Bullying victimisation and paranoid ideation in people at ultra high risk for psychosis.

BACKGROUND

Bullying victimisation has been suggested to contribute to paranoid ideation in general population samples and recent evidence found that individuals with an ultra high risk (UHR) for psychosis are twice as likely to have been bullied than controls.

AIMS: This study sought to examine whether a history of bullying would be associated with higher levels of paranoid ideation in individuals with an UHR and in healthy controls (HCs).

METHOD: The study included 64 UHR and 43 HC participants. Following the baseline assessment, participants entered a Virtual Reality (VR) London Underground train. Paranoid ideation was measured immediately after the end of the VR experience.

RESULTS

Compared to HCs, UHR participants described higher levels of childhood bullying (OR 5.19, 95% CI=2.21-12.19, p<.001) and experienced more paranoid ideation during VR (χ(2)(1)=21.06, p<.001). Childhood bullying was associated with paranoid ideation during VR in both groups (χ(2)(1)=5.931, p=,021) but prolonged exposure to bullying was not associated with increased paranoid ideation.

CONCLUSION

A history of bullying in childhood is particularly common in young adults at high risk for psychosis. However bullying is associated with paranoid ideation in later life, independent of clinical status, consistent with dimensional models of psychotic phenomena.