There is now solid evidence for a relation between adverse life events (ALE) and psychotic symptoms in patients with psychosis and in the general population. A recent study has shown that this relation may be partially mediated by stress sensitivity, suggesting the influence of other factors. The aim of this study was to assess the mediation effect of emotion regulation strategies and stress sensitivity in the relation between ALE and attenuated positive psychotic symptoms (APPS) in the general population.
Hundred and twelve healthy volunteers were evaluated with measures of APPS, emotion regulation strategies, ALE and stress sensitivity.
Results demonstrated that the relation between ALE, hallucination and delusion proneness was completely mediated by maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, but not by stress sensitivity. However, in addition to maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, stress sensitivity demonstrated a mediation effect between ALE and attenuated positive psychotic positive symptoms when positive psychotic symptoms were grouped together.
There are probably several possible trajectories leading to the formation of positive psychotic symptoms and the results of the present study reveal that one such trajectory may involve the maladaptive regulation of negative emotions alongside a certain general vulnerability after experiencing ALE.