Why do bad things happen to me? Attributional style, depressed mood, and persecutory delusions in patients with schizophrenia

TY - JOUR

T1 - Why do bad things happen to me? Attributional style, depressed mood, and persecutory delusions in patients with schizophrenia

AU - Mehl, Stephanie

AU - Landsberg, Martin W

AU - Schmidt, Anna-Christine

AU - Cabanis, Maurice

AU - Bechdolf, Andreas

AU - Herrlich, Jutta

AU - Loos-Jankowiak, Stephanie

AU - Kircher, Tilo

AU - Kiszkenow, Stephanie

AU - Klingberg, Stefan

AU - Kommescher, Mareike

AU - Moritz, Steffen

AU - Müller, Bernhard W

AU - Sartory, Gudrun

AU - Wiedemann, Georg

AU - Wittorf, Andreas

AU - Wölwer, Wolfgang

AU - Wagner, Michael

N1 - © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

PY - 2014/11/1

Y1 - 2014/11/1

N2 - Theoretical models postulate an important role of attributional style (AS) in the formation and maintenance of persecutory delusions and other positive symptoms of schizophrenia. However, current research has gathered conflicting findings. In a cross-sectional design, patients with persistent positive symptoms of schizophrenia (n = 258) and healthy controls (n = 51) completed a revised version of the Internal, Personal and Situational Attributions Questionnaire (IPSAQ-R) and assessments of psychopathology. In comparison to controls, neither patients with schizophrenia in general nor patients with persecutory delusions (n = 142) in particular presented an externalizing and personalizing AS. Rather, both groups showed a "self-blaming" AS and attributed negative events more toward themselves. Persecutory delusions were independently predicted by a personalizing bias for negative events (beta = 0.197, P = .001) and by depression (beta = 0.152, P = .013), but only 5% of the variance in persecutory delusions could be explained. Cluster analysis of IPSAQ-R scores identified a "personalizing" (n = 70) and a "self-blaming" subgroup (n = 188), with the former showing slightly more pronounced persecutory delusions (P = .021). Results indicate that patients with schizophrenia and patients with persecutory delusions both mostly blamed themselves for negative events. Nevertheless, still a subgroup of patients could be identified who presented a more pronounced personalizing bias and more severe persecutory delusions. Thus, AS in patients with schizophrenia might be less stable but more determined by individual and situational characteristics that need further elucidation.

AB - Theoretical models postulate an important role of attributional style (AS) in the formation and maintenance of persecutory delusions and other positive symptoms of schizophrenia. However, current research has gathered conflicting findings. In a cross-sectional design, patients with persistent positive symptoms of schizophrenia (n = 258) and healthy controls (n = 51) completed a revised version of the Internal, Personal and Situational Attributions Questionnaire (IPSAQ-R) and assessments of psychopathology. In comparison to controls, neither patients with schizophrenia in general nor patients with persecutory delusions (n = 142) in particular presented an externalizing and personalizing AS. Rather, both groups showed a "self-blaming" AS and attributed negative events more toward themselves. Persecutory delusions were independently predicted by a personalizing bias for negative events (beta = 0.197, P = .001) and by depression (beta = 0.152, P = .013), but only 5% of the variance in persecutory delusions could be explained. Cluster analysis of IPSAQ-R scores identified a "personalizing" (n = 70) and a "self-blaming" subgroup (n = 188), with the former showing slightly more pronounced persecutory delusions (P = .021). Results indicate that patients with schizophrenia and patients with persecutory delusions both mostly blamed themselves for negative events. Nevertheless, still a subgroup of patients could be identified who presented a more pronounced personalizing bias and more severe persecutory delusions. Thus, AS in patients with schizophrenia might be less stable but more determined by individual and situational characteristics that need further elucidation.

U2 - 10.1093/schbul/sbu040

DO - 10.1093/schbul/sbu040

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 24743864

VL - 40

SP - 1338

EP - 1346

JO - SCHIZOPHRENIA BULL

JF - SCHIZOPHRENIA BULL

SN - 0586-7614

IS - 6

ER -