Specificity of Childhood Trauma Type and Attenuated Positive Symptoms in a Non-Clinical Sample

Abstract

Background: Childhood traumatic experiences have been consistently associated with psychosis risk; however, the specificity of childhood trauma type to interview-based attenuated positive psychotic symptoms has not been adequately explored. Further, previous studies examining specificity of trauma to specific positive symptoms have not accounted for co-occurring trauma types, despite evidence of multiple victimization. Methods: We examined the relationship between childhood trauma (Childhood Trauma Questionnaire) with type of attenuated positive symptom, as measured by the Structured Interview for Psychosis-risk Syndromes (SIPS) among a non-clinical, young adult sample (n = 130). Linear regressions were conducted to predict each attenuated positive symptom, with all trauma types entered into the model to control for co-occurring traumas. Results: Results indicated that childhood sexual abuse was significantly associated with disorganized communication and childhood emotional neglect was significantly associated with increased suspiciousness/persecutory ideas, above and beyond the effect of other co-occurring traumas. These relationships were significant even after removing individuals at clinical high-risk (CHR) for psychosis (n = 14). Conclusions: Our results suggest that there are differential influences of trauma type on specific positive symptom domains, even in a non-clinical sample. Our results also confirm the importance of controlling for co-occurring trauma types, as results differ when not controlling for multiple traumas.

Keywords

• childhood trauma
• attenuated positive symptoms
• subthreshold psychosis
• multiple victimization