Abstract
A personality trait that often elicits poor and uneasy interpersonal relationships is interpersonal sensitivity. The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between interpersonal sensitivity and psychosocial functioning in individuals at ultra-high risk for psychosis as compared to help-seeking individuals who screened negative for an ultra-high risk of psychosis. A total sample of 147 adolescents and young adult who were help seeking for emerging mental health problems participated in the study. The sample was divided into two groups: 39 individuals who met criteria for an ultra-high-risk mental state (UHR), and 108 (NS). The whole sample completed the Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure (IPSM) and the Global Functioning: Social and Role Scale (GF:SS; GF:RS). Mediation analysis was used to explore whether attenuated negative symptoms mediated the relationship between interpersonal sensitivity and social functioning. Individuals with UHR state showed higher IPSM scores and lower GF:SS and GF:RS scores than NS participants. A statistically negative significant correlation between two IPSM subscales (Interpersonal Awareness and Timidity) and GF:SS was found in both groups. Our results also suggest that the relationship between the aforementioned aspects of interpersonal sensitivity and social functioning was not mediated by negative prodromal symptoms. This study suggests that some aspects of interpersonal sensitivity were associated with low level of social functioning. Assessing and treating interpersonal sensitivity may be a promising therapeutic target to improve social functioning in young help-seeking individuals.
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Acknowledgments
Our special thanks go to all the staff and service users of ASL Rome H Community Mental Health Services and Child and Adolescents Mental Health Services. The present study did not receive any specific financial support. Sapienza University of Rome provided a PhD scholarship for three authors (AM, MB and GDK) and allowed other trainees in Psychiatry (JFL, MC, AS, LD) to spend part of their training working for the present study; Rome H Mental Health Department supported this study by organizing clinical supervision on the early detection work.
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On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
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The authors assert that all procedures contributing to this work comply with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional committees on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1964, as revised in 2008.
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Masillo, A., Valmaggia, L.R., Saba, R. et al. Interpersonal sensitivity and functioning impairment in youth at ultra-high risk for psychosis. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 25, 7–16 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-015-0692-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-015-0692-6