Temporal Disorganization and Delusional-Like Ideation

From studies of acutely paranoid psychiatric patients, we postulated that temporal disorganization might be involved in the emergence of delusional-like ideation (ie, feelings of influence, grandiosity and persecution). To test this postulate, high doses of tetrahydrocannabinol were used to induce temporal disorganization in carefully screened normal subjects who had no detectable predisposition to delusional ideation. Each subject was used as his own control for five experimental conditions (including comparably intoxicating alcohol doses as well as placebo) at weekly intervals. Tetrahydrocannabinol conditions induced significantly greater temporal disorganization and delusional-like ideation. For all subjects, there were substantial change correlations between temporal disorganization and delusional-like ideation. The findings indicate that changes in the rate, sequence, and goal-directedness of thinking processes were involved in the emergence of unusual thought content.