Abstract
The purpose of this work was to study the potentially mediating role of certain dissociative factors, such as depersonalization, between self-focused attention and auditory hallucinations. A total of 59 patients diagnosed with schizophrenic disorder completed a self-focused attention scale (CitationM. F. Scheier & C. S. Carver, 1985), the Cambridge Depersonalization Scale (M. CitationSierra & G. E. Berrios, 2000), and the hallucination and delusion items on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (S. R. CitationKay, L. A. Opler, & J. P. Lindenmayer, 1988). The results showed that self-focused attention correlated positively with auditory hallucinations, with delusions, and with depersonalization. It was also demonstrated that depersonalization has a mediating role between self-focused attention and auditory hallucinations but not delusions. In the discussion, the importance of dissociative processes in understanding the formation and maintenance of auditory hallucinations is suggested.
Acknowledgments
This work was done under Research Project PSI2009-09453 funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology.