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Geriatrie Et Psychologie... Sep 2019
Topics: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Alzheimer Disease; Delusions; Dementia; Geriatrics; Humans
PubMed: 31449047
DOI: 10.1684/pnv.2019.0818 -
Clinical Psychology Review Aug 2019Many reasoning biases that may contribute to delusion formation and/or maintenance are common in healthy individuals. Research indicating that reasoning in the general... (Review)
Review
Many reasoning biases that may contribute to delusion formation and/or maintenance are common in healthy individuals. Research indicating that reasoning in the general population proceeds via analytic processes (which depend upon working memory and support hypothetical thought) and intuitive processes (which are autonomous and independent of working memory) may therefore help uncover the source of these biases. Consistent with this possibility, recent studies imply that impaired conflict processing might reduce engagement in analytic reasoning, thereby producing reasoning biases and promoting delusions in individuals with schizophrenia. Progress toward understanding this potential pathway to delusions is currently impeded by ambiguity about whether any of these deficits or biases is necessary or sufficient for the formation and maintenance of delusions. Resolving this ambiguity requires consideration of whether particular cognitive deficits or biases in this putative pathway have causal primacy over other processes that may also participate in the causation of delusions. Accordingly, the present manuscript critically evaluates whether impaired conflict processing is the primary initiating deficit in the generation of reasoning biases that may promote the development and/or maintenance of delusions. Suggestions for future research that may elucidate mechanistic pathways by which reasoning deficits might engender and maintain delusions are subsequently offered.
Topics: Conflict, Psychological; Delusions; Humans; Thinking
PubMed: 31226640
DOI: 10.1016/j.cpr.2019.101748 -
Psychiatry Research Oct 2019The Dutch version of the Visual Hallucination Questionnaire was used to assess lifetime visual hallucinations (VH) characteristics in 27 patients with psychosis. Our... (Clinical Trial)
Clinical Trial
The Dutch version of the Visual Hallucination Questionnaire was used to assess lifetime visual hallucinations (VH) characteristics in 27 patients with psychosis. Our results confirmed substantial variance in many VH characteristics. Most patients reported multiple VH types. Complex VH were most prevalent, mainly consisting of people and animals, followed by simple, then geometric VH. Few patients experienced only simple VH. The VH generally had features resembling real perceptions. Insight was usually reduced. VH ranged from 'appropriate' and neutral to peculiar and delusion-associated. VH accompanied by fright and sound seem to be related to experiencing complex or multiple types of VH.
Topics: Adult; Delusions; Female; Hallucinations; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Netherlands; Prevalence; Psychotic Disorders; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 31446216
DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2019.112517 -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Sep 2017"Delusions" are beliefs that are false and persistent. It is suggested here that these characteristics can emerge from interplays between two fundamental learning... (Review)
Review
"Delusions" are beliefs that are false and persistent. It is suggested here that these characteristics can emerge from interplays between two fundamental learning processes: (1) the allocation of attentional resources among stimuli; and (2) the effects of feedback on learning. The former of these has been operationalized in the learned irrelevance and latent inhibition paradigms; the latter in studies of the effects of persistence-training. Normally, the attentional process functions to constrain persistence-training effects so that only valid associations acquire persistence. But when persistence-training is less influenced in this way, its mechanisms can interact with a noisy environment to gradually insulate maladaptive associations from disconfirming feedback. When unchecked, these dynamics likely lead to a systematic distortion of beliefs that can become increasingly persistent regardless of their validity. Delusions are therefore predicted to tend to arise whenever the balance of (1) is weakened in favour of (2), whether by experimental manipulation, trait-related factors, cultural causes or evolutionary history. Existing evidence is consistent with the model and further implications are discussed.
Topics: Conditioning, Psychological; Delusions; Humans; Models, Psychological
PubMed: 28601666
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.05.024 -
Consciousness and Cognition May 2020Cognitive neuropsychiatry is a branch of cognitive psychology that seeks to explain neuropsychiatric symptoms in terms of disruptions or damage to normal cognitive... (Review)
Review
Cognitive neuropsychiatry is a branch of cognitive psychology that seeks to explain neuropsychiatric symptoms in terms of disruptions or damage to normal cognitive processes. A key objective of this approach is to use insights derived from the study of pathological symptoms to inform accounts of premorbid cognitive systems. Delusions, in particular, can be considered to represent dysfunction of the cognitive processes underlying belief formation, so studying delusions may provide unique insights into nonpathological belief. While this approach has provided compelling accounts for a range of delusions in terms of putative cognitive dysfunctions, it is less clear that it has achieved progress in its reciprocal goal of informing understanding of belief more generally. In this review, we trace the origins of the cognitive neuropsychiatric approach and consider the reasons for the lack of progress. We propose a tentative framework to overcome these challenges and suggest directions for future research.
