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Emotion regulation across the psychosis continuum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2019

Hannah C. Chapman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
Katherine F. Visser
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
Vijay A. Mittal
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
Brandon E. Gibb
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY, USA
Meredith E. Coles
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY, USA
Gregory P. Strauss*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
*
Author for correspondence: Gregory P. Strauss, Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, 125 Baldwin St., Athens, GA30602; E-mail: gstrauss@uga.edu.

Abstract

Emotion regulation dysfunction is characteristic of psychotic disorders, but little is known about how the use of specific types of emotion regulation strategies differs across phases of psychotic illness. This information is vital for understanding factors contributing to psychosis vulnerability states and developing targeted treatments. Three studies were conducted to examine emotion regulation across phases of psychosis, which included (a) adolescent community members with psychotic-like experiences (PLEs; n = 262) and adolescents without PLEs (n = 1,226); (b) adolescents who met clinical high-risk criteria for a prodromal syndrome (n = 29) and healthy controls (n = 29); and (c) outpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (SZ; n = 61) and healthy controls (n = 67). In each study, participants completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and measures of psychiatric symptoms and functional outcome. The three psychosis groups did not differ from each other in reported use of suppression; however, there was evidence for a vulnerability-related, dose-dependent decrease in reappraisal. Across each sample, a lower use of reappraisal was associated with poorer clinical outcomes. Findings indicate that emotion regulation abnormalities occur across a continuum of psychosis vulnerability and represent important targets for intervention.

Type
Regular Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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