METACOGNITIONS AND PREDISPOSITION TO AUDITORY HALLUCINATIONS IN CLINICAL AND NON-CLINICAL POPULATIONS. THE ROLE OF SCHIZOTYPY

Metacognitions of five groups of patients (current hallucinating patients with schizophrenia, never-hallucinated people with psychosis, OCD patients, patients with schizotypical personality disorder, and a clinical control group) and a non-clinical group were compared. The study also explores the role of schizotypy on relationships between metacognitions and hallucinatory predisposition. A metacognitive questionnaire, a hallucination proneness scale and a schizotypy questionnaire were administered to all groups. The results showed how, after controlling for schizotypy, there were no significant differences between groups in their metacognitions. However, other metacognitive factors have been revealed as significant in predicting predisposition to hallucinations, controlling or not participants' scores in schizotypy. These results are discussed in the light of existing research on auditory hallucinations and metacognitions.