Prevalence of paranoid ideation; its relationship with thought control strategies among clinical population

Abstract

The present study was conducted to explore the prevalence of paranoid ideation and its relationship with the thought control strategies among patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and obsessivecompulsive disorder (OCD). Sample comprised of 132 participants. Paranoid Thought Scale (Green et al., 2007) and Thought Control Questionnaire (wells & Davies, 1994) were translated into Urdu language for the data collection. It was hypothesized that worry and punishment strategies are positively associated with paranoid ideation. The results of the study showed that worry and punishment strategies are significantly positively linked with the reference and persecution. It was also found that MDD patients used more worry, reappraisal, punishment and distraction strategies and OCD patients use more social control strategy. Paranoid thoughts were found to be high in GAD patients as compared to the other group. This study can be of greater help for the professionals to have better understanding of their patient’s conditions. Moreover, it can also help the future researchers to better understand the importance of highlighting these issues which are not taken seriously as a problem that needs clinical attention.