Objective To explore the relationship between childhood trauma, metacogntion, and psychiatric symptoms in patients with stable schizophrenia. Methods Eighty stable schizophrenic patients were recruited from Anhui Mental Health Center and evaluated using the childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ-SF), metacognition assessment scale-abbreviated (MAS-A), and positive and negative symptoms scale (PANSS). Spearman and partial correlation analysis were used to explore the relationship between the childhood trauma and metacognition and psychiatric symptoms. Results Spearman correlation analysis showed that the MAS-A total score was significantly negatively correlated with the PANSS total score (r=-0.257, P<0.05) and negative symptom subscore (r=-0.397, P<0.01), and positively correlated with the positive symptom subscore (r=0.292,P<0.01). The CTQ-SF emotional abuse subscore were significantly positively correlated with the MAS-A understanding others’mind subscore (r=0.244, P<0.05) and decentration subscore (r=0.245, P<0.05). The correlation between the emotional abuse subscore of the CTQ-SF and the decentration subscore of the MAS-A still existed (r=0.272, P<0.05) after controlling for general demographic variables and PANSS scores. Conclusion Our findings further confirm the positive correlation between adverse childhood experiences and metacognition in schizophrenia patients, its psychopathological mechanism deserves further study. |