4,807 research outputs found
The effects of reducing worry in patients with persecutory delusions: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial
No full textBACKGROUND: Our approach to advancing the treatment of psychosis is to focus on key single symptoms and develop interventions that target the mechanisms that maintain them. In our theoretical research we have found worry to be an important factor in the development and maintenance of persecutory delusions. Worry brings implausible ideas to mind, keeps them there, and makes the experience distressing. Therefore the aim of the trial is to test the clinical efficacy of a cognitive-behavioral intervention for worry for patients with persecutory delusions and determine how the worry treatment might reduce delusions.METHODS: An explanatory randomized controlled trial - called the Worry Intervention Trial (WIT) - with 150 patients with persecutory delusions will be carried out. Patients will be randomized to the worry intervention in addition to standard care or to standard care. Randomization will be carried out independently, assessments carried out single-blind, and therapy competence and adherence monitored. The study population will be individuals with persecutory delusions and worry in the context of a schizophrenia spectrum diagnosis. They will not have responded adequately to previous treatment. The intervention is a six-session cognitive-behavioral treatment provided over eight weeks. The control condition will be treatment as usual, which is typically antipsychotic medication and regular appointments. The principal hypotheses are that a worry intervention will reduce levels of worry and that it will also reduce the persecutory delusions. Assessments will be carried out at 0 weeks (baseline), 8 weeks (post treatment) and 24 weeks (follow-up). The statistical analysis strategy will follow the intention-to-treat principle and involve the use of linear mixed models to evaluate and estimate the relevant between- and within-subjects effects (allowing for the possibility of missing data). Both traditional regression and newer instrumental variables analyses will examine mediation. The trial is funded by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC)/NHS National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) Programme.DISCUSSION: This will be the first large randomized controlled trial specifically focused upon persecutory delusions. The project will produce a brief, easily administered intervention that can be readily used in mental health services.Trial registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN23197625
Daniel Howard House
No full textQueen Anne style house built by Daniel H. Howard (1836-1909), carpenter, New Hanover County deputy sheriff and jailer; board member of the Wilmington, Wrightsville and Onslow Railroad, the Knights of Wise Men and Giblem Lodge No. 2, of the Free and Accepted Prince Hall Masons; and wife, Elizabeth Freeman (1832-1902). Property remained in the family for seventy years
Book Review: The Economic Structure of Corporate Law by Frank H. Easterbrook and Daniel R. Fischel
No full textIn their book The Economic Structure of Corporate Law, Frank H. Easterbrook, a judge for the Seventh Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals and a former law professor at the University of Chicago, and Daniel R. Fischel, the Lee and Brena Freeman Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, have very effectively brought economic analysis to bear on corporate law problems. The result is another impressive demonstration of the combination of theoretical argument and close attention to supporting data (usually in the form of stock market event studies) which has become characteristic of the economic and financial literature on the corporation over the last two decades
Book Review: The Economic Structure of Corporate Law by Frank H. Easterbrook and Daniel R. Fischel
No full textIn their book The Economic Structure of Corporate Law, Frank H. Easterbrook, a judge for the Seventh Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals and a former law professor at the University of Chicago, and Daniel R. Fischel, the Lee and Brena Freeman Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, have very effectively brought economic analysis to bear on corporate law problems. The result is another impressive demonstration of the combination of theoretical argument and close attention to supporting data (usually in the form of stock market event studies) which has become characteristic of the economic and financial literature on the corporation over the last two decades
Cross-orientation masking is speed invariant between ocular pathways but speed dependent within them
