Pleasant and unpleasant ideas of reference and their relation to psychopathology

Abstract

In previous works we recorded the presence of ideas of reference (or self-references) with the REF-scale about referential thinking. The differences between patients and controls are clear, but not so clearly between diagnostic categories, except for psychotic disorders. Aims: We try to verify whether the differences between patients and controls are due to the presence of pleasant self-references (PS) or unpleasant self-references (US) and, especially, considering the different diagnostic groups. Method: 1600 subjects participated, 1245 from general population and 355 patients, 63.3% were women. Results: We obtained significant differences between patients and controls, both PS, F (1, 1598) = 62.31, and US, F (1, 1598) = 99.47. When analyzing the diagnostic categories, differences were obtained in mean of US, F (7, 347) = 2.770, and PS, F (7, 347) = 3.870, highlighting psychotic patients. Discussion: Psychotic patients reached statistically significant differences only with adjustment disorders patients, when considering US; and mood disorders, anxiety and adjustment disorders, when considering PS.