Investigating key mechanisms mediating the relationship between social anxiety and paranoia: a 3-month follow-up cross-cultural survey conducted in Thailand and the United Kingdom

Aunjitsakul, W., McLeod, H. J. and Gumley, A. (2022) Investigating key mechanisms mediating the relationship between social anxiety and paranoia: a 3-month follow-up cross-cultural survey conducted in Thailand and the United Kingdom. Psychiatry Research Communications, 2(1), 100028. (doi: 10.1016/j.psycom.2022.100028)

Abstract

Because there is no evidence-based intervention for social anxiety in psychosis, and mechanisms of social anxiety-paranoia continuum remain to be elucidated. We aimed to investigate mediators between social anxiety and persecutory paranoia in a prospective cross-cultural analogue sample using interventionist-causal models to guide developments of new treatments for psychosis. This is a prospective online survey included participants aged ≥18-year-old in Thailand and the UK. Participants completed questionnaires at baseline (T1) and 3-month follow-up (T2) measuring social anxiety, paranoia, depression and mediators (stigma; internal and external shame; social rank; self-esteem; and safety behaviours). We used mediation analysis with 10,000 bootstrapping bias-corrected 95% confidence intervals (CI) to test indirect effects. At baseline, 842 participants completed the survey, and 336 Thai and 369 UK participants agreed to follow-up. Of these, 186 (70.4%female; mean age 34.9 ± 9.1) Thai and 236 (81.4%female; 35.7 ± 12.7) UK participants completed the survey at follow-up. A multiple mediation model (controlling for T1 depression and T1 paranoia and T2 social anxiety) showed significant indirect effects for change score (T2-T1) in external shame. These cross-cultural data suggest that external shame may mediate the prospective relationship between social anxiety and paranoia. Further research should focus on mechanistic approach to test the finding in psychosis.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand and the College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, UK.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: McLeod, Professor Hamish and Aunjitsakul, Warut and Gumley, Professor Andrew

Creator Roles

Aunjitsakul, W.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing, Visualization, Project administration, Funding acquisition
McLeod, H. J.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review and editing, Visualization, Supervision
Gumley, A.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review and editing, Visualization, Supervision

• Authors: Aunjitsakul, W., McLeod, H. J., and Gumley, A.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Health & Wellbeing > Mental Health and Wellbeing
• Journal Name: Psychiatry Research Communications
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 2772-5987
• ISSN (Online): 2772-5987
• Published Online: 02 February 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Psychiatry Research Communications 2(1): 100028
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License