Page 63 - JCBP-2-1

Journal of Clinical and
Basic Psychosomatics Exteroceptive/interoceptive processing

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B
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Figure 2. Graphs depicting PANSS scores at T0, T1, and T2 time points
Figure 1. Barplots displaying differences between patients with psychosis that correspond to acute, post-acute, and remission phases, respectively.
in the post-acute phase (PSY-T1), remission phase (PSY-T2), and (A) PANSS total score. (B) PANSS subscores. Error bars = ±1 SD.
healthy controls (HC). (A) Differences in interoception (MAIA scores). Abbreviations: PANSS: Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale;
(B) Differences in exteroception (AASP scores). Error bars: ±1 SD. SD: Standard deviation.
Abbreviations: AASP: Adult/Adolescent sensory profile;
MAIA: Multidimensional Assessment of interoceptive awareness;
SD: Standard deviation. functioning, including blunted affect, reduced emotional
expression, social withdrawal, lack of motivation, and poor
speech. The “General psychopathology” subscale assesses
response to stimuli. Higher scores in “Sensory sensitivity” non-psychotic symptoms, including anxiety, depression,
suggest hypersensitivity and a more intense reactivity to
stimuli, while “Low regulation” scores are proportional to and cognitive impairment.
reduced detection or response to less noticeable stimuli. 2.5. Statistical analyses
Conversely, “Sensation avoidance” and “Sensory seeking”
subscales examine the active behavior adopted by the Statistical analyses were performed using the Statistical
participant toward sensory experiences. Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows
(version 28.0). As a first step, descriptive analyses were
The PANSS is a 30-item semi-structured interview performed for all participants, which encompassed 23 PSY
administered by the clinician to quantify symptom patients and 210 HC matched for age and gender.
severity in patients affected by schizophrenia and other
psychotic disorders. Clinicians assign a score from 1 to 7 Regarding the primary outcome, comparisons were
for each item (“1” being “absent,” “2” for “minimal,” “3” made for MAIA, AASP, and PANSS subscales between
for “mild,” “4” for “moderate,” “5” for “moderate-severe,” patients at T1 and T2 to evaluate changes in interoceptive,
“6” for “severe,” and “7” for “extreme”). These items are exteroceptive, and symptomatic dimensions associated
generally grouped into three subscales. The “Positive with the clinical phases of psychosis. Specifically, T1
symptoms” subscale reflects an excess or distortion represented the post-acute phase, and T2 represented the
of typical psychological processes. Examples include remission phase. As the normal distribution of the sample
hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking, and odd was not confirmed for PANSS and certain MAIA subscores
behavior. The “Negative symptoms” subscale evaluates (“Attention regulation” and “Noticing”), the Wilcoxon
symptoms associated with a reduction or loss of normal signed-rank test for paired samples was used to compare

Volume 2 Issue 1 (2024) 4 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcbp.1764