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

Abstract

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.

Cognitive factors maintaining persecutory delusions in psychosis: The contribution of depression.

“…This finding is in line with those of previous studies of people with persecutory delusions (Corcoran et al, 2008;Startup et al, 2008), and may not apply in the same way to other delusion subtypes (Menon, in press). The present study additionally found that those with delusions who were concurrently depressed were less likely to JTC than those with delusions who were not depressed.…”

“…The jumping to conclusions (JTC) data gathering bias that has been previously reported in people with persecutory delusions (Corcoran et al, 2008;Startup et al, 2008) was confirmed in the present sample. It was hypothesised that participants with persecutory delusions would JTC more often than those without delusions, irrespective of depression levels.…”

“…This data gathering bias has consistently been shown in people with delusions (Blackwood, Howard, Bentall, & Murray, 2001;Bentall, Corcoran, Howard, Blackwood, & Kinderman, 2001;. Groups with specifically persecutory delusions have repeatedly shown the JTC bias, even those with diagnoses other than schizophrenia (Corcoran et al, 2008;Startup et al, 2008). Other delusion types may not demonstrate JTC so reliably (Menon, in press).…”

“…Menon et al (in press) found that a group of people with delusions of reference did not show the hasty data gathering bias that has consistently been found in people with persecutory delusions (e.g. Corcoran et al, 2008;Startup, Freeman, & Garety, 2008). Using experience sampling methodology to conduct a fine-grained analysis of the shifting occurrence of delusion-related thoughts in a group of people with psychosis over multiple points through 7 consecutive days, Ben-zeev et al (2011) found that hallucinations predicted subsequent thoughts relating to delusions of control and of reference, but not grandiosity.…”

“…JTC is reliably found in people with persecutory delusions (e.g. Startup et al, 2008;Corcoran et al, 2008), and is relatively independent of affect (Fine, Gardner, Craigie, & Gold, 2007;So, Freeman, & Garety, 2008): this reasoning bias is thought to contribute to delusional severity independently of the influence of emotional dysregulation (Garety et al, 2005). The relationship between JTC and social problem solving performance has yet to be systematically examined.…”