'Jumping to conclusions' in first-episode psychosis

Aim: People with psychotic symptoms are reported to have a characteristic reasoning style in which they jump to conclusions (JTC). The aims of this research were threefold. The first was to establish how prevalent this style is in people with first-episode psychosis. The second was to examine the specificity of JTC to delusions. The third was to examine explanatory factors that may account for the JTC style. This was investigated by attempting to replicate, with a large sample, previous studies indicating that JTC is associated with specific psychotic and non-psychotic symptoms and processes.

Methods: Seventy-seven service users were recruited from a first-episode service and completed measures of reasoning and psychotic and non-psychotic symptomatologies. A well-established criterion was used to compare the JTC performance of those people with and without JTC.

Results: JTC was present in over 40% of the sample, which is consistent with previous studies of people with long-standing psychotic symptoms. Unlike previous research, no strong associations were found in relation to symptoms and other processes.

Conclusions: JTC is a phenomenon common in many people in first-episode services. In this large cohort sample, no clear associations with symptoms or other psychological processes were evident. Hence, the reason people JTC is still unclear.