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NCT Number: NCT03820362

The Role of Personal Identity in Psychotic Symptoms: a Study With the Repertory Grid Technique

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.

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Key information

Conditions

Schizophrenia Mental Disorders Psychotic Disorders Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders Self

Age range

18 year–60 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Observational

Primary location

Parc Sanitary Sant Joan de Déu

Sant Boi de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain

About this study

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

  • To examine the influence of the structure of personal identity and other relevant cognitive factors in positive and negative symptoms

Hypotheses

  • Positive symptoms will be influenced by dichotomous thinking style and construction of self as measured with the RGT.
  • Negative symptoms will be affected by the richness of the construct system as measured with the RGT.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

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

Treatment and study plan

Primary outcomes

  1. Self-ideal discrepancy, RGT

    Time frame: 2 hours

    Self-esteem. Possible range: 0-0,60. Higher values represent a worse outcome

  2. Self-others discrepancy, RGT

    Time frame: 2 hours

    Perceived social isolation. Possible range: 0-0,60. Higher values represent a worse outcome

  3. Interpersonal construct differentiation, RGT

    Time frame: 2 hours

    Percentage of Variance Accounted for the First Factor. Possible range: 0-100. Higher values represent a worse outcome

  4. Polarization, RGT

    Time frame: 2 hours

    Dichotomous thinking style in the interpersonal context. Possible range: 0-100. Higher values represent a worse outcome

  5. Number of elicited constructs, RGT

    Time frame: 2 hours

    Quantity of constructs that the person is able to express to describe self and others. Possible range: 10-50. Higher values represent a better outcome

  6. Psychotic symptoms (PANSS, Kay et al. 1987; Peralta & Cuesta, 1994).

    Time frame: 40 minutes

    Positive and negative symptoms of psychosis. Range: 7-112. Higher values represent a worse outcome.

  7. Metacognition: BCIS (Beck et al. 2004; Gutiérrez-Zotes et al. 2012); Garety et al, 1991; Dudley et al, 1997)

    Time frame: 15 minutes

    Cognitive insight. Range: 0-45. Higher values represent a better outcome

  8. Theory of mind: the Hinting Task (Corcoran et al., 1995; Gil-Sanz et al., 2012)

    Time frame: 5 minutes

    Possible range: 0-12. Higher values represent a better outcome

  9. General intellectual functioning (WAIS)

    Time frame: 20 minutes

    vocabulary subscale. Range: 70-140. Higher values represent a better outcome

  10. Executive functioning: WSCT (Bergs et al., 1948)

    Time frame: 15 minutes

    Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. Categories completed and perseverative errors. Higher values represent a better outcome

Secondary outcomes

  1. Sociodemographical data

    Time frame: 10 minutes

    Gender, chronicity, antipsychotic dosage, diagnosis, age, marital status, education level, employment situation

  2. Depressive symptoms

    Time frame: 10 minutes

    Beck Depression Inventory (Beck et al. 1996; Sanz, Perdigón & Vázquez, 2003). Range_ 0-63. High values represent a worse outcome.

  3. General functioning

    Time frame: 5 minutes

    Global Assessment of Functioning (Endicot et al., 1976). Range: 0-100. Higher values represent a better outcome.

  4. Self-esteem

    Time frame: 5 minutes

    Rosenberg self-esteem scale (Martín Albó et al., 2007). Range: 0-40. Higher values represent a better outcome

  5. Social functioning

    Time frame: 20 minutes

    Social Functioning Scale (Birchwood et al., 1990; Torres & Olivares, 2000). Range: Range: 45-195

  6. Psychological distress

    Time frame: 10 minutes

    CORE-OM (Evans et al., 2002; Trujillo et al., 2016). Range: 0-4. Higher values represent a worse outcome

  7. Jumping to Conclusions

    Time frame: 15 minutes

    The beads task (Garety et al., 1991; Dudley et al, 1997). Dichotomous: yes/no. A "yes" represents a worse outcome

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

University of Barcelona

Other

Collaborators

  • Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca, Catalunya, Spain
  • Ministerio de Educación y Formación Profesional, Spain
  • Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu

Registry information

Official study title

Personal Identity, Cognitive Factors and Psychotic Symptoms in Schizophrenia and Related Disorders: A Cross-sectional Study With the Repertory Grid Technique

Important dates

Study start
2016
Primary completion
2018
Study completion
2018
First posted
Jan 29, 2019
Registry last updated
Jan 29, 2019

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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