scholarly journals COMT-by-Sex Interaction Effect on Psychosis Proneness

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta de Castro-Catala ◽  
Neus Barrantes-Vidal ◽  
Tamara Sheinbaum ◽  
Artal Moreno-Fortuny ◽  
Thomas R. Kwapil ◽  
...  

Schizotypy phenotypes in the general population share etiopathogenic mechanisms and risk factors with schizophrenia, supporting the notion of psychosis as a continuum ranging from nonclinical to clinical deviance. Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is a candidate susceptibility gene for schizophrenia that is involved in the regulation of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex. Several recent studies have reported a sex difference in the impact of COMT genotype on psychiatric and cognitive phenotypes and personality traits. The present study investigated the association of COMT Val158Met (rs4680) with psychometric positive and negative schizotypy and psychotic experiences in a sample of 808 nonclinical young adults. The main finding was that sex moderates the association of COMT genotype with the negative dimension of both schizotypy and psychotic experiences. Male subjects carrying the Val allele tended to score higher on the negative dimension of both trait and symptom-like measures. The results from the present study are consistent with recent work suggesting an association between negative schizotypy and diminished prefrontal dopamine availability. They support the idea that a biological differentiation underlies the positive and negative schizotypy dimensions. Additionally, these findings contribute to the growing literature on sex-specific effects of COMT on the predisposition to psychiatric disorders and personality traits.

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 51-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
F.A. Cotier ◽  
T. Toulopoulou

AbstractThere is growing evidence of an association between negative social comparisons (NSC) and both psychosis, and psychosis proneness. The majority of the work thus far, however, has focused largely on one type of NSC, namely, social rank. Whilst social rank is clearly an important factor, an individual's perception of belonging is likely also of importance; particularly, when considering individuals from collectivistic cultures such as China, where greater emphasis is placed on fitting into the group. There is also limited research investigating what factors may contribute towards the relationship between NSC and psychosis proneness, and to what extent this relationship may be due to common familial factors. To address these issues, we examined whether (1) Social rank and perceived belonging predict negative, positive and depressive psychotic experiences in a Chinese, adolescent, twin and sibling population, (2) coping styles moderate the impact of these relationships and (3), there is a familial association between NSC and psychosis proneness. Both social rank and perceived belonging were found to predict the negative and depressive dimensions of psychosis. These relationships were moderated by problem-focused coping styles. Interestingly, the association between perception of belonging, and negative psychotic experiences was familial—and stronger in Monozygotic twins—indicating perhaps shared aetiology due to common genes. Our findings highlight NSC as potential vulnerability markers for negative and depressive psychotic experiences, and suggest potentially different aetiological pathways amongst different NSC and different psychotic experiences. On a clinical level, our findings emphasize the need to consider coping styles when treating at-risk individuals.


2020 ◽  
pp. 21-26
Author(s):  
Kürşat Altınbaş ◽  
Sinan Guloksuz ◽  
Jim van Os

Psychosis has traditionally been conceptualized as a distinct categorical disease entity. However, evidence from experimental, psychopathological, neurobiological, and genetic studies indicate overlapping symptoms, treatments, outcomes, and biological and genetic markers, suggesting a multidimensional spectrum encompassing nonaffective and affective domains. Outside the realm of clinical psychosis, epidemiological evidence from population cohorts has revealed an extended psychosis phenotype of subtle psychotic experiences, co-occurring with affective, motivational, and cognitive features, with prevalence rates of 5%–15%. The extended psychosis phenotype in the general population appears to pertain, phenomenologically, temporally and etiologically, to the same spectrum as clinical psychosis. Psychosis thus represents a multidimensional spectrum phenotype, transcending not only the distinction between diagnostic categories but also between health and illness. Research and practice in clinical and nonclinical samples can benefit from the explanatory power that is offered by conceptualizing psychosis as a multidimensional transdiagnostic spectrum phenotype. Models linking the impact of environmental and genetic influences, and their interactions, to severity and type of dimensional psychopathology have yielded promising results, as have studies researching psychosis as a developmental phenotype progressing from subthreshold psychosis proneness, to increasing levels of persistence over time and, finally, transition to a psychotic disorder.


2016 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-140
Author(s):  
Robert Busching ◽  
Johannes Lutz

Abstract. Legally irrelevant information like facial features is used to form judgments about rape cases. Using a reverse-correlation technique, it is possible to visualize criminal stereotypes and test whether these representations influence judgments. In the first step, images of the stereotypical faces of a rapist, a thief, and a lifesaver were generated. These images showed a clear distinction between the lifesaver and the two criminal representations, but the criminal representations were rather similar. In the next step, the images were presented together with rape scenarios, and participants (N = 153) indicated the defendant’s level of liability. Participants with high rape myth acceptance scores attributed a lower level of liability to a defendant who resembled a stereotypical lifesaver. However, no specific effects of the image of the stereotypical rapist compared to the stereotypical thief were found. We discuss the findings with respect to the influence of visual stereotypes on legal judgments and the nature of these mental representations.


Author(s):  
Harry T. Reis ◽  
John G. Holmes

This chapter reviews major theoretical positions on the influence of situations for the understanding of both personality and social–psychological processes. We review the history and current status of this topic, and we describe in some detail two recent theories that seem particularly amenable toward resolving the disparate approaches that this distinction often engenders. Broadly considered, our position is that personality and situations must be considered interacting factors, but in a theoretically specific way. The concept of affordance—that situations provide opportunities for the expression of certain personality traits—is central to our analysis. We also discuss several issues that personality and social psychologists might profitably consider to provide better grounding for theories and research about the impact of situations on behavior.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 3404
Author(s):  
Dawid Szostek

The purpose of the article is to determine how personality traits (extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness to experience) affect organizational citizenship behaviors for the environment (OCBE), especially in the context of energy saving. The purpose is also to verify the hypothesis that this impact is significantly moderated by individuals’ demographic characteristic (sex, age, length of service, work type and economic sector of employment). To achieve the purposes, a survey was conducted in 2020 on 454 working people from Poland. The analysis was based on structural equation modeling (SEM). The research model assumed that particular types of personality affect direct and indirect OCBEs, including energy-saving patterns. The model also included the aforementioned demographic characteristics of respondents. I proved that personality traits have a significant impact on direct and indirect organizational citizenship behaviors for the environment. In the case of direct OCBEs, the energy-saving items that were most significantly affected by employee personality were: I am a person who turns off my lights when leaving my office for any reason; I am a person who turns off the lights in a vacant room; I am a person who makes sure all of the lights are turned off if I am the last to leave. The strongest predicators were Neuroticism (negative relationship) and Agreeableness (positive relationship) for direct OCBE, but Extraversion (positive relationship) and Agreeableness (negative relationship) for indirect OCBE. The impact of an individual’s personality on OCBE was significantly moderated mainly for indirect behaviors. This applied to all the analyzed demographic variables, but it was stronger for women, employees aged up to 40 years, those with 10 years or more experience, office/clerical workers, and public sector employees. The article discusses the theoretical framework, research limitations, future research directions and practical implications.


Author(s):  
Renata Khayoun ◽  
Katrina L. Devick ◽  
Melanie J. Chandler ◽  
Anne L. Shandera-Ochsner ◽  
Liselotte De Wit ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 349-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Longden ◽  
M. Sampson ◽  
J. Read

Background.This study examines relationships between childhood adversity and the presence of characteristic symptoms of schizophrenia. It was hypothesised that total adversity exposures would be significantly higher in individuals exhibiting these symptoms relative to patients without. Recent proposals that differential associations exist between specific psychotic symptoms and specific adversities was also tested, namely: sexual abuse and hallucinations, physical abuse and delusions, and fostering/adoption and delusions.Method.Data were collected through auditing 251 randomly selected medical records, drawn from adult patients in New Zealand community mental health centres. Information was extracted on presence and subtype of psychotic symptoms and exposure to ten types of childhood adversity, including five types of abuse and neglect.Results.Adversity exposure was significantly higher in patients experiencing hallucinations in general, voice hearing, command hallucinations, visions, delusions in general, paranoid delusions and negative symptoms than in patients without these symptoms. There was no difference in adversity exposure in patients with and without tactile/olfactory hallucinations, grandiose delusions or thought disorder. Indication of a dose–response relationship was detected, in that total number of adversities significantly predicted total number of psychotic symptoms. Although fostering/adoption was associated with paranoid delusions, the hypothesised specificity between sexual abuse and hallucinations, and physical abuse and delusions, was not found. The two adversities showing the largest number of associations with psychotic symptoms were poverty and being fostered/adopted.Conclusions.The current data are consistent with a model of global and cumulative adversity, in which multiple exposures may intensify psychosis risk beyond the impact of single events. Implications for clinical intervention are discussed.


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