Thought-action fusion in schizophrenia: A preliminary investigation

Thought-action fusion (TAF), a belief that one's thoughts can either increase the likelihood of a given event or imply the immorality of one's character, is associated with a range of disorders, but has not yet been investigated in relation to psychosis. We sought to determine whether TAF beliefs are endorsed by individuals with chronic schizophrenia. Twenty-seven adults with chronic schizophrenia completed self-report measures of TAF, magical ideation, delusional beliefs and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Scores were compared with a gender-matched nonclinical group (n = 27) and associations between self-report measures were investigated for the chronic schizophrenia sample. TAF Likelihood-Others, magical ideation and obsessive-compulsive symptoms were endorsed to a greater extent by those with chronic schizophrenia than by controls. The participants with chronic schizophrenia however, did not generally endorse TAF statements at level greater than 'neutral'. TAF Moral, magical ideation and obsessive-compulsive symptoms were associated with scores on the delusional beliefs measure. We conclude that TAF beliefs may not especially characterise the thinking styles of those with schizophrenia. These findings await replication using a larger sample.