Rumination and psychosis: an experimental, analogue study of the role of perseverative thought processes in voice-hearing

Abstract

We rigorously tested the role of rumination in the development of voice-hearing type experiences. One-hundred and two students watched a video depicting a physical assault and then either ruminated about the contents or were distracted. Participants listened to an anomalous auditory stimulus and recorded any words/phrases along with distress. Manipulation checks confirmed that the rumination group showed greater perseveration regarding the film content than the distraction group. However, the groups did not significantly differ on number of words recorded, convergence with the video content or distress. These findings indicate that rumination might not necessarily be involved in the development of these experiences or associated distress. The current work should provide an impetus to conduct additional rigorously controlled experimental or prospective work to fully discern the key processes relevant to the experience of voice-hearing following exposure to stressful events.

Keywords:

• Hearing voices
• hallucinations
• affect
• causal explanations
• trauma

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Samantha Wong and Rebecca Harrop for assistance with content analysis and the ClinPsyD 2012 cohort at The University of Manchester for reviewing the rumination prompts.