How to Respond to a Paranoid Thought: A Comparison of Patients With Clinically Relevant Delusions and Healthy Controls in Chile.

Abstract

Although paranoid thoughts occur frequently in the population, most people do not develop clinically relevant delusions. The main purpose of the study was to explore whether participants without a mental disorder will respond in a more functional way to paranoid thoughts and be more flexible in their cognitive processes than patients with clinically relevant delusions. The Responses to Paranoid Thoughts Scale was translated into Spanish and was completed by patients (n = 36) and healthy controls (n = 39) in Chile (South America). The Beck Cognitive Insight Scale was used to assess cognitive insight. The patients responded in a more depressive, physical, and concealing way to paranoid thoughts than the healthy controls. Moreover, they showed significantly less cognitive insight and self-reflectiveness. Higher cognitive insight and self-reflectiveness were associated with more normalizing and communicative responses to paranoid thoughts.