Understanding strange feelings and experiences
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding strange feelings and experiences: A qualitative study
IRAS ID
236517
Contact name
Emma Cernis
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Clinical Trials and Research Governance
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Sometimes, people have strange feelings and experiences – like feeling that they are ‘spaced out’, emotionally numb, unreal, disconnected, or ‘trapped in a bubble’. These experiences are sometimes called ‘dissociation’ or ‘depersonalisation’, and can include experiences like having unwanted memories repeat in a very realistic way, or even having memory blanks.
These experiences can cause a range of responses, including cognitive (misinterpretations, thoughts, beliefs), emotional (fear, anxiety), and physical (‘fight / flight’) reactions. We believe that these responses are distressing in themselves, but also that they may cause other important presentations if they are misinterpreted by the person who is dissociating.
One such example is in delusions and hallucinations in psychosis. In persecutory (paranoid) delusions, it has been demonstrated that anomalous experiences – such as dissociative experiences - initiate a ‘search for meaning’, ultimately leading to adoption of a (‘delusional’) threat belief (Freeman et al, 2002).
Despite this, and despite estimates that up to fifty percent of people with non-affective psychosis report concurrent dissociative experiences (Renard et al., 2016), these experiences have often been overlooked. To date, the role of dissociation in non-affective psychosis has not yet been tackled in a systematic programme of research.
We are therefore undertaking a three-year programme of research supported by the Wellcome Trust with the aim of better understanding dissociation in non-affective psychosis. Conducting this qualitative (interview) study is a crucial first step in the progress of this work.
The primary outcome of the study is to gain a patient perspective of this poorly-understood set of experiences - particularly what they think started, maintained and ended their dissociative experiences.
A secondary outcome will be a clearer picture of service users’ opinions and beliefs about dissociation, both at the time of the experience, and after it had ended. In many psychological explanations, these beliefs and opinions are a key factor in the development and continuation of the problem. As yet, there has been no investigation into the thoughts and beliefs people have about their dissociative experiences in psychosis.
REC name
South Central - Hampshire B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/SC/0048
Date of REC Opinion
5 Feb 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion