A criticism of the TN model is that most individuals who experience childhood trauma do not develop psychotic symptoms. Many survivors of childhood trauma recover without persistent adverse effects. Further, childhood trauma is a known predictor of both medical and psychological disorders, many of which often co-occur with psychosis. Whether childhood trauma is robustly linked to a specific diagnosis relative to others remains to be elucidated. Despite this ambiguity in its strength as a predictor, the relationship between childhood trauma and psychosis is remains significant even after controlling for psychological comorbidities. Though equifinality may seem counter-intuitive, it is consistent with multifactorial etiological conceptualizations of psychosis to which the TN model is compatible.
