title: Trauma and hallucinatory experience in psychosis.
abstract: Recent research indicates that there may be phenomenological, symptom, and diagnostic associations between trauma and hallucinations. However, the nature of the relationship is poorly understood from a psychological perspective. We report a theoretically informed phenomenological study. From descriptions of reported traumas and hallucinations, we assessed the rates of four types of hypothesized association between traumas and hallucinations (direct, indirect, stress, and none) in 75 participants with nonaffective psychosis. In a subgroup who had experienced trauma (N = 40), 12.5% had hallucinations with similar themes and content to their traumas, 45% had hallucinations in which the themes were the same but not the content, and 42.5% had no identifiable associations between their hallucinations and previously experienced trauma. Traumas rated as intrusive were significantly associated with hallucinations rated as intrusive, although intrusive hallucinations were not associated with traumas in general. The traumas most likely to be associated with hallucinations were sexual abuse and bullying.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hardy
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fowler
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Freeman
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Craig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Steel
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: Philippa
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Garety
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kuipers
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bebbington
authors.forename: Graham
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dunn
mesh_terms: D000059:Accidents / Q000523:psychology; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology; D003130:Combat Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006212:Hallucinations / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology