Paranoia, hallucinations and compulsive buying during the early phase of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United Kingdom: a preliminary experimental study

Lopes, B, Bortolon, C and Jaspal, R ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8463-9519, 2020. Paranoia, hallucinations and compulsive buying during the early phase of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United Kingdom: a preliminary experimental study. Psychiatry Research, 293: 1368239. ISSN 0165-1781

Preview

Text 1368239_Jaspal.pdf - Post-print Download (505kB) | Preview

Abstract

This study examines the impact of COVID-19 (in the early phase of the outbreak) on symptoms of psychosis, namely paranoia and hallucinations. Three hundred and sixty-one people in the United Kingdom participated in a 2 (self-isolation vs. no self-isolation) x 2 (perceived COVID-19 symptomatology vs. no perceived COVID-19 symptomatology) x 2 (exposure to COVID-19 news vs. control) experiment online. Participants completed measures of political trust, social network, fear of COVID-19, current paranoid thoughts, hallucinatory experiences and compulsive buying. Kruskal-Wallis results showed that employed people and students are more prone to paranoia and hallucinatory experiences in response to COVID-19 news. A multigroup model showed a moderation effect of the news conditions - in the COVID-19 news condition, fear of COVID-19 and political trust significantly predict the variance of paranoia, hallucinatory experiences and compulsive buying and these co-vary with each other but not in the control condition. In line with cognitive and social theories of paranoia, results suggest that negative affect and low political trust are linked to the presence of paranoid thoughts and hallucinatory experiences and compulsive buying amid COVID-19. Digitized and Tailored Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy are proposed to address the psychiatric impact of COVID-19.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Psychiatry Research
Creators:	Lopes, B., Bortolon, C. and Jaspal, R.
Publisher:	Elsevier
Date:	November 2020
Volume:	293
ISSN:	0165-1781
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113455 DOI 1368239 Other
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Jill Tomkinson
Date Added:	21 Sep 2020 12:59
Last Modified:	17 Sep 2021 03:00
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/40837

Actions (login required)

Edit View

Statistics

Views

Downloads