Investigating the Relationship Between Childhood Trauma, Dissociation and Psychotic Symptoms in First Episode Psychosis

This thesis aimed to investigate the role of dissociation on the relationship between childhood trauma and psychosis in an early psychosis cohort. We found that a substantial minority of those diagnosed with first episode psychosis also had a co-occurring dissociative disorder or clinically significant dissociative symptoms and these were more frequent in those with a history of trauma. Furthermore, we found that dissociation mediated the relationship between childhood trauma and delusional ideation. Our findings have significant implications for how complex psychological constructs are measured in future research and for the assessment and management of dissociative symptoms in early psychosis treatment settings.