The effects of voice content on stress reactivity: a simulation paradigm of auditory verbal hallucinations
Objectives - Psychosis is associated with increased subjective and altered endocrine and autonomic nervous system stress-reactivity. Psychosis patients often experience auditory verbal hallucinations, with negative voice content being particularly associated with distress. The present study develope...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article (Journal) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
8 June 2022
|
| In: |
Schizophrenia research
Year: 2022, Volume: 243, Pages: 225-231 |
| ISSN: | 1573-2509 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.schres.2019.07.019 |
| Online Access: | Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2019.07.019 Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092099641930297X 
|
| Author Notes: | David Baumeister, Emmanuelle Peters, Jens Pruessner, Oliver Howes, Paul Chadwick |
| Summary: | Objectives - Psychosis is associated with increased subjective and altered endocrine and autonomic nervous system stress-reactivity. Psychosis patients often experience auditory verbal hallucinations, with negative voice content being particularly associated with distress. The present study developed a voice-simulation paradigm and investigated the effect of simulated voices with neutral and negative content on psychophysiological stress-reactivity, and the effect of mindful voice-appraisals on stress-reactivity. - Method - Eighty-four healthy participants completed the Montreal Imaging Stress Task with simultaneous presentation of one of three randomly allocated auditory stimuli conditions: negative voices, neutral voices or non-voice ambient sounds. Subjective stress-levels and mindful voice-appraisals were assessed using questionnaire measures, and cortisol and α-amylase levels were measured using saliva samples. - Results - ANOVA revealed a significant effect of condition on subjective stress-levels (p=.002), but not cortisol (p=.63) or α-amylase (p=.73). Post-hoc analyses showed that negative voices increased subjective stress-levels relative to neutral voices (p=.002) and ambient sounds (p=.01), which did not differ from each other (p=.41). Mindful voice-appraisals were associated with less distress across conditions (p=.003), although negative voices were also associated with less mindful appraisals (p<.001). - Conclusions - Negative voice content, rather than voices or auditory stimuli per se, is linked to greater subjective but not physiological stress-reactivity. Mindful appraisals may partially moderate this effect. These findings highlight the importance of voice content for the impact of voice-hearing, and highlight the potential value of mindfulness training to treat voice distress in psychosis. |
|---|---|
| Item Description: | Available online 1 August 2019, version of record 8 June 2022 Gesehen am 01.08.2022 |
| Physical Description: | Online Resource |
| ISSN: | 1573-2509 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.schres.2019.07.019 |