Journal article
Why do patients with psychosis listen to and believe derogatory and threatening voices? 21 reasons given by patients
- Abstract:
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Background: Around two thirds of patients with auditory hallucinations experience derogatory and threatening voices (DTVs). Understandably, when these voices are believed then common consequences can be depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. There is a need for treatment targeted at promoting distance from such voice content. The first step in this treatment development is to understand why patients listen to and believe voices that are appraised as malevolent.
Aims: To learn from patients their reasons for listening to and believing DTVs.
Method: Theoretical sampling was used to recruit participants with non-affective psychosis from NHS services who heard daily DTVs. Data were obtained by semi-structured interviews and analysed using grounded theory.
Results: Six higher order categories for why patients listen and/or believe voices were theorised. These were: i) to understand the voices (e.g. what is their motive?); ii) to be alert to the threat (e.g. prepared for what might happen); iii) a normal instinct to rely on sensory information; iv) the voices can be of people they know; v) the DTVs use strategies (e.g. repetition) to capture attention; vi) patients feel so worn down it is hard to resist the voice experience (e.g. too mentally defeated to dismiss comments). In total, twenty-one reasons were identified, with all participants endorsing multiple reasons.
Conclusions: The study generated a wide range of reasons why patients listen to and believe DTVs. Awareness of these reasons can help clinicians understand the patient experience and also identify targets in psychological intervention.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, 241.9KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1017/S1352465820000429
Authors
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
- Journal:
- Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy More from this journal
- Volume:
- 48
- Issue:
- 6
- Pages:
- 631 - 645
- Publication date:
- 2020-07-29
- Acceptance date:
- 2020-05-22
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1469-1833
- ISSN:
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1352-4658
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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1106719
- Local pid:
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pubs:1106719
- Deposit date:
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2020-05-26
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies
- Copyright date:
- 2020
- Rights statement:
- © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2020. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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