The relationship betweenchildhood traumas and theory of minddisorders in siblings of schizophrenia patients

In this study, mind theory disorders in siblings of schizophrenia patients, and the relationship between mental theory disorders and childhood traumatic experiences was examined. The aim of this study is to compare the siblings of schizophrenia spectrum patients and participants who are not relatives of patients in terms of mental theory performance. Another aim of the study is to examine the effect of childhood traumatic experiences on mental theory performance in both groups. For these purposes, the relationships between the relatives of the patients and participants who are not relatives of the patients, and the traumatic experiences of childhood were investigated at the level of statistical significance. The study was conducted with data obtained from the siblings of schizophrenia spectrum patients for the patient relatives group and the general normal population for the control group. The sample of the study consists of 106 siblings who are 51 siblings of the schizophrenia spectrum patients and 55 who are not relatives that matching the siblings in terms of age, gender and education level. Of the 51 participants who constituted the siblings of schizophrenia spectrum patients, 35 were male and 16 were female. 40 of the participants who are not relatives of the patients are male and 15 are female. The research data were obtained from the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, Dokuz Eylül Zihin Teorisi Test and Childhood Traumatic Experiences Scales. For the purpose of the study, Pearson Correlation coefficients were calculated and the relationships between the scores obtained from the measurement tools were examined. Independent sample t test was used to analyze the significance level of the difference between the groups. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to compare the scores obtained from the measurement tools according to marital and educational status variables. Whether the variances are homogeneous was determined by Levene F test. Welch Test is used in cases where the homogeneity assumption cannot be met. The source of the difference was determined by applying LSD test in variance analysis. The data were analyzed with SPSS 25.0 statistical software. According to the findings obtained from the study, there is a significant difference between the siblings of schizophrenia patients and the participants who are not relatives in mental theory performance (p> 0.05). The groups differ in terms of Reading the Mind in the Eyes and empathetic understanding skills. The sibling of schizophrenia patients Reading the Mind in the Eyes test total scores (P =0, 01) and The Dokuz Eylül Zihin Teorisi Scale-Empathy subscale scores (P =0, 01) were significantly lower than the scores of the participants who were not relatives of the patients. When the relationship between childhood traumatic experiences and mind theory scores was examined, statistically meaningful and negative relations were found in both groups. It was observed that there was a moderate negative and significant relationship between the second degree mind theory test scores and physical neglect scores in the siblings of schizophrenia patients (r = -0.344; p <0.05). It is observed that second degree mind theory skills decrease as the physical neglect points of the siblings of schizophrenia patients increase. In the participants who are not relatives of patients, positive and negative meaningful relationships were found between the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test scores and the Dokuz Eylül Zihin Teorisi scores and childhood traumatic experiences scale scores. It is observed that there are low and moderate negative and significant relationships between the Reading the Mind in the Eyes scores and the total scores of emotional abuse (r=-0,280; p<0,05), physical neglect (r=-0,275; p<0,05), sexual abuse (r=-0,274; p<0,05) and childhood traumatic experiences scale (r=-0,331; p<0,05). In general, significant relationships were found between the childhood traumatic experiences of the participants in both groups and their mental theory skills. It is observed that as the traumatic experiences of childhood increase, mental theory skills decrease. As a result, it is thought that the emotional component of the theory of mind may be an endophenotype for schizophrenia. It is understood that traumatic experiences have an effect on mind theory skills.