Characterising & contrasting paranoia in schizophrenia and schizotypy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Characterising & contrasting paranoia in schizophrenia and schizotypy
IRAS ID
144698
Contact name
James Gilleen
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College, London
Research summary
Paranoia is a common symptom of schizophrenia and is characterised by the groundless fear that other people intend to cause harm. In the delusional form it is persistent, distressing and has profound social and functional sequelae for patients with schizophrenia. It is also commonly experienced in the healthy population, and is a key feature of ‘schizotypy’– which refers to symptoms like those found in schizophrenia but below clinical severity which it is thought exist on a continuum. Whilst research to date has identified a variety of factors which may potentially contribute to the development of paranoid thinking, findings are equivocal - paranoia may be multidimensional, hence, despite its prevalence and clinical importance the nature of paranoia is not fully understood.
This study aims to investigate people with schizotypal symptoms who are otherwise healthy, and measure various aspects of paranoia; isolate key components of paranoia using social interaction tasks, and relate this to anxiety and mood in order to better delineate aspects and predictors of paranoia. This will be done by contrasting the profile of paranoia and other measures in the schizotypal group to those in the low schizotypal group and patients with schizophrenia. The advantage of investigating these symptoms in healthy people is that their symptoms and cognitive performance are not be affected by the issues that are linked to illness such as medication, hospitalisation and stigma. This study will enable us to improve on previous research that has not fully explored multiple dimensions of paranoia or compared healthy people with high schizotypy to patients with schizophrenia. Further, by using several redesigned social interaction tasks we will be able to better isolate predictors of paranoia. Whilst we aim to reveal more about paranoia, it is hoped this research will ultimately contribute to the development of therapeutic pathways to reduce paranoia.
REC name
London - Bromley Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/LO/0532
Date of REC Opinion
21 May 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion