Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Sep:235:52-59.
doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2021.07.005. Epub 2021 Jul 24.

Psychophysiological stress-reactivity in clinical and non-clinical voice-hearers

David Baumeister  1 , Toby Pillinger  2 , Oliver Howes  2 , Emmanuelle Peters  3
Affiliations

Psychophysiological stress-reactivity in clinical and non-clinical voice-hearers

David Baumeister et al. Schizophr Res. 2021 Sep.

Abstract

Background: Psychosis is associated with dysregulation of psychophysiological stress-reactivity, including in subjective, autonomic nervous system (ANS) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) parameters.

Aims: This study investigated whether dysregulated psychophysiological stress-reactivity is specifically associated with auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) or psychosis more generally by comparing voice-hearers with and without a need for care.

Method: Clinical (n = 20) and non-clinical voice-hearers (n = 23), as well as a healthy control group with no voices (n = 23), were compared on HPA and ANS responses, and subjective reactivity, to a psychophysiological stress paradigm, the socially evaluative cold pressor test.

Results: Measures of HPA function in both clinical and non-clinical voice-hearers diverged from non-voice-hearing controls. Clinical participants showed a blunted peak response compared to both non-clinical groups (p = 0.02), whilst non-clinical voice-hearers showed, at trend-level, reduced cortisol levels during stress exposure compared to both clinical voice-hearers (p = 0.07) and healthy controls (p = 0.07), who unexpectedly did not differ from each other (p = 0.97). Clinical participants showed greater subjective stress levels than both non-clinical groups (p < 0.001), as well as greater anticipatory stress (p = 0.001) and less recovery. There were no differences between groups on parameters of the ANS (all p > 0.05).

Conclusions: Dysregulated psychophysiological stress-function is present in clinical voice-hearers, and partially discriminates them from non-clinical voice-hearers. Overall, the present findings identified specific potential psychophysiological markers of risk and resilience in auditory verbal hallucinations and need for care.

Keywords: Cortisol; HPA Axis; Hallucinations; Psychosis continuum; Stress; Voice-hearing.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
VAS scores by group by timepoint (mean ± SE).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Logn cortisol values by group by timepoint (mean ± SE).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Baumeister D., Sedgwick O., Howes O., Peters E. Auditory verbal hallucinations and continuum models of psychosis: a systematic review of the healthy voice-hearer literature. Clin. Psychol. Rev. 2017;51:125–141. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2016.10.010. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Baumeister D., Ward T., Garety P., Jackson M., Morgan C., Charalambides M., Chadwick P., Howes O., Peters E. Need for care, adversity exposure and perceived stress in clinical and healthy voice-hearers. Psychol. Med. 2020 doi: 10.1017/S0033291720002433. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. BBC Natural History Unit . 2011. Frozen Planet.
    1. Becker L., Schade U., Rohleder N. Evaluation of the socially evaluated coldpressor group test (SECPT-G) in the general population. PeerJ. 2019 doi: 10.7717/peerj.7521. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bonato M., La Torre A., Saresella M., Marventano I., Merati G., Vitale J.A. Salivary cortisol concentration after high-intensity interval exercise: time of day and chronotype effect. Chronobiol. Int. 2017;1–10 doi: 10.1080/07420528.2017.1311336. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types