Interpretations of voices in patients with hallucinations and non-patient controls: a comparison and predictors of distress in patients

Hallucinations in the general population

“…The risk of psychosis also was higher in those with depression at year 1. Morrison et al [40] compared beliefs about voices in 41 psychotic patients with auditory hallucinations and 39 nonpatients with a high predisposition to hallucinations, using the Interpretation of Voices Inventory [12•]. They found that the patients showed higher levels of negative interpretations of voices, and there was a trend for more interpretations regarding loss of control.…”

Coping With Psychosis

“…In some respects, this process may be facilitated through the use of specific reactive coping strategies; however, in general, the use of specific strategies has been distinguished from the overall process (see, for example, Affleck and Tennen's [1996] distinction between "benefit-reminding," which they see as a coping strategy, and "benefit finding," which is linked to a larger process). This process may involve a wide range of independently reported phenomena including examining and reflecting (Larsen, 2004), interpreting (Morrison et al, 2004), explaining, attributing (Birchwood et al, 2000), and integrating versus sealing over illness related experiences (McGlashan, 1987). From this perspective, coping is not limited to responding, but rather negotiating the appraisal and eventually influencing the perception, which frames the meaning of the experience of stress.…”

A Pilot Study of the Relations Within Which Hearing Voices Participates: Towards A Functional Distinction Between Voice Hearers and Controls

“…For example, we found that non-clinical voice hearers were more positive about voices than one would typically expect, and these mixed beliefs can interact with level of distress (see also Miller, O'Connor, & DiPasquale, 1993;Morrison, Nothard, Bowe, & Wells, 2004).…”