The trace of having suffered a recent psychotic disorder

A recently completed investigation has aimed to determine the main personality traits among people who have recently suffered from a psychotic disorder.

Such traits, according to the study’s conclusions, are negative emotions and introversion. It has also been found that in people with a psychotic disorder, personality traits that make it difficult to adapt to daily life are more prominent than in the general population.

The study has been promoted by the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) in Tarragona, the Pere Mata Institute University Hospital in Reus, the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, ​​the Pere Virgili Health Research Institute, which is one of the CERCA institutions of the Generalitat of Catalonia, and the Mental Health Network Biomedical Research Center (CIBERSAM), in Spain.

The results of the study indicate the strong presence of frequent and intense negative emotions already at the beginning of the psychotic disorder, as well as a greater tendency to introversion and avoidance of social experiences. This last aspect can mean that these people have a reduced social network and that, therefore, the social and emotional support they receive is also limited. All this has a negative impact on this factor, which is considered essential to protect mental health.

For this reason, the study points out the importance of taking these aspects into account, assessing personality already in the early stages of the disorder and carrying out more specific and personalized high-intensity psychotherapeutic interventions. Until now, the relationship between these personality characteristics and recent-onset psychotic disorders has been little studied, despite the importance it may have when developing prevention and early intervention strategies.

To carry out the study, the team led by Carmen Miralles, a clinical psychologist who is carrying out her doctoral thesis in this field and who is the first author of said study, compared the personality characteristics of 102 people who had recently presented a psychotic disorder ( and who had been treated in the Incipient Psychosis Unit of the Pere Mata Institute University Hospital in Reus) and 116 people from the general population. It must be taken into account that 1 in 100 people have a psychotic disorder, according to data from the Spanish Ministry of Health for 2021.

The researchers Yolanda Alonso, Carme Miralles and Lourdes Martorell have participated in the study. (Photo: URV)

The study is titled “Maladaptive personality traits in patients with recent-onset psychosis: A case-control study using the Personality Inventory for the DSM-5 (PID-5)”. And it has been published in the academic journal Schizophrenia Research. (Source: URV)