The impact of emotion dysregulation on positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia spectrum disorders: A systematic review.

OBJECTIVES

Accumulating research evidence supports the role of emotion dysregulation in the etiology of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The present systematic review synthesized the extant literature and aimed to determine the effects of cognitive emotion regulation strategies and global emotion dysregulation on positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

METHOD: A comprehensive systematic review was conducted to identify quantitative studies published between 2000 and 2019. A total of 22 studies were included in this review.

RESULTS

Overall, maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies of rumination, worry, and suppression were generally related to more positive symptoms, while global emotion dysregulation was related to more positive and negative symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results provide preliminary and conceptual evidence on the role of emotion dysregulation in understanding schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Psychological treatment should further determine the therapeutic value of addressing emotion dysregulation to improve positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia spectrum disorders.