The experience of body image concerns in patients with persecutory delusions: 'People don't want to sit next to me'.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Persecutory delusions typically build on feelings of inter-personal vulnerability linked to negative views of the self. Negative body image is an overlooked aspect of this link between the self-concept and paranoia.

Design

This study explores body image from the first-person perspective of patients with persecutory delusions.

Method

Semi-structured interviews, analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis, were conducted with twelve patients with persecutory delusions in the context of psychotic disorders.

Results

Four super-ordinate themes emerged. First, appearance as a source of threat accounted for how negative body image increased feelings of vulnerability and fed into the content of paranoia and voices (e.g., 'I feel that everybody is

SUBMITTER: Marshall E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7496653 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature