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Auditory Verbal Hallucinations: can Beliefs about Voices Mediate the Relationship Patients establish with them and Negative Affect?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2015

María de Gracia León-Palacios ,
Juan Úbeda-Gómez ,
Silvia Escudero-Pérez ,
María Dolores Barros-Albarán ,
Ana María López-Jiménez  and
Salvador Perona-Garcelán
María de Gracia León-Palacios
Affiliation:
Hospital Virgen del Rocío (Spain)
Juan Úbeda-Gómez
Affiliation:
Hospital Virgen del Rocío (Spain)
Silvia Escudero-Pérez
Affiliation:
Hospital Virgen del Rocío (Spain)
María Dolores Barros-Albarán
Affiliation:
Hospital Virgen del Rocío (Spain)
Ana María López-Jiménez
Affiliation:
Universidad de Sevilla (Spain)
Salvador Perona-Garcelán*
Affiliation:
Hospital Virgen del Rocío (Spain)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Salvador Perona-Garcelán. Servicio Andaluz de Salud - Hospital de Dia de Salud Mental Virgen del Rocío. Sevilla (Spain). E-mail: sperona@us.es
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Abstract

This study was designed to find out whether a person’s relationship with his voices and the negative affect he suffers from are mediated by beliefs about the voices. Research done to date shows contradictory results (Sorrell, Hayward, & Meddings, 2010, Vaughan & Fowler, 2004). A cross-sectional study was done to study the associations among variables, and a multiple mediation model (Preacher & Hayes, 2008) in which the beliefs about voices were the mediating variables was tested. Sixty subjects who heard voices participated. The VAY (Hayward, Denney, Vaughan, & Fowler, 2008), BAVQ (Chadwick & Birchwood, 1995), BAI (Beck & Steer, 1993) and BDI-II (Beck, Steer & Brown, 1996) were given. We found a significant positive correlation between perception of voices as dominant and intrusive and maintaining a position of distance from them on one hand, and negative affect [anxiety (r = .57, p < .001; r = .40, p < .001; r = .34, p < .01 respectively) and depression (r = .58, p < .001; r = .37, p < .01; r = .38, p < .001 respectively)] on the other. We also found that beliefs of malevolence and omnipotence mediated between relating style and negative affect (anxiety and depression). The theoretical implications of the results and clinical implications of the mediating relationships found are discussed.

Keywords

auditory verbal hallucinationsbeliefsnegative affect
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 18 , 2015 , E76
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2015 

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