Data Gathering Bias: Trait Vulnerability to Psychotic Symptoms?

Abstract

BackgroundJumping to conclusions (JTC) is associated with psychotic disorder and psychotic symptoms. If JTC represents a trait, the rate should be (i) increased in people with elevated levels of psychosis proneness such as individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD), and (ii) show a degree of stability over time.MethodsThe JTC rate was examined in 3 groups: patients with first episode psychosis (FEP), BPD patients and controls, using the Beads Task. PANSS, SIS-R and CAPE scales were used to assess positive psychotic symptoms. Four WAIS III subtests were used to assess IQ.ResultsA total of 61 FEP, 26 BPD and 150 controls were evaluated. 29 FEP were revaluated after one year. 44% of FEP (OR = 8.4, 95% CI: 3.9–17.9) displayed a JTC reasoning bias versus 19% of BPD (OR = 2.5, 95% CI: 0.8–7.8) and 9% of controls. JTC was not associated with level of psychotic symptoms or specifically delusionality across the different groups. Differences between FEP and controls were independent of sex, educational level, cannabis use and IQ. After one year, 47.8% of FEP with JTC at baseline again displayed JTC.ConclusionsJTC in part reflects trait vulnerability to develop disorders with expression of psychotic symptoms.

Jumping To Conclusions, General Intelligence, And Psychosis Liability: Findings From The Multi-Centre EU-GEI Case-Control Study

“…Lower IQ was also found associated with JTC in First Episode Psychosis 27,28 . Nonetheless, other studies on early psychosis did not detect any association with cognition, possibly due to small sample size 29,30 .…”

Differences in Facial Emotion Recognition between First Episode Psychosis, Borderline Personality Disorder and Healthy Controls

“…These findings may serve to support the hypothesis that such biases are related to interpersonal disability of these patients observed clinically, although hardly any study found a relation between emotion recognition and social functioning in the daily life of psychotic patients [ 35 ]. We have described previously that FEP and BPD patients can share other cognitive biases, such as data gathering bias that may contribute to the formation of delusions [ 23 ].…”

“…The recruitment procedures for this study were described previously [ 23 ]. Data were obtained from a convenience sample of patients with a FEP, admitted consecutively to the inpatient unit of Basurto University Hospital (HUB) from January 2010 to December 2014.…”

“…Socio-demographic and clinical variables collected in the sample have been detailed in a previous paper [ 23 ].…”

Data gathering ability contributes to visual organization and probabilistic reasoning

“…It has been widely used as a measure of probabilistic reasoning in schizophrenia studies to show delusional ideation may be associated with placing disproportionate import on prematurely gathered data ( Dudley et al., 2016 ; Fine et al., 2007 ; Garety and Freeman, 2013 ; Speechley et al., 2010 ). In non-schizophrenia populations, however, a JTC bias has been shown to exist on a spectrum ( Catalan et al., 2015 ) and correlate with levels of paranoia ( Moritz et al., 2012 ), suggesting an individual differences factor, the extreme end of which may represent a risk factor for delusional psychosis. This fits with the concept that symptoms of psychosis, notably hallucinations and delusions ( Freeman, 2006 ; Linscott and van Os, 2013 ; Peters et al., 1999 ; Strauss, 1969 ; van Os et al., 2009 ; van Os and Reininghaus, 2016 ), and sensory integration disturbances ( Carter et al., 2017 ) exist on a continuum in the general population.…”