An exploration of emotion regulation in psychosis

Abstract

The emotional experience of individuals who experience psychosis has historically been neglected, possibly due to the divide between the psychoses and neuroses. This study examined emotional experience and regulation in individuals who had experienced psychosis, individuals experiencing anxiety or mood disorders, and non-patient controls. Participants completed validated measures of emotional experience and emotion regulation. Both clinical groups were found to experience similar levels of emotions, and in comparison to the non-patient controls, they experienced greater levels of negatively valenced emotions and lower levels of happiness. Both clinical groups also used similar emotion regulation strategies, and in comparison to non-patient controls, they used significantly more dysfunctional and less functional strategies, suggesting that the emotional experience and emotion regulation strategies of people who have experienced psychosis are more similar to non-psychotic disorders than have previously been thought to be the case. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed. *Individuals with psychosis experience similar emotions as individuals with anxiety and mood disorders, namely more unhappiness, fear and less happiness. *People with psychosis attempt to regulate these emotions in similar ways to people with mood and anxiety problems, by using more dysfunctional emotional regulation strategies such as ruminating. *Clinicians may want to pay closer attention to assessing the emotion regulation strategies of those who experience psychosis and consider the implications of these in therapy. *They may also want to consider the role emotional dysregulation may play in the development, maintenance and course of psychosis. *An emotion regulation approach to psychosis may be characterised by focussing on emotional experiences and the individual's response to these, as opposed to psychotic symptoms.