia spectrum disorders; however, retinal neural changes have not yet been explored as potential CNS biomarkers of accelerated aging in this population. The aim of this study was to determine whether retinal neural layer thinning is more strongly related to age in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder patients (SZ) than in a psychiatrically healthy control group (CON). Study Design Schizophrenia (n = 60) and CON participants (n = 69) underwent spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans to examine the following variables in both eyes: retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness, macula central subfield (CSF) thickness, macula volume, ganglion cell layer-inner plexiform layer (GCL-IPL) thickness, optic cup volume, and cup-to-disc ratio. Eleven participants in each group had diabetes or hypertension. Study Results Significant negative relationships between age and RNFL thickness, macula volume, and GCL-IPL thickness were observed in the SZ group, while no significant relationships were observed in the CON group. However, many of the findings in the SZ group lost significance when participants with diabetes/hypertension were removed from analyses. A notable exception to this was that the age × SZ interaction accounted for a unique proportion of variance in GCL-IPL thinning over and above the effect of diabetes/hypertension. Conclusions The results suggest that retinal atrophy occurs at an increased rate in schizophrenia spectrum disorders, potentially reflecting accelerated aging inherent to these conditions, with considerable contributions from systemic medical diseases closely linked to this population.
Schizotypy is a multidimensional personality construct that is understood as a vulnerability for schizophrenia, often manifesting as more subtle and attenuated symptoms, referred to as schizotypic psychopathology. It has many well-established environmental risk factors, including experiencing childhood maltreatment (CM), but the intermediary mechanisms that relate CM to schizotypic psychopathology are unclear. Prior studies have demonstrated that trait dissociation may indirectly affect the relationship between CM and schizotypic psychopathology. However, less is known about the importance of peritraumatic dissociative experiences during CM and how it relates to schizotypic symptom manifestations in young adulthood. Therefore, the present study explored the independent contributions of peritraumatic and trait dissociation in the relationship between CM and schizotypy. Participants ( N = 346) were undergraduate students who completed online self-report measures on CM, trait dissociation, peritraumatic dissociation experienced during CM, and schizotypic symptoms. The indirect effect of peritraumatic dissociation and trait dissociation on the relationship between CM and schizotypy was examined using mediational analyses. Correlational analyses revealed significant associations between self-reported CM, schizotypy, trait dissociation, and peritraumatic dissociation. In addition, mediational analyses indicated a significant indirect effect of peritraumatic dissociation (β = .06, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.01, 0.12]), but not trait dissociation (β = .05, 95% CI [−0.02, 0.12]), on CM and schizotypy. These results highlight peritraumatic dissociation as an important mechanism driving the expression of schizotypic symptoms among individuals with a history of CM. Understanding how trauma sequelae lead to schizotypic psychopathology may be crucial in assessing and treating individuals with maltreatment histories or those on the psychosis spectrum.
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