Sychosis Proneness, Anxiety, Depression and Interpretation Bias: the Twins Scan China Study

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have found consistent results that psychosis symptoms and mood disorders, such as depression and anxiety, were all related to a negative interpretation bias, both in the clinical and non-clinical population. Different studies on interpretation bias also showed that negative interpretation bias was a reliable predictor for psychosis proneness and depression. METHODS: The present study investigated the interrelationship among psychosis proneness, depression and anxiety symptoms and interpretation bias in young people from a non-clinical Chinese population from. The Community Assessment for Psychic Experiences (CAPE) and Symptoms Checklist-90 (SCL-90-R) were used as the assessment tools for assessing symptoms including psychosis proneness, depression and anxiety. The Scrambled Sentence Task (SST) with cognitive load was used to measure the index for healthy and unhealthy interpretation bias. RESULTS: We found a strong correlation between psychosis proneness, depression, anxiety and interpretation bias. Further analysis suggested that the prediction effect of psychosis proneness on interpretation bias was mediated by anxiety, but not depression. DISCUSSION: In light of the results from the previous studies and the results from the present study, we suggest that the relationship between psychosis proneness, mood disturbances and interpretation bias is interrelated forming a vicious cycle that reinforces the development and persistence of each other. The findings offer insight on how cognitive training and modulation could be used to break the cycle to intervene and treat psychosis and mood disorders.