Page 60 - JCBP-2-1

Journal of Clinical and

Basic Psychosomatics

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Evolving or unchanged? Investigating

perceptual profiles over time in psychosis and
comparing with healthy controls

1
1,2
1
Stefano Damiani , Cecilia Maria Esposito *, Marie Emilie Giovannelli ,
1
Serena Chiara Civardi , Andrea Silva , Valentina Grecuzzo , Irma Bergamaschini ,
1
1
1
Francesco Sommi , Silvia Gazzoli , Emma Laura Facchinetti , Pierluigi Politi ,
1,2
1
1
1
and Paolo Fusar-Poli 1,3,4
1 Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
2 Department of Mental Health and Addiction, ASST Pavia, Pavia, Italy
3 Early Psychosis: Interventions and Clinical-detection (EPIC) Laboratory, Department of
Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London,
United Kingdom
4 OASIS Service, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom
Abstract
There is a growing body of evidence indicating altered perceptual profiles in
psychosis, which can be assessed by evaluating exteroceptive (e.g., auditory and
visual) and interoceptive (e.g., heartbeat and breathing) sensory processing through
self-administered questionnaires. However, the unexplored question remains
*Corresponding author: whether perceptual alterations depend on the phase of illness. In this observational,
Cecilia Maria Esposito
(ceciliamaria.esposito@unipv.it) STROBE-compliant study, we adopted the Multidimensional Assessment of
Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA; eight domains), Adult/Adolescent Sensory Profile
Citation: Damiani S, Esposito CM, (AASP; four domains), and Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS) to
Giovannelli ME, et al., 2024,
Evolving or unchanged? measure interoception, exteroception, and symptom severity, respectively. Our
Investigating perceptual profiles primary aim was to compare MAIA, AASP, and PANSS differences in patients with
over time in psychosis and psychosis (PSY patients) between post-acute (PSY-T1) and remission phases (PSY-
comparing with healthy controls. J
Clin Basic Psychosom, 2(1): 1764. T2). Student’s t-tests or Wilcoxon paired-sample tests were used based on the
https://doi.org/10.36922/jcbp.1764 variable distribution. MAIA/AASP data were also collected from healthy controls
Received: September 5, 2023 (HCs). As a secondary aim, we examined MAIA/AASP differences between PSY-T1/
T2 and HC using MANOVA and Mann–Whitney tests. Bonferroni–Holm correction
Accepted: December 1, 2023
was implemented. Data were collected from 23 PSY patients (55% females; mean
Published Online: January 19, age: 38.35 ± 12.46 years) and 210 HC (46% females; mean age: 39.81 ± 13.78 years).
2024 No differences were found between PSY-T1 and PSY-T2 (Bonferroni–Holm P > 0.05)
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). for MAIA/AASP scores, while PANSS total and positive scores were higher in PSY-T1
This is an Open-Access article compared to PSY-T2, with Bonferroni–Holm p-values of 0.032 and 0.045, respectively.
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution Although MAIA/AASP domains (noticing/body listening and low registration) were
License, permitting distribution, increased in PSY-T1 compared to HC, no differences were observed between PSY-
and reproduction in any medium, T2 and HC. The heterogeneous results in the literature regarding perceptual profiles
provided the original work is
properly cited. should be contextualized by considering that fluctuations in patients with psychosis
can become significant when compared to the general population.
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional Keywords: Sensory processing; Psychosis; Schizophrenia; Sensory profile
affiliations.

Volume 2 Issue 1 (2024) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcbp.1764