Clinical trial NCT03820362: The Role of Personal Identity in Psychotic Symptoms: a Study With the Repertory Grid Technique
Official title: Personal Identity, Cognitive Factors and Psychotic Symptoms in Schizophrenia and Related Disorders: A Cross-sectional Study With the Repertory Grid Technique
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Schizophrenia
Psychotic Disorders
Self
Keywords: personal identity
personal constructs
Lead sponsor: University of Barcelona
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu
name: Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca, Catalunya, Spain
name: Ministerio de Educación y Formación Profesional, Spain
First posted: 2019-01-29
Enrollment: 85
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 60
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: CASE_ONLY
Time perspective: CROSS_SECTIONAL
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Patients recruited from the community, suffering schizophrenia and related disorder

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.

Eligibility criteria: 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

Primary outcomes:
measure: Self-ideal discrepancy, RGT
timeFrame: 2 hours
measure: Self-others discrepancy, RGT
timeFrame: 2 hours
measure: Interpersonal construct differentiation, RGT
timeFrame: 2 hours
measure: Polarization, RGT
timeFrame: 2 hours
measure: Number of elicited constructs, RGT
timeFrame: 2 hours
measure: Psychotic symptoms (PANSS, Kay et al. 1987; Peralta & Cuesta, 1994).
timeFrame: 40 minutes
measure: Metacognition: BCIS (Beck et al. 2004; Gutiérrez-Zotes et al. 2012); Garety et al, 1991; Dudley et al, 1997)
timeFrame: 15 minutes
measure: Theory of mind: the Hinting Task (Corcoran et al., 1995; Gil-Sanz et al., 2012)
timeFrame: 5 minutes
measure: General intellectual functioning (WAIS)
timeFrame: 20 minutes
measure: Executive functioning: WSCT (Bergs et al., 1948)
timeFrame: 15 minutes
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Sociodemographical data
timeFrame: 10 minutes
measure: Depressive symptoms
timeFrame: 10 minutes
measure: General functioning
timeFrame: 5 minutes
measure: Self-esteem
timeFrame: 5 minutes
measure: Social functioning
timeFrame: 20 minutes
measure: Psychological distress
timeFrame: 10 minutes
measure: Jumping to Conclusions
timeFrame: 15 minutes
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Sant Boi De Llobregat
country: Spain
facility: Parc Sanitary Sant Joan de Déu
state: Barcelona
Study officials:
affiliation: Universitat de Barcelona & Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu
name: Helena García-Mieres, MsC
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu
name: Susana Ochoa, PhD
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
affiliation: University of Barcelona
name: Guillem Feixas, PhD
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
References: