1,721,000 research outputs found
The effects of reducing worry in patients with persecutory delusions: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial
Full text linkBACKGROUND: 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
The interaction of affective with psychotic processes: A test of the effects of worrying on working memory, jumping to conclusions, and anomalies of experience in patients with persecutory delusions
No full textWorry has traditionally been considered in the study of common emotional disorders such as anxiety and depression, but recent studies indicate that worry may be a causal factor in the occurrence and persistence of persecutory delusions. The effect of worry on processes traditionally associated with psychosis has not been tested. The aim of the study was to examine the short-term effects of a bout of worry on three cognitive processes typically considered markers of psychosis: working memory, jumping to conclusions, and anomalous internal experience. Sixty-seven patients with persecutory delusions in the context of a non-affective psychotic disorder were randomised to a worry induction, a worry reduction, or a neutral control condition. They completed tests of the cognitive processes before and after the randomisation condition. The worry induction procedure led to a significant increase in worry. The induction of worry did not affect working memory or jumping to conclusions, but it did increase a range of mild anomalous experiences including feelings of unreality, perceptual alterations, and temporal disintegration. Worry did not affect the occurrence of hallucinations. The study shows that a period of worry causes a range of subtle odd perceptual disturbances that are known to increase the likelihood of delusions. It demonstrates an interaction between affective and psychotic processes in patients with delusions.<br/
An explanatory randomised controlled trial testing the effects of cognitive behaviour therapy for worry on persecutory delusions in psychosis: the Worry Intervention Trial (WIT)
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Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Bridging the gap between forensic and general clinical practice
No full textIn this chapter, the authors discuss some of the challenges of working with schema modes in forensic patients, and how to overcome them. They begin by presenting some of the main schema modes prevalent in forensic populations: the Bully and Attack, Conning Manipulator, Paranoid Overcontroller, Self-Aggrandiser and Predator modes, including a review of the research evidence regarding the prevalence of these modes in forensic settings and their link to violence and recidivism. The authors then present an interactive model, which explicates the effects of these modes on other people, such as the personnel in the institutions in which these patients reside. The model proposes that it is the interaction between patients’ modes and the reactions of treatment providers – that is, the modes which are triggered in reaction to patients’ modes – that are responsible for many of the impasses in therapy. The authors also explore the presence of these ‘forensic’ modes (in less severe forms) in the general clinical population and outline effective methods for working with these modes in both types of setting
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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