At least 10–15% of the general population regularly experience paranoid thoughts and persecutory delusions are a frequent symptom of psychosis. Persecutory ideation is a key topic for study. In this ...article the empirical literature on psychological processes associated with persecutory thinking in clinical and non-clinical populations is comprehensively reviewed. There is a large direct affective contribution to the experience. In particular, anxiety affects the content, distress and persistence of paranoia. In the majority of cases paranoia does not serve a defensive function, but instead builds on interpersonal concerns conscious to the person. However, affect alone is not sufficient to produce paranoid experiences. There is also evidence that anomalous internal experiences may be important in leading to odd thought content and that a jumping to conclusions reasoning bias is present in individuals with persecutory delusions. Theory of mind functioning has received particular research attention recently but the findings do not support a specific association with paranoia. The threat anticipation cognitive model of persecutory delusions is presented, in which persecutory delusions are hypothesised to arise from an interaction of emotional processes, anomalous experiences and reasoning biases. Ten key future research questions are identified, including the need for researchers to consider factors important to the different dimensions of delusional experience.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
A spectrum of severity of paranoia (unfounded thoughts that others are deliberately intending to cause harm) exists within the general population. This is unsurprising: deciding whether to trust or ...mistrust is a vital aspect of human cognition, but accurate judgment of others' intentions is challenging. The severest form of paranoia is persecutory delusions, when the ideas are held with strong conviction. This paper presents a distillation of a cognitive approach that is being translated into treatment for this major psychiatric problem. Persecutory delusions are viewed as threat beliefs, developed in the context of genetic and environmental risk, and maintained by several psychological processes including excessive worry, low self-confidence, intolerance of anxious affect and other internal anomalous experiences, reasoning biases, and the use of safety-seeking strategies. The clinical implication is that safety has to be relearned, by entering feared situations after reduction of the influence of the maintenance factors. An exciting area of development will be a clinical intervention science of how best to enhance learning of safety to counteract paranoia.
In the wake of the success of modern immunotherapy, oncolytic viruses (OVs) are currently seen as a potential therapeutic option for patients with cancer who do not respond or fail to achieve durable ...responses following treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors. OVs offer a multifaceted therapeutic platform because they preferentially replicate in tumour cells, can be engineered to express transgenes that augment their cytotoxic and immunostimulatory activities, and modulate the tumour microenvironment to optimize immune-mediated tumour eradication, both at locoregional and systemic sites of disease. Lysis of tumour cells releases tumour-specific antigens that trigger both the innate and adaptive immune systems. OVs also represent attractive combination partners with other systemically delivered agents by virtue of their highly favourable safety profiles. Rational combinations of OVs with different immune modifiers and/or antitumour agents, based on mechanisms of tumour resistance to immune-mediated attack, may benefit the large, currently underserved, population of patients who respond poorly to immune checkpoint inhibition.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Sleep dysfunction is extremely common in patients with schizophrenia. Recent research indicates that sleep dysfunction may contribute to psychotic experiences such as delusions and hallucinations.
...The review aims to evaluate the evidence for a relationship between sleep dysfunction and individual psychotic experiences, make links between the theoretical understanding of each, and highlight areas for future research.
A systematic search was conducted to identify studies investigating sleep and psychotic experiences across clinical and non-clinical populations.
66 papers were identified. This literature robustly supports the co-occurrence of sleep dysfunction and psychotic experiences, particularly insomnia with paranoia. Sleep dysfunction predicting subsequent psychotic experiences receives support from epidemiological surveys, research on the transition to psychosis, and relapse studies. There is also evidence that reducing sleep elicits psychotic experiences in non-clinical individuals, and that improving sleep in individuals with psychosis may lessen psychotic experiences. Anxiety and depression consistently arise as (partial) mediators of the sleep and psychosis relationship.
Studies are needed that: determine the types of sleep dysfunction linked to individual psychotic experiences; establish a causal connection between sleep and psychotic experiences; and assess treatments for sleep dysfunction in patients with non-affective psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia.
