The relationship between adulthood traumatic experiences and psychotic symptoms in female patients with schizophrenia

Previously, research aiming to investigate the effects of interpersonal traumatic experiences on psychotic symptoms mainly focused on adverse experiences in childhood. As mentioned above, patients with schizophrenia, particularly women, are at high risk for physical and sexual abuse in adulthood. In this study we aimed to investigate the effects of adulthood trauma in a sample of patients with schizophrenia who did not report childhood trauma.

Seventy female patients with schizophrenia participated in the study. Assessment included Traumatic Experiences Checklist, Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia.

The rates of traumatic events were as follows: physical abuse (81.4%), emotional abuse (78.6%), emotional neglect (55.7%), sexual harassment (28.6%), and sexual abuse (24.3%). Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale hallucinations, blunted affect, emotional withdrawal hostility, anxiety and affective lability item scores were significantly higher for patients who reported a history of sexual harassment. Patients who were exposed to sexual assault as adults had significantly higher scores in the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, anxiety, anger and difficulty in delaying gratification items.

We concluded that traumatic life events and exposure to violence were common among female patients with schizophrenia and sexual trauma in adulthood was associated with particular clinical symptoms.