MedWire News: Infant trauma is common in patients with paranoid schizophrenia and appears to be linked to specific psychopathology, particularly hostility, unnatural movements and posture, depression, and preoccupation, study findings show.

M Henry, from Universidad de La Laguna, Spain, and colleagues assessed the presence of infant trauma and its relationship with psychopathology in 37 patients with paranoid schizophrenia aged an average of 29 years.

They found that over half (55.8%) of the patients had suffered infant trauma. The main traumas were sexual abuse (12.8%), child abuse (7.7%), both sexual and child abuse (5.18%), parental separation (7.7%), extra-rigid parents (2.6%), alcoholic parents (18.2%), and child abuse and mother’s death in childhood (2.6%).

The researchers reported at the 18th European Congress of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany, that infant trauma was significantly associated with psychopathology in these patients, as measured on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale.

Specifically, infant trauma was significantly associated with hostility (No 1.75; Yes 2.26), Unnatural Movements and Posture (No 1.55; Yes 1.16), Depression (No 1.25, Yes 1.74), and Preoccupation (No 2.75, Yes 3.26).

“Despite sample size, a high proportion of the patients presented infant trauma,” Henry concluded.

The researchers call for further research to open new avenues in this field, particularly with regard to infant trauma and symptomatology specificity, as well as the plausible link to personality traits and personality disorders.

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