Childhood maltreatment and social functioning in adults with sub-clinical psychosis

Abstract

Studies now acknowledge a robust association between childhood maltreatment and psychosis development in adulthood. Research shows that maltreatment not only influences the child's psychological wellbeing but also inhibits domains of social development. These social impairments have been found to predate the onset of psychosis and may crucially represent an intervening factor which triggers the decline towards psychosis. To examine social functioning as a potential mediating pathway between early maltreatment and sub-clinical psychosis. The study utilised data from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (N=7403). Psychotic-like experiences were assessed using the Psychosis Screening Questionnaire (PSQ) along with measures designed to capture childhood maltreatment and social impairment. Results revealed that maltreatment was associated with both social functioning deficits as well as psychotic symptomology. Furthermore, social functioning was found to mediate the relationship between maltreatment and psychosis. The results align with literature linking maltreatment to both social functioning deficits and psychosis. Crucially, the study bridges these research areas by presenting functional decline as possible risk indicator and intervening factor between maltreatment and psychosis. Intervention strategies should therefore seek to capitalise on treatments which boost social aptitude as a means of averting further decline towards psychopathology.

Psychotic-Like Experiences and Nonsuidical Self-Injury in England: Results from a National Survey

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A systematic review on mediators between adversity and psychosis: potential targets for treatment

“…Pathway 4: feeling of loneliness Although only explored in four studies (Boyda & McFeeters, 2015;Jaya et al, 2017;Shevlin et al, 2015;Steenkamp et al, 2019), we found good evidence suggesting that a feeling of loneliness might mediate the CA-psychosis relationship. We could hypothesise that social withdrawal and loneliness may increase an individual's sensitivity to potential stressors in daily life restrict access to balanced information from the environment, maintaining biased cognitive biases.…”

Childhood maltreatment and psychotic experiences: Exploring the specificity of early maladaptive schemas

“…Recent metaanalyses by Varese et al (2012) and Bonoldi et al (2013) show a higher prevalence of child maltreatment among individuals diagnosed with a psychotic disorder, than within samples taken from the general population. Likewise, childhood maltreatment may also create a vulnerability to low-level psychotic experiences (PE), that is, in the absence of a clinical disorder (Bhavsar et al, 2017;Boyda & McFeeters, 2015;Sommer et al, 2010). Research shows that such experiences are transitory in about 80% of individuals, around 20% go on to develop persistent PE and 7% go on to develop a psychotic disorder, with an annual transition rate below 1% (Kaymaz et al, 2012;Linscott & van Os, 2013;Zammit et al, 2013).…”