No full textIn human (D. H. Baker, T. S. Meese, & R. J. Summers, 2007b) and in cat (B. Li, M. R. Peterson, J. K. Thompson, T. Duong, & R. D. Freeman, 2005; F. Sengpiel & V. Vorobyov, 2005) there are at least two routes to cross-orientation suppression (XOS): a broadband, non-adaptable, monocular (within-eye) pathway and a more narrowband, adaptable interocular (between the eyes) pathway. We further characterized these two routes psychophysically by measuring the weight of suppression across spatio-temporal frequency for cross-oriented pairs of superimposed flickering Gabor patches. Masking functions were normalized to unmasked detection thresholds and fitted by a two-stage model of contrast gain control (T. S. Meese, M. A. Georgeson, & D. H. Baker, 2006) that was developed to accommodate XOS. The weight of monocular suppression was a power function of the scalar quantity ‘speed’ (temporal-frequency/spatial-frequency). This weight can be expressed as the ratio of non-oriented magno- and parvo-like mechanisms, permitting a fast-acting, early locus, as befits the urgency for action associated with high retinal speeds. In contrast, dichoptic-masking functions superimposed. Overall, this (i) provides further evidence for dissociation between the two forms of XOS in humans, and (ii) indicates that the monocular and interocular varieties of XOS are space/time scale-dependent and scale-invariant, respectively. This suggests an image-processing role for interocular XOS that is tailored to natural image statistics—very different from that of the scale-dependent (speed-dependent) monocular variety
sj-docx-1-jop-10.1177_02698811221092506 – Supplemental material for Individual and combined effects of cannabidiol and Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol on striato-cortical connectivity in the human brain
No full textSupplemental material, sj-docx-1-jop-10.1177_02698811221092506 for Individual and combined effects of cannabidiol and Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol on striato-cortical connectivity in the human brain by Matthew B Wall, Tom P Freeman, Chandni Hindocha, Lysia Demetriou, Natalie Ertl, Abigail M Freeman, Augustus PM Jones, Will Lawn, Rebecca Pope, Claire Mokrysz, Daniel Solomons, Ben Statton, Hannah R Walker, Yumeya Yamamori, Zixu Yang, Jocelyn LL Yim, David J Nutt, Oliver D Howes, H Valerie Curran and Michael AP Bloomfield in Journal of Psychopharmacology</p
Understanding jumping to conclusions in patients with persecutory delusions: working memory and intolerance of uncertainty
No full textBackground. Persecutory delusions are a key psychotic experience. A reasoning style known as ‘jumping to conclusions’ (JTC) – limited information gathering before reaching certainty in decision making – has been identified as a contributory factor in the occurrence of delusions. The cognitive processes that underpin JTC need to be determined in order to develop effective interventions for delusions. In the current study two alternative perspectives were tested: that JTC partially results from impairment in information-processing capabilities and that JTC is a motivated strategy to avoid uncertainty.Method. A group of 123 patients with persistent persecutory delusions completed assessments of JTC (the 60:40 beads task), IQ, working memory, intolerance of uncertainty, and psychiatric symptoms. Patients showing JTC were compared with patients not showing JTC.Results. A total of 30 (24%) patients with delusions showed JTC. There were no differences between patients who did and did not jump to conclusions in overall psychopathology. Patients who jumped to conclusions had poorer working memory performance, lower IQ, lower intolerance of uncertainty and lower levels of worry.Working memory and worry independently predicted the presence of JTC.Conclusions. Hasty decision making in patients with delusions may partly arise from difficulties in keeping information in mind. Interventions for JTC are likely to benefit from addressing working memory performance, while in vivo techniques for patients with delusions will benefit from limiting the demands on working memory. The study provides little evidence for a contribution to JTC from top down motivational beliefs about uncertainty
A comparative analysts of Diderot's Jacques le fataliste and Sterne's Tristram Shandy, 1972
No full textThe principal aim of the paper is to point out the similarities and contrasts In the novels Jacques le fataliste and The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. Gentlemen. The author wishes to show that Denis Diderot, brilliant man of letters in France as well as a philosopher, and Laurence Sterne, English writer, expressed many similar thoughts and ideas in the forementioned novels. If the goal is achieved, it will be seen to what extent Diderot borrowed from Sterne. The paper consists of four chapters. Chapter one is entitled Background of the Eighteenth Century with subtitles of (a) "Background of the Century," (b) "The Life of Denis Diderot" and (c) �The Life of Laurence Sterne." The second and third chapters fora the principal part of the study. The second chapter is a detailed analysis of Diderot's Jacques le fataliste. The discussion of Jacques le fataliste consists of three points! (1) a summary of the novel, (2) the novel broken down into divisions and (3) an examination of Diderot�s objectives, themes, characters and style of writing. The third chapter le divided in a similar manner. The analysis includes three parts (1) a summary of the novel, (2) the divisions of the novel end (3) e discussion of Sterne's objectives, themes, characters and techniques. In both chapters an effort Is made to show the authors* criticisms of the existing Institutions of the eighteenth century. The last chapter is devoted to a comparison of the two novels based upon the analyses presented la the previous chapters. Products of the same century, both Sterne and Diderot treat the same themes differently. Sterne employs humor and sentiment and Diderot uses a heavy moralizing tone
Freeman, Daniel H. (1849 - 1931)
No full textThis biographical summary was created by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) between 1936 and 1939
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