Psychosis proneness, loneliness, and hallucinations in nonclinical individuals

Hallucinations occur along a continuum of normal functioning. Investigating the factors related to this experience in nonclinical individuals may offer important information for understanding the etiology of hallucinations in psychiatric populations. In this study we test the relationship between psychosis proneness, loneliness, and auditory hallucinations in a nonclinical sample using the White Christmas paradigm. Seventy-six undergraduate students participated in this study. We found that slightly more than half of our participants endorsed a hallucinatory experience during the White Christmas paradigm. However, we did not observe a relationship between the number of hallucinatory experiences and schizotypy, propensity to hallucinate, or loneliness. Moreover, there were no differences on these measures between individuals who reported hearing a hallucination during the White Christmas paradigm relative to those who did not. Thus, there may be other contextual factors not investigated in this study that might clarify the mechanism by which auditory hallucinations are experienced in a nonclinical population.

Emotional Variability and Inertia in Daily Life: Links to Borderline Personality and Depressive Symptoms

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) and depression are characterized by negative emotionality, yet BPD is also theorized to be linked with emotional variability. The present study extends past work to a larger time scale and notes the degree to which stress-related emotional responses are variable or persistent across stressors using novel analytic models. Participants (N = 164) were undergraduate students who completed daily assessments of negative emotional responses to interpersonal stressors for 2 weeks. BPD and depression were associated with greater negative emotional intensity and greater emotional variability in response to nonsocial stressors. Only BPD features were associated with greater emotional variability in response to social stressors. This study is limited by its reliance on self-report in a nonclinical sample and limited within-person assessments. Data point to distinct constellations of emotional dysfunction in BPD and depression. Pending replication, these data may inform targeting of emotional dysfunction in treatment.

Chilean Validation of the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis - Structure Questionnaire (OPD-SQ) for Personality Structure

BackgroundThis is the validation of the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis - Structure Questionnaire (OPD-SQ)MethodsA clinical sample of 399 adults and a nonclinical sample of 50 healthy adults completed measures of depression, attachment, psychiatric symptomatology and distress. Internal consistency and concurrent validity were assessed. Test-retest and Reliable Change Index were also calculated, as the ability of the OPD-SQ to distinguish between the clinical and control subsamples.ResultsHigh internal consistencies were found; significant differences between clinical and non-clinical samples, and significant associations with psychiatric symptomatology, depression and psychological distress.ConclusionThe Chilean OPD-SQ has good reliability, and discriminates between clinical and healthy samples.