Social defeat predicts paranoid appraisals in people at high risk for psychosis.
Valmaggia LR., Day F., Garety P., Freeman D., Antley A., Slater M., Swapp D., Myin-Germeys I., McGuire P.
BACKGROUND: The experience of social defeat may increase the risk of developing psychotic symptoms and psychotic disorders. We studied the relationship between social defeat and paranoid appraisal in people at high risk for psychosis in an experimental social environment created using Virtual Reality (VR). METHOD: We recruited UHR (N=64) participants and healthy volunteers (N=43). Regression analysis was used to investigate which baseline measures predicted paranoid appraisals during the VR experience. RESULTS: At baseline, UHR subjects reported significantly higher levels of social defeat than controls (OR=.957, (CI) .941-.973, p