Abstract
BackgroundEmotion-regulation is assumed to be impaired in psychosis: patients with psychotic disorders (PD) self-report to use reappraisal less frequently than healthy controls (HC), but it is uncertain whether they are also less successful in applying reappraisal. Moreover, it has not been investigated whether the habitual use of reappraisal is associated with the ability to use reappraisal successfully.MethodsTo address these questions, PD (n = 60), a clinical control group of patients with anxiety disorders (AD; n = 40) and HC (n = 40) completed questionnaires on habitual emotion-regulation and alexithymia, performed tests on neurocognitive functioning and jumping-to-conclusion bias, and were subjected to an emotion-regulation paradigm, in which they were asked to down-regulate induced anxiety and sadness.ResultsNo differences were found between PD and HC regarding the habitual use of reappraisal, but PD reported to use reappraisal more frequently than AD. All groups were able to down-regulate anxiety and sadness via reappraisal following instructions. The habitual use of reappraisal and the reduction of anxiety and sadness after instruction were uncorrelated.ConclusionThese findings question the common assumption that PD use reappraisal less often or less successfully. At least under laboratory condition, PD do not appear to be impaired in reducing negative affect via reappraisal successfully.
Highlights
Emotion-regulation is assumed to be impaired in psychosis: patients with psychotic disorders (PD) self-report to use reappraisal less frequently than healthy controls (HC), but it is uncertain whether they are less successful in applying reappraisal
PD did not differ from anxiety disorders (AD) and HC regarding age, gender distribution and years of education
Our results indicate that PD are as successful as HC and AD in reducing subjective anxiety and sadness through reappraisal
Summary
Emotion-regulation is assumed to be impaired in psychosis: patients with psychotic disorders (PD) self-report to use reappraisal less frequently than healthy controls (HC), but it is uncertain whether they are less successful in applying reappraisal. It has not been investigated whether the habitual use of reappraisal is associated with the ability to use reappraisal successfully. All groups were able to down-regulate anxiety and sadness via reappraisal following instructions. At least under laboratory condition, PD do not appear to be impaired in reducing negative affect via reappraisal successfully
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