•The review assesses the link between sleep dysfunction and psychotic experiences, particularly delusions and hallucinations.•A systematic review is undertaken of 66 papers that assessed sleep and individual psychotic experiences.•Sleep dysfunction and psychosis clearly co-occur and sleep dysfunction may predict later psychotic experiences.•The effect of improving sleep on psychotic experiences remains to be tested in an adequately powered trial.•The mechanisms linking sleep dysfunction to psychotic experiences require testing.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Establishing reliable intravenous catheterization in mice with optical implants allows the combination of neural manipulations and recordings with rapid, time-locked delivery of pharmacological ...agents. Here we present a procedure for handmade jugular vein catheters designed for head-mounted intravenous access and provide surgical and postoperative guidance for improved survival and patency. A head-mounted vascular access point eliminates the need for a back-mounted button in animals already receiving neural implants, thereby reducing sites of implantation. This protocol, which is readily adoptable by experimenters with previous training and experience in mouse surgery, enables repeated fiber photometry recordings or optogenetic manipulation during drug delivery in adult mice that are awake and behaving, whether head fixed or freely moving. With practice, an experienced surgeon requires ~30 min to perform catheterization on each mouse. Altogether, these techniques facilitate the reliable and repeated delivery of pharmacological agents in mouse models while simultaneously recording at high temporal resolution and/or manipulating neural populations.
Teen dating violence is a serious public health concern with numerous and long-lasting consequences. Although alcohol and drug use have been associated with dating violence, little is known about the ...role of specific substances, especially the use of club drugs and the nonmedical use of prescription drugs. Thus, the authors examined the association between dating violence victimization and the use of a variety of licit and illicit substances among 1,565 ethnically diverse and economically disadvantaged high school students in southeast Texas. Past year dating violence victimization was reported by 14.1% of boys and 11.3% of girls. Compared to their nonabused counterparts, youth who experienced dating violence were more likely to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, binge drink alcohol, sniff glue to get high, use marijuana, use ecstasy, use Vicodin, and use Xanax. However, with the exception of alcohol and cigarettes, all substances were reduced to nonsignificance in multivariate analyses. No differences were found in the rate of dating violence between African American, White, and Hispanic adolescents.
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NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VSZLJ
Math achievement in U.S. high schools is a consistent predictor of educational attainment. While emphasis on raising math achievement continues, school-level interventions often come at the expense ...of other subjects. Arts courses are particularly at risk of being cut, especially in schools serving lower socioeconomic status youth. Evidence suggests, however, that arts coursework is beneficial to many educational outcomes. We use data on 20,590 adolescents from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 to answer two research questions: (1) Does student accumulation of fine arts courses across different topic areas relate positively to math test scores in high school? (2) Does school SES differentiate this potential association? Results indicate that youth attending higher-SES schools take more art courses and taking music courses is related to higher math test scores. However, this benefit only seems to only apply to more socially advantaged student bodies. Results reveal a site of additional educational advantage for already privileged youth.
