Cognitive models of psychosis posit that reasoning biases are an important mechanism contributing to the formation of psychotic symptoms, in part through transforming anomalous experiences of aberrant salience into frank psychotic symptoms. This study aimed to investigate the interplay of liberal acceptance (LA) bias, which is a specific type of reasoning bias, and momentary aberrant salience...
The self-disorder model offers a unifying way of conceptualizing schizophrenia's highly diverse symptoms (positive, negative, disorganized), of capturing their distinctive bizarreness, and of conceiving their longitudinal development. These symptoms are viewed as differing manifestations of an underlying disorder of ipseity or core-self: hyper-reflexivity/diminished-self-presence with...
Abstract Background The Cannabis Experiences Questionnaire (CEQ) was developed to measure the subjective experiences of cannabis use both during and after intoxication. Despite the need to better understand the nature of the complex and significant relationship between cannabis use and early psychosis, this questionnaire has rarely been used in individuals with first-episode psychosis. Methods...
Abstract Background Patients presenting to psychiatric services with their first episode of psychosis (FEP) report higher rates of previous cannabis use than the general population (Donoghue et al., 2011; Myles, Myles and Large, 2016). Evidence suggested that patients suffering from psychosis with a history of cannabis use have an earlier age of onset of psychosis (AOP) than those who never...
Abstract Background The ZNF804A gene and cannabis use are risk factors for psychosis, both of which have also been associated with schizotypic traits. This study aimed to test whether ZNF804A (rs1344706) modulates the relation between cannabis use and schizotypy levels in a general population sample. Methods The sample consisted of 389 Spanish non-clinical subjects (43% males, mean...
Schizophrenia BulletinApril 1, 2018Luccas Coutinho, Cinthia H Higuchi, Daniel A. Cavalcante et al.
Abstract Background Psychotic disorders induced by cannabis may present distinct symptomatic profile, course and underlying biology. Most studies on symptomatic effects of cannabis exposure are limited by examining patients after antipsychotic treatment. We investigated if antipsychotic naive FEP patients that reported cannabis use present higher symptom’s severity and if affects deferentially...
Abstract Background Cannabis use, particularly regular use in adolescence, is associated with an increased risk of developing psychosis earlier. An earlier age of onset negates the protective effects of more mature psychosocial and individual variables, thus the potential for worse outcomes. Genetic variations in this relationship are important to understand as this will allow not only a better...
Abstract Background Patients with first episode psychosis (FEP) frequently report cannabis use although its effects on cognitive functioning are still unclear. Several studies suggest a decrease in the executive function, verbal memory and working memory of FEP cannabis users (González-Pinto et al., 2016; Mata et al. 2008) while other studies show improvements in the neurocognitive function of...
Abstract Background In recent years, the effect of cannabis use on cognitive functions in patients with psychosis has been widely studied, but results are somewhat contradictory. On the other hand, it has also been studied the relevance of the age of onset of consume, suggesting that the early age of onset of consumption may be related to a greater cognitive impairment. Methods 349 patients...
Abstract Background Cannabis use remains the most widely used recreational drug worldwide. Following from several USA states legalisation policies, European countries are reconsidering their cannabis laws. While a significant amount of Epidemiological evidence has reported that cannabis use increases the risk of psychosis it is still unclear: 1) what underpins individual differences in...
Abstract Background Long-term use of cannabis has long been associated with changes in cognition, including memory and learning, particularly verbal learning in man. However, evidence regarding the neurobiological underpinnings of impairments in memory following long-term cannabis use has not been consistent. Furthermore, to our knowledge none of the studies published to date have specifically...
Abstract Background Cannabis has been associated with higher risk to develop psychosis and worse long-term outcomes. Cannabis use in 2016 is estimated to be 11.3% in Chile in 2016 (SENDA 2016). As in many other countries, cannabis use has steadily increased during last 20 years, across all socioeconomic groups, but especially in men and in the group aged 12 to 25 years old. At the same time,...
