Do People With Psychosis Have Specific Difficulties Regulating Emotions?

TY - JOUR

T1 - Do People With Psychosis Have Specific Difficulties Regulating Emotions?

AU - Lincoln, Tania M

AU - Hartmann, Maike

AU - Köther, Ulf

AU - Moritz, Steffen

N1 - Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - Difficulties in emotion regulation (ER) are present in psychotic disorders, but their precise nature is not yet fully understood and it is unclear which difficulties are unique to psychosis compared with other disorders. This study investigated whether ER difficulties in psychosis are more prominent for the ability to modify emotions or for the ability to tolerate and accept them. Furthermore, it investigated whether ER difficulties occur for sadness, anxiety, anger and shame likewise. ER skills were assessed in participants with psychotic disorders (n = 37), participants with depression (n = 30) and healthy controls (n = 28) using the Emotion Regulation Skill Questionnaire that asks participants to rate the intensity of different emotions over the past week and the skills employed to handle each of them. Compared with healthy controls, participants with psychosis showed reduced skills related to awareness, understanding and acceptance of potentially distressing emotions, but not in the ability to modify them. These differences remained significant after controlling for depression. Participants with psychosis showed reduced ER skills in regard to all of the assessed emotions compared with the healthy controls, despite the fact that they only reported sadness as being significantly more intense. The participants with depression showed a similar pattern of ER skills to the psychosis sample, although with a tendency towards even more pronounced difficulties. It is concluded that psychosis is characterized by difficulties in using specific ER skills related to awareness, understanding and acceptance to regulate anger, shame, anxiety and sadness. These difficulties are not unique to psychosis but nevertheless present a promising treatment target. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.KEY PRACTITIONER MESSAGE: The participants with psychosis found it more difficult to be aware of their emotions, to understand them and to accept them than the healthy control group. However, they reported equal skills when it came to actively modifying emotions.The difficulties in emotion regulation reported by the participants with psychosis were comparable with those reported by the participants with depression, and they occurred for all types of negative emotions likewise.The difficulties in using specific ER skills related to awareness, understanding and acceptance are a promising target for psychological treatment of psychosis.Interventions that are aimed specifically at increasing these skills need to be further developed.

AB - Difficulties in emotion regulation (ER) are present in psychotic disorders, but their precise nature is not yet fully understood and it is unclear which difficulties are unique to psychosis compared with other disorders. This study investigated whether ER difficulties in psychosis are more prominent for the ability to modify emotions or for the ability to tolerate and accept them. Furthermore, it investigated whether ER difficulties occur for sadness, anxiety, anger and shame likewise. ER skills were assessed in participants with psychotic disorders (n = 37), participants with depression (n = 30) and healthy controls (n = 28) using the Emotion Regulation Skill Questionnaire that asks participants to rate the intensity of different emotions over the past week and the skills employed to handle each of them. Compared with healthy controls, participants with psychosis showed reduced skills related to awareness, understanding and acceptance of potentially distressing emotions, but not in the ability to modify them. These differences remained significant after controlling for depression. Participants with psychosis showed reduced ER skills in regard to all of the assessed emotions compared with the healthy controls, despite the fact that they only reported sadness as being significantly more intense. The participants with depression showed a similar pattern of ER skills to the psychosis sample, although with a tendency towards even more pronounced difficulties. It is concluded that psychosis is characterized by difficulties in using specific ER skills related to awareness, understanding and acceptance to regulate anger, shame, anxiety and sadness. These difficulties are not unique to psychosis but nevertheless present a promising treatment target. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.KEY PRACTITIONER MESSAGE: The participants with psychosis found it more difficult to be aware of their emotions, to understand them and to accept them than the healthy control group. However, they reported equal skills when it came to actively modifying emotions.The difficulties in emotion regulation reported by the participants with psychosis were comparable with those reported by the participants with depression, and they occurred for all types of negative emotions likewise.The difficulties in using specific ER skills related to awareness, understanding and acceptance are a promising target for psychological treatment of psychosis.Interventions that are aimed specifically at increasing these skills need to be further developed.

U2 - 10.1002/cpp.1923

DO - 10.1002/cpp.1923

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 25256563

VL - 22

SP - 637

EP - 646

JO - CLIN PSYCHOL PSYCHOT

JF - CLIN PSYCHOL PSYCHOT

SN - 1063-3995

IS - 6

ER -