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We set out to test whether positive non-verbal behaviours of a virtual coach can enhance people's engagement in automated virtual reality therapy. 120 individuals scoring highly for fear of heights ...participated. In a two-by-two factor, between-groups, randomised design, participants met a virtual coach that varied in warmth of facial expression (with/without) and affirmative nods (with/without). The virtual coach provided a consultation about treating fear of heights. Participants rated the therapeutic alliance, treatment credibility, and treatment expectancy. Both warm facial expressions (group difference = 7.44 3.25, 11.62, p = 0.001, Formula: see text=0.10) and affirmative nods (group difference = 4.36 0.21, 8.58, p = 0.040, Formula: see text = 0.04) by the virtual coach independently increased therapeutic alliance. Affirmative nods increased the treatment credibility (group difference = 1.76 0.34, 3.11, p = 0.015, Formula: see text = 0.05) and expectancy (group difference = 2.28 0.45, 4.12, p = 0.015, Formula: see text = 0.05) but warm facial expressions did not increase treatment credibility (group difference = 0.64 - 0.75, 2.02, p = 0.363, Formula: see text = 0.01) or expectancy (group difference = 0.36 - 1.48, 2.20, p = 0.700, Formula: see text = 0.001). There were no significant interactions between head nods and facial expressions in the occurrence of therapeutic alliance (p = 0.403, Formula: see text = 0.01), credibility (p = 0.072, Formula: see text = 0.03), or expectancy (p = 0.275, Formula: see text = 0.01). Our results demonstrate that in the development of automated VR therapies there is likely to be therapeutic value in detailed consideration of the animations of virtual coaches.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
The Green et al., Paranoid Thoughts Scale (GPTS) - comprising two 16-item scales assessing ideas of reference (Part A) and ideas of persecution (Part B) - was developed over a decade ago. Our aim was ...to conduct the first large-scale psychometric evaluation.
In total, 10 551 individuals provided GPTS data. Four hundred and twenty-two patients with psychosis and 805 non-clinical individuals completed GPTS Parts A and B. An additional 1743 patients with psychosis and 7581 non-clinical individuals completed GPTS Part B. Factor analysis, item response theory, and receiver operating characteristic analyses were conducted.
The original two-factor structure of the GPTS had an inadequate model fit: Part A did not form a unidimensional scale and multiple items were locally dependant. A Revised-GPTS (R-GPTS) was formed, comprising eight-item ideas of reference and 10-item ideas of persecution subscales, which had an excellent model fit. All items in the new Reference (a = 2.09-3.67) and Persecution (a = 2.37-4.38) scales were strongly discriminative of shifts in paranoia and had high reliability across the spectrum of severity (a > 0.90). The R-GPTS score ranges are: average (Reference: 0-9; Persecution: 0-4); elevated (Reference: 10-15; Persecution: 5-10); moderately severe (Reference: 16-20; Persecution:11-17); severe (Reference: 21-24; Persecution: 18-27); and very severe (Reference: 25+; Persecution: 28+). Recommended cut-offs on the persecution scale are 11 to discriminate clinical levels of persecutory ideation and 18 for a likely persecutory delusion.
The psychometric evaluation indicated a need to improve the GPTS. The R-GPTS is a more precise measure, has excellent psychometric properties, and is recommended for future studies of paranoia.
Abstract Virtual reality (VR) is increasingly used in the study and treatment of paranoia. This is based on the finding that people who mistakenly perceive hostile intent from other people also ...perceive similar threat from virtual characters. However, there has been no study of the programming characteristics of virtual characters that may influence their interpretation. We set out to investigate how the animation and expressions of virtual humans may affect paranoia. In a two-by-two factor, between-groups, randomized design, 122 individuals with elevated paranoia rated their perceptions of virtual humans, set in an eye-tracking enabled VR lift scenario, that varied in facial animation (static or animated) and expression (neutral or positive). Both facial animation (group difference = 102.328 51.783, 152.872, p < 0.001, $${\eta }_{p}^{2}\hspace{0.17em}$$ η p 2 = 0.125) and positive expressions (group difference = 53.016 0.054, 105.979, p = 0.049, $${\eta }_{p}^{2}\hspace{0.17em}$$ η p 2 = 0.033) led to less triggering of paranoid thoughts about the virtual humans. Facial animation (group difference = 2.442 − 4.161, − 0.724, p = 0.006, $${\eta }_{p}^{2}\hspace{0.17em}$$ η p 2 = 0.063) but not positive expressions (group difference = 0.344 − 1.429, 2.110, p = 0.681, $${\eta }_{p}^{2}\hspace{0.17em}$$ η p 2 = 0.001) significantly increased the likelihood of neutral thoughts about the characters. Our study shows that the detailed programming of virtual humans can impact the occurrence of paranoid thoughts in VR. The programming of virtual humans needs careful consideration depending on the purpose of their use.
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