University of Miami, Department of Psychology, Coral Gables, FL, United States of America; University of California, Los Angeles, Semel Institute, Los Angeles, CA, United States of America.
University of Miami, Department of Psychology, Coral Gables, FL, United States of America.
Schizophr Res. 2019 Apr;206:428-435. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2018.10.006. Epub 2018 Oct 15.
Individuals with schizophrenia are at increased risk of relapse when they live in highly critical (i.e., high expressed emotion; EE) family environments. It remains less clear, however, how individuals at elevated risk for a psychotic disorder react to the social stress of EE. Here we examined whether individuals at elevated risk for developing schizophrenia report greater subjective changes in affect and have increased physiological reactivity after hearing critical, praising and neutral comments.
Measures of heart rate, heart rate variability, skin conductance, and self-reported affective ratings were used to assess differential responses to EE-type stimuli in 38 individuals at elevated-risk for psychosis and 38 low-risk controls.
The elevated-risk group and low-risk controls, did not differ in their initial affective and physiological reactivity to criticism. However, during the recovery period following the criticism, the elevated-risk group demonstrated greater heart rate activation. They also showed more sensitivity to praise. Although elevated-risk participants initially had higher baseline levels of negative affect and heart rate, following praise, these levels reduced and became indistinguishable from the levels of low-risk controls.
These findings suggest that at-risk individuals may have more difficulty recovering from criticism than their self-report data might suggest. They may also derive physiological and affective benefits from praise. Important clinical implications of these findings are discussed.
患有精神分裂症的个体在生活在高度挑剔（即高表达情感；EE）的家庭环境中时，复发的风险会增加。然而，目前尚不清楚处于精神病高危状态的个体如何应对 EE 带来的社会压力。在这里，我们研究了处于精神分裂症高危状态的个体在听到批评、赞扬和中性评论后，是否会报告更多的情感主观变化和增加生理反应。
使用心率、心率变异性、皮肤电导和自我报告的情感评分来评估 38 名处于精神病高危状态的个体和 38 名低危对照组对 EE 型刺激的不同反应。
高危组和低危对照组在对批评的初始情感和生理反应方面没有差异。然而，在批评后的恢复期间，高危组表现出更大的心率激活。他们也对赞扬更敏感。尽管高危组参与者最初的负面情绪和心率基线水平较高，但在受到表扬后，这些水平降低，与低危对照组的水平无法区分。
这些发现表明，高危个体可能比他们的自我报告数据所显示的更难从批评中恢复。他们也可能从赞扬中获得生理和情感上的好处。讨论了这些发现的重要临床意义。
