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. 2020 Apr:286:112866.
doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112866. Epub 2020 Feb 14.

The role of inner speech on the association between childhood adversity and 'hearing voices'

Cherise Rosen  1 , Simon McCarthy-Jones  2 , Kayla A Chase  3 , Nev Jones  4 , Lauren Luther  3 , Jennifer K Melbourne  3 , Niyati Sudhalkar  3 , Rajiv P Sharma  3
Affiliations

The role of inner speech on the association between childhood adversity and 'hearing voices'

Cherise Rosen et al. Psychiatry Res. 2020 Apr.

Abstract

Adverse childhood experiences are associated with later development of psychosis, particularly auditory verbal hallucinations and delusions. Although auditory hallucinations have been proposed to be misattributed inner speech, the relation between childhood adversity and inner speech has not been previously investigated. The first aim was to test whether childhood adversity is associated with inner speech in persons with psychosis. The second aim was to test for the influence of inner speech on the association between childhood adversity and auditory hallucinations. Our final aim was to test for evidence that would falsify the null hypothesis that inner speech does not impact the relationship between childhood adversity and delusions. In persons with psychosis, we found a positive association between childhood adversity and dialogic inner speech. There was a significant total effect of childhood adversity on auditory hallucinations, including an indirect effect of childhood adversity on auditory hallucinations via dialogic inner speech. There was also a significant total effect of childhood adversity on delusions, but no evidence of any indirect effect via inner speech. These findings suggest that childhood adversities are associated with inner speech and psychosis. The relation between childhood adversity and auditory hallucination severity could be partially influenced by dialogic inner speech.

Keywords: Auditory verbal hallucinations; Childhood adversity; Delusions; Hearing voices; Inner speech; Psychosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest There are no actual or potential conflict of interest that could inappropriately influence or be perceived to influence this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Model to be tested
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Relations between childhood adversity and inner speech Note. Confidence intervals calculated using 1,000 bootstrapped samples; *p≤0.05. **p≤0.01. ***p≤0.00 Figure abbreviation are noted as such: VISQ dialogic = dialogic inner speech subscale; VISQ cond = condensed inner speech subscale; VISQ other = other people inner speech subscale; VISQ evalmot = evaluative or motivational inner speech subscale. ACE= adverse childhood experiences and specific subscale.
Figure 3:
Figure 3:
Associations between childhood adversity, inner speech, and auditory verbal hallucinations Note: Analysis (with covariates). All coefficients are unstandardized and significant at p < 0.05.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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