The Role of Personal Identity in Psychotic Symptoms: a Study With the Repertory Grid Technique

Completed

• Conditions: Psychotic Disorders; Schizophrenia; Self

• Registration Number: NCT03820362
• Lead Sponsor: University of Barcelona

Brief Summary

Personal identity is being recently recognized as a core element for mental health disorders, with relevant clinical implications. However, scarcity of data exists on its role in schizophrenia and related disorders. The repertory grid (RGT), a technique derived from personal construct theory, has been used in different clinical and non-clinical contexts for the study of the construction perception of self and others, to appreciate aspects of interpersonal construing such as polarization and differentiation (unidimensional thinking) or self-construction.and Our study aims to explore the potential influence of the structure of personal identity and of other relevant cognitive factors (social cognition, metacognition, neurocognition) in positive and negative symptoms in people suffering schizophrenia and related disorders.

Detailed Description

Over recent years, the importance of the sense of self and personal identity in psychopathology and its treatment has been highlighted. Several studies inspired in the Personal Construct Psychology framework have found a variety of identity characteristics in clinical conditions such as depression or eating disorders, but the evidence in schizophrenia and other psychotic related disorders is scarce.

In addition, current psychological models of positive and negative symptoms highlight the influence of neurocognition, social cognition and self-concepts in the development and maintenance of psychotic experiences. Despite the recognized need of person-centered approaches to understand psychopathology processes in psychosis, psychological models for explaining psychotic symptoms have not explored sufficiently the role of this kind of person-centered measures.

Aim

1. To examine the influence of the structure of personal identity and other relevant cognitive factors in positive and negative symptoms

Hypotheses

1. Positive symptoms will be influenced by dichotomous thinking style and construction of self as measured with the RGT.

2. Negative symptoms will be affected by the richness of the construct system as measured with the RGT.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2016-02
• Primary Completion: 2018-11
• Study Completion: 2018-11
• Status Verified: 2019-01
• Study First Submitted: 2019-01-22
• Study First Submitted QC: 2019-01-25
• Last Update Submitted: 2019-01-25
• Study First Posted: 2019-01-29
• Last Update Posted: 2019-01-29

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 85

Inclusion Criteria

• diagnosis of schizophrenia, psychotic disorder not otherwise specified, delusional disorder, schizoaffective disorder, brief psychotic disorder, or schizophreniform disorder
• age between 18 and 60 years.
• patients from outpatient mental health units

Exclusion Criteria

• traumatic brain injury, dementia, or intellectual disability (pre-morbid IQ <70)
• current substance dependence

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Self-others discrepancy, RGT	2 hours	Perceived social isolation. Possible range: 0-0,60. Higher values represent a worse outcome
Metacognition: BCIS (Beck et al. 2004; Gutiérrez-Zotes et al. 2012); Garety et al, 1991; Dudley et al, 1997)	15 minutes	Cognitive insight. Range: 0-45. Higher values represent a better outcome
Polarization, RGT	2 hours	Dichotomous thinking style in the interpersonal context. Possible range: 0-100. Higher values represent a worse outcome
Theory of mind: the Hinting Task (Corcoran et al., 1995; Gil-Sanz et al., 2012)	5 minutes	Possible range: 0-12. Higher values represent a better outcome
General intellectual functioning (WAIS)	20 minutes	vocabulary subscale. Range: 70-140. Higher values represent a better outcome
Number of elicited constructs, RGT	2 hours	Quantity of constructs that the person is able to express to describe self and others. Possible range: 10-50. Higher values represent a better outcome
Self-ideal discrepancy, RGT	2 hours	Self-esteem. Possible range: 0-0,60. Higher values represent a worse outcome
Interpersonal construct differentiation, RGT	2 hours	Percentage of Variance Accounted for the First Factor. Possible range: 0-100. Higher values represent a worse outcome
Psychotic symptoms (PANSS, Kay et al. 1987; Peralta & Cuesta, 1994).	40 minutes	Positive and negative symptoms of psychosis. Range: 7-112. Higher values represent a worse outcome.
Executive functioning: WSCT (Bergs et al., 1948)	15 minutes	Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. Categories completed and perseverative errors. Higher values represent a better outcome

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Sociodemographical data	10 minutes	Gender, chronicity, antipsychotic dosage, diagnosis, age, marital status, education level, employment situation
Depressive symptoms	10 minutes	Beck Depression Inventory (Beck et al. 1996; Sanz, Perdigón \& Vázquez, 2003). Range_ 0-63. High values represent a worse outcome.
General functioning	5 minutes	Global Assessment of Functioning (Endicot et al., 1976). Range: 0-100. Higher values represent a better outcome.
Psychological distress	10 minutes	CORE-OM (Evans et al., 2002; Trujillo et al., 2016). Range: 0-4. Higher values represent a worse outcome
Self-esteem	5 minutes	Rosenberg self-esteem scale (Martín Albó et al., 2007). Range: 0-40. Higher values represent a better outcome
Social functioning	20 minutes	Social Functioning Scale (Birchwood et al., 1990; Torres \& Olivares, 2000). Range: Range: 45-195
Jumping to Conclusions	15 minutes	The beads task (Garety et al., 1991; Dudley et al, 1997). Dichotomous: yes/no. A "yes" represents a worse outcome

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Parc Sanitary Sant Joan de Déu; 🇪🇸 Sant Boi De Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain