Chilhood trauma and schizophrenia. Implications for positive and negative psychotic symptoms.

ABSTRACT

The relationship between childhood trauma (CT) and psychosis is well established and theories about the factors mediating this relationship are diverse. CT  is associated with a worse prognosis of psychosis

The aim of this study was to explore the influence of childhood trauma on the presence and intensity of positive (PPS) and negative psychotic symptoms (NPS) in patients with schizophrenic spectrum disorders.

Forty-five patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were included. Sociodemographic data, childhood trauma history using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire Short Form (CTQ-SF) and the intensity of positive and negative psychotic symptoms using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS + and -), were valued.  Of the total sample, 35 patients, 77.8%, had suffered some type of childhood trauma; 55.6%, emotional neglect; 48.9%, emotional abuse: 46.7%, physical neglect and 40.0%, sexual abuse. We did not find a correlation between CTQ-SF and PANSS+ and an inverse relationship between CTQ-SF v PANSS- (Rho -0.300, p=0.045)

Unlike other studies, we did not find a correlation between CT and PPS, except for physical abuse with the excitation item, perhaps due to the chronicity of patients in our sample. The inverse correlation between CT and NPS may be due to positive and negative psychotic symptoms arising from different diameters. NPS could be related to neurological development deficits and not related to stress, as suggested in PPS.  However, since it is a finding with little replication, it is difficult to draw clear conclusions.