Psychophysiological adaptivity and the development of paranoid delusions • DFG project
Principal Investigator: Dr. Annika Clamor
Research Associate: Dr. Katrin Bahlinger
Co-Investigator: Prof. Dr. Tania Lincoln
Aims of this project:
In this project, we investigate whether individuals with psychosis demonstrate a deficient stress recovery as compared to healthy controls after being exposed to a stressor. Furthermore, we examine whether a deficient recovery predicts a heightened stress sensitivity to a following stressor since this could lead to a building-up of heightened stress levels and the experience of paranoid symptoms. We also aim to identify possible mechanisms of a deficient recovery and the development of paranoid symptoms, such as the resting-state heart rate variability (HRV) and emotion regulation skills.
Current developments:
We have completed the data collection of our project. We want to thank all participants for their great support in realizing our project. We have already published a first paper and are currently working on further publications.
First results:
A first paper focusing on the comparison of the autonomic and subjective recovery of individuals with a psychotic disorder and healthy controls was published 2022 in Schizophrenia Bulletin. In this paper, we investigated whether resting-state HRV and emotion regulation skills predict a better recovery. We found evidence for a delayed subjective but not autonomic recovery in individuals with psychotic disorders and showed that a higher resting-state HRV and emotion regulation skills predicted a better recovery. This implies that the frequently found heightened autonomic arousal in individuals with psychosis may not trace back to a deficient autonomic stress recovery. However, the results suggest that improving subjective recovery may be helpful to decrease a building-up of subjective stress. Moreover, the findings shed promising light on improving resting-state HRV and emotion regulation to support autonomic recovery.
Bahlinger, K., Lincoln, T.M. & Clamor, A. (2022). Recovery after stress – autonomic and subjective arousal in individuals with psychosis compared to healthy controls. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 48(6):1373-1383. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbac097.