Psychosis may arise from the brain incorrectly assigning novelty and importance to ordinary objects and associations, a process linked to dopamine's role in reward prediction and motivational salience. Antipsychotics block dopamine receptors, reducing this aberrant salience and creating a state of detachment from symptoms rather than eradicating them. Contrary to the idea of a delayed onset, improvement is evident within the first few days. The framework accounts for existing data and questions assumptions about antipsychotic action, including their effects in animal models, where they dampen both aberrant and normal motivational salience.
Individuals with higher schizotypal traits and more daytime psychotic-like experiences tend to report more negative and salient dreams. The study suggests that these psychological characteristics extend into dream content, linking waking-life subclinical psychotic experiences with dream features.
Hypnagogic (occurring while falling asleep) and hypnopompic (occurring while waking up) hallucinations are common in the general population but can also be early signs of psychotic disorders. This paper argues that these experiences should be carefully considered in clinical high-risk assessments for psychosis, as they may help identify individuals who could benefit from early intervention. The authors suggest that these hallucinations are often overlooked or misattributed, and they propose them as important targets for future research to improve early detection and treatment of psychosis.
A pilot study examined a mindful cognitive enhancement training program for individuals with psychosis. The intervention aimed to improve cognitive function and mindfulness skills. Results suggested that participants who completed the training showed improvements in certain cognitive measures and reported increased mindfulness. The small sample size and lack of a control group limit the generalizability of these preliminary findings. The authors propose that mindful cognitive enhancement may be a feasible and potentially beneficial approach for addressing cognitive difficulties in psychosis, warranting further investigation in larger, controlled trials.