Trauma plays a critical role in psychosis, but the nature of the relationship between specific symptoms and trauma history remains unclear.

The aim of the study was to explore the experience of positive symptoms and their association with trauma and life events from the perspective of patients with first-episode psychosis (FEP).

Seventeen participants who were enrolled in an FEP programme participated in a qualitative interview examining their life and trauma events, the onset of their symptoms, their experience of positive symptoms and their perceived associations between symptoms and life and trauma events. The interview was based on a semi-structured interview of six main questions and follow-up questions. Participants also completed the Trauma and Life Experiences Checklist (TALE), and were asked about the relevance of the whole interview. Thematic content analysis, exploratory cluster analysis and matrix queries coding were performed.

Fifteen participants described the experience of psychotic symptoms as distressing or traumatic. Eleven participants attributed the onset of positive psychotic symptoms to trauma and life events. Ten participants described explicit thematic associations between their symptoms and trauma and life events. Twelve participants evaluated the interview as relevant and helpful.

Our findings give insight into the lived experience of positive symptoms and potential psychological interventions valuing causal theories of participants and the association with life and trauma events.

The relationship between history of childhood trauma (CT) and current schizophrenic symptoms is complex and controversial. Most of the studies report more positive psychotic symptoms (PPS) in psychotic patients who had suffered CT. Findings for negative psychotic symptoms (NPS) are mixed: most authors do not find differences or even find less.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate and describe the types of CT suffered by patients diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD), and to analyse the relationship between history of CT and the present-time intensity of PPS and NPS.

We conducted a cross-sectional study of 45 adult patients with a SSD. Instruments: Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, short form (CTQ-SF) for measuring CT and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) to assess the PPS and NPS of psychosis.

77.8% of the patients reported having suffered any kind of CT. By types of trauma: 48.9% reported emotional abuse, 28.9% physical abuse, 40.0% sexual abuse, 55.6% emotional neglect and 46.7% physical neglect. A lineal correlation between CTQ-SF and PANSS+/- scores was performed. Neither total PANSS+ nor any particular PANSS+ items correlate with CTQ scores. A significant inverse lineal association of moderate intensity exists between total PANSS− score and CT intensity (ρ = −0.300, p = 0.045)

In line with previous research, our study has found inverse correlation between NPS and CT. In contrast, no association was found between PPS and CT. Our sample was mostly composed by chronic patients, which might explain the differences with the previous literature.

No significant relationships.