The Interplay Between Childhood Trauma, Cognitive Biases, and Cannabis Use on the Risk of Psychosis in Nonclinical Young Adults in Poland

Overview

Journal Eur Psychiatry

Publisher Cambridge University Press

Specialty Psychiatry

Date 2020 Mar 24

PMID 32200775

Citations 13

Authors

Dorota Frydecka

Blazej Misiak

Kamila Kotowicz

Renata Pionke

Martyna Krezolek

Andrzej Cechnicki

Lukasz Gaweda

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Childhood traumatic events are risk factors for psychotic-like experiences (PLEs). However, the mechanisms explaining how trauma may contribute to the development of PLEs are not fully understood. In our study, we investigated whether cannabis use and cognitive biases mediate the relationship between early trauma and PLEs.

Methods: A total sample of 6,772 young adults (age 26.6 ± 4.7, 2,181 male and 3,433 female) was recruited from the general population to participate in an online survey. We excluded 1,158 individuals due to a self-reported lifetime diagnosis of any mental disorder. The online survey included selected items from the following questionnaires: Traumatic Experience Checklist (TEC, 3 items), Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse Questionnaire (CECA.Q, 3 items), Cannabis Problems Questionnaire (CPQ, 10 items), Davos Assessment of Cognitive Biases Scale (DACOBS-18, 9 items), and Prodromal Questionnaire-16 (PQ-16). Mediation analyses were performed with respect to different categories of traumatic experiences (emotional, physical and sexual abuse as well as emotional neglect).

Results: Our results showed significant associations of any time of childhood trauma with higher scores of cannabis use (CPQ), cognitive biases (DACOBS), and PLEs (PQ-16) (p < 0.001). We found a direct effect of childhood trauma on PLEs as well as significant indirect effect mediated through cannabis use and cognitive biases. All models tested for the effects of specific childhood adversities revealed similar results. The percentage of variance in PQ-16 scores explained by serial mediation models varied between 32.8 and 34.2% depending on childhood trauma category.

Conclusion: Cannabis use and cognitive biases play an important mediating role in the relationship between childhood traumatic events and the development of PLEs in a nonclinical young adult population.

Citing Articles

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Childhood Adversity and Incident Psychotic Experiences in Early Adulthood: Cognitive and Psychopathological Mediators.

Cortes Hidalgo A, Hammerton G, Heron J, Bolhuis K, Madley-Dowd P, Tiemeier H Schizophr Bull. 2024; 50(4):903-912.

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Clinical characteristics of psychotic disorders in patients with childhood trauma.

Lovric S, Klaric M, Lovric I, Camber R, Kresic Coric M, Kvesic J Medicine (Baltimore). 2023; 102(51):e36733.

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Cannabis use as a potential mediator between childhood adversity and first-episode psychosis: results from the EU-GEI case-control study.

Trotta G, Rodriguez V, Quattrone D, Spinazzola E, Tripoli G, Gayer-Anderson C Psychol Med. 2023; 53(15):7375-7384.

PMID: 38078747 PMC: 10719680. DOI: 10.1017/S0033291723000995.

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