Michal Hajdúk

F79. ATTRIBUTION OF INTENTIONS IN PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA SPECTRUM DISORDERS WITH PERSECUTORY DELUSIONS

Abstract Background Social cognitive deficits are considered hallmark features of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Consistent patterns of relationships have been established between theory of mind impairment and severity of negative symptoms. Some studies have suggested that patients, specifically those with persecutory delusion, can over attribute intentions. Difficulties in theory of mind in patients with schizophrenia can vary between hypo and hyper – mentalization depending on the level of symptoms. The aim of the study was to test model which proposed hypo -mentalization vs. hyper - mentalization deficit in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders with persecutory delusions. Methods 40 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorder, 19 patients with anxiety, affective and personality disorders without persecutory delusions, and 28 healthy controls were enrolled in the study. Diagnoses were established according to ICD-10 criteria. Animation Task was used for theory of mind assessment. Task consists of 12 videos (moving triangles) with three types of stimuli (random, goal-directed and theory of mind – condition). Stimuli were presented in fixed, random order before symptom assessment. Participants were asked to describe content of videos, and the degree of intentionality and appropriateness was evaluated by two raters according to task`s manual. Mutual rating of raters was used in the present analysis. Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale was used for assessment of symptoms severity. Results A repeated measures ANOVA with stimuli type as within-factor and group as between-factor revealed significant effect of Stimuli type (F= 171.585, p < .001), and interaction of factors (F = 5.401, p = .001) on rating of intentionality. Group effect was not significant (F= .836, p = .437). Patients with schizophrenia had significantly lower ratings of intentionality in theory of mind condition, specifically. A second repeated measures ANOVA analyzed differences in levels of appropriateness. Results revealed significant effect of stimuli type (F= 12.698, p < .001), group (F= 6.966, p = .002) and interaction of factors (F = 3.211, p = .020). Responses of patients with schizophrenia were less appropriate than controls in goal-directed and theory of mind condition compared to the random condition. Severity of negative symptoms was associate with lower level of intentionality in random condition. Hostility and suspiciousness were associated with higher level of intentionality in goal directed (rs=.330, p=.037) and theory of mind conditions (rs=.348, p=.028). Severity of suspiciousness was moderately to strongly associated with appropriateness of descriptions in all conditions (rs from -.423 to -.517). Discussion Results of study highlighted importance of distinguishing between hyper- and hypo-mentalization in patients with schizophrenia as specific impairments were associated with positive and negative symptoms, respectively. Over attribution of intentions to random movement was moderately associated with paranoid symptoms. Patients provided less appropriate descriptions which was associated with higher level of suspiciousness. Implications for development, maintenance treatment of persecutory delusions will be discussed. Research was supported by Psychiatric Society of Slovak Medical Agency – grant no: 02/2015

S90. IMPLICIT PROCESSING OF BODILY EMOTIONS IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

Abstract Background Explicit emotion recognition from faces is severely impaired in patients with schizophrenia; however, implicit processing of facial emotion appears to be intact and comparable to healthy control individuals (Shasteen et al., 2016). Social cues are not restricted to facial expressions, and body posture makes substantial contributions to nonverbal communication (de Gelder, 2006). The role of body perception in social processing among individuals with schizophrenia has not yet been studied. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether intact implicit processing of emotion in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders extends to body cues devoid of facial information. Methods Fifty-three patients diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and 34 matched healthy controls completed the Affect Misattribution Task, a paradigm in which affective responses to primes are projected onto neutral targets. Primes consisted of pictures from The Bodily Expressive Action Stimulus Test and included 24 images each of bodies expressing happy, angry, and neutral expressions. Participants were asked to indicate whether neutral targets (i.e., Chinese symbols) were more or less threatening than average symbol. Scores on the Paranoia Scale and PANSS Suspiciousness item were used for measuring levels of paranoid ideation. Results A repeated measures ANOVA with prime type as the within-subjects factor and group membership as the between-subjects factor revealed significant main effects for prime type (F(2,170)= 16.722, p < .001, η2 = .164) and group (F(1,85)= 5.704, p = .019, η2 = .063) such that patients identified more targets as threatening and, across both groups more targets were identified as threatening in the anger condition relative to the neutral and positive condition. The interaction was not significant (F(2,170) =.142, p = .868, η2 =.002). In patients, the total number of threatening responses was positively correlated with self-reported paranoid ideation measured by the Paranoia Scale (r = .391, p = .004). However, the association between PANSS Suspiciousness ratings and number of threatening responses was not significant (r = .168, p = .229). Discussion In both groups, angry bodies were rated as more threatening than neutral and happy expressions, which suggest that patients have intact implicit processing of emotions from body cues. This parallels previous findings of intact implicit processing in facial emotion perception. Patients also tended to rate stimuli as more threatening on average, which may be partially explained by higher levels of paranoid ideation in this group. Results will be discussed in relationships to threat processing theories. Research was supported by Slovak Research and Development Agency no: APVV-15–0686 and internal funding provided by The University of Texas at Dallas.