The mirror-gazing task (MGT) experimentally induces illusions, ranging from simple color changes in the specular image of oneself, to depersonalization-like anomalous self-experiences (ASE) as in experiencing one's specular image as someone else. The objective was to characterize how connectivity in resting-state networks (RSNs) differed in adolescents reporting such depersonalization-like ASEs...
Background: There is evidence for a group of nonclinical individuals with full-blown, persistent psychotic experiences (PEs) but no need-for-care: they are of particular importance in identifying risk and protective factors for clinical psychosis. The aim of this study was to investigate whether reasoning biases are related to PEs or need-for-care. Method: Two groups with persistent PEs...
In recent decades, embodiment has become an influential concept in psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Embodiment denotes the study of the reciprocal (causal) relationships between mind and body, with the mind not only affecting the body but also vice versa. Embodied cognition comes to the fore in sensorimotor coupling, predictive coding, and nonverbal behavior. Additionally, the embodiment...
Time is an essential feature in bipolar disorder (BP). Manic and depressed BP patients perceive the speed of time as either too fast or too slow. The present article combines theoretical and empirical approaches to integrate phenomenological, psychological, and neuroscientific accounts of abnormal time perception in BP. Phenomenology distinguishes between perception of inner time, ie,...
Overall Abstract: Dr Marta Di Forti Cannabis use across Europe and its interaction with the polygenic risk score for schizophrenia. Dr Di Forti examined the pattern of cannabis use across 16 European sites as part of the EU-GEI study. She will show striking differences in incidence of psychosis (high in North and low in South), and how differences in pattern of cannabis use result in...
Hearing voices that are not present is a prominent symptom of serious mental illness. However, these experiences may be common in the non-help-seeking population, leading some to propose the existence of a continuum of psychosis from health to disease. Thus far, research on this continuum has focused on what is impaired in help-seeking groups. Here we focus on protective factors in...
Schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) and dissociative disorders (DDs) are described in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-5) and tenth edition of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) as 2 categorically distinct diagnostic categories. However, several studies indicate high levels of...
There has been great interest in the hallucination-like events experienced by the general nonclinical population. Many psychiatric scientists have come to identify these as part of a "psychotic continuum" and have begun to ask what we might learn from these experiences that will enable us to better understand and treat psychosis. While sympathetic to this goal, this paper argues that many of...
Hallucinations constitute one of the 5 symptom domains of psychotic disorders in DSM-5, suggesting diagnostic significance for that group of disorders. Although specific featural properties of hallucinations (negative voices, talking in the third person, and location in external space) are no longer highlighted in DSM, there is likely a residual assumption that hallucinations in schizophrenia...
The very presence of hallucinations raises puzzling and fascinating questions about reality … However, my real questioning did not fully occur until the voices started, which was once again a gradual process … When the voices occurred, I perceived them as omnipotent and omniscient … To me, auditory-verbal hallucinations are the result of thought processes of which I am unaware. Humpston 2014...
Recent findings have provided preliminary support for the notion that basic self-disturbances (SD) are related to prodromal symptoms among nonpsychotic help-seeking adolescents. As a sizable proportion of adolescents who are at risk do not seek help, this study attempts to assess the extent to which these findings can be generalized to the entire population of adolescents who are at risk for...
This special theme in Schizophrenia Bulletin on Hallucinations includes three interdisciplinary articles presented at the International Consortium on Hallucination Research (ICHR) meeting in Melbourne, Australia, October 2015. 1 A common theme recapitulated through each of the reports relates to refining and/or improving our conceptualization and understanding of brain mechanisms and dynamics,...
Self-disorders (SDs) (from the German Ichstörungen) are alterations of the first-person perspective, long associated with schizophrenia, particularly in early phases. Although psychopathological features of SDs continue to be studied, their neurobiological underpinnings are unknown. This makes it difficult to integrate SDs into contemporary models of psychosis. The present review aims to...