Topics: Cognitive Dysfunction; Cognitive Neuroscience; Delusions; Humans; Neuropsychiatry; Neuropsychology; Thinking
PubMed: 32334355
DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2020.102935 -
The International Journal of... Oct 2015The delusional experience is the result of a grave disjunction in the psyche whose outcome is not readily predictable. Examination of the specific mode of disjunction... (Review)
Review
The delusional experience is the result of a grave disjunction in the psyche whose outcome is not readily predictable. Examination of the specific mode of disjunction may help us understand the nature and radical character of delusion. I will present the therapy of a psychotic patient who after many years of analysis and progresses in his life continues to show delusional episodes although limited and contained. In his case, the two visions, one delusional and the other real, remain distinct and differentiated from each other because they both possess the same perceptual character, that of reality. He has a bi-ocular vision of reality and not a binocular one because his vision lacks integration, as would necessarily be the case if the two visions could be compared with each other. The principle of non-contradiction ceases to apply in delusion. A corollary of the failure of the principle of non-contradiction is that, if a statement and its negation are both true, then any statement is true. Logicians call this consequence the principle of explosion. For this reason, the distinction between truth, reality, improbability, probability, possibility and impossibility is lost in the delusional system, thus triggering an omnipotent, explosive mechanism with a potentially infinite progression. The paper presents some thoughts for a possible analytic transformation of the delusional experience.
Topics: Adult; Delusions; Humans; Male; Psychoanalytic Therapy; Psychotic Disorders; Vision, Binocular
PubMed: 26298703
DOI: 10.1111/1745-8315.12317 -
Soins. Psychiatrie 2023When we talk about the clinic of delusional symptoms, we are first and foremost affirming that delusions exist. Professionals working in psychiatry know that delusions...
When we talk about the clinic of delusional symptoms, we are first and foremost affirming that delusions exist. Professionals working in psychiatry know that delusions can be listened to, that they give meaning to suffering and are part of the history of the subject. Taking the time to reflect on this type of symptom allows us to invest in the clinical field specific to psychiatry, and only makes sense if the clinical approach is based on work referring to the patient's individual history. Maintaining and developing these attitudes to care is essential to the survival of psychiatry as a discipline. Focusing on the clinic of delusion is neither a luxury nor a waste of time.
Topics: Humans; Delusions; Psychiatry
PubMed: 37743085
DOI: 10.1016/j.spsy.2023.07.003 -
Der Nervenarzt Jan 2018The symptom "delusions" is a central psychopathological symptom in psychiatric diseases. Since the beginning of psychiatry various disciplines have attempted to explain... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
The symptom "delusions" is a central psychopathological symptom in psychiatric diseases. Since the beginning of psychiatry various disciplines have attempted to explain and understand delusions but even now no generally accepted definition of this phenomenon exists.
AIM
A comprehensive review of current psychopathological and neurobiological theories of delusions is given.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
PubMed and Google scholar searches were performed using the keywords "delusion", "psychodynamic" and "neurobiology", both in English and German. Relevant German textbooks of psychiatry were also included.
DISCUSSION
A differentiated perspective of the phenomenon of delusions appears to be necessary to approach this complex and fascinating symptom. A one-dimensional approach does not do justice to the complexity of delusions. The various explanatory approaches can increasingly be linked to each other and are no longer considered to be mutually exclusive.
Topics: Capgras Syndrome; Delusions; Diagnosis, Differential; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; Early Diagnosis; Early Medical Intervention; Gestalt Theory; Humans; International Classification of Diseases; Neurocognitive Disorders; Psychoanalytic Theory; Psychopathology; Psychotic Disorders; Schizophrenic Psychology; Social Adjustment; Theory of Mind
PubMed: 28251242
DOI: 10.1007/s00115-017-0296-0 -
Comprehensive Psychiatry Apr 2021Two of Europe's most influential psychopathologists at the start of the twentieth century (Eugen Bleuler and Karl Jaspers) pointed out the fact that patients rarely act... (Review)
Review
OBJECTIVES
Two of Europe's most influential psychopathologists at the start of the twentieth century (Eugen Bleuler and Karl Jaspers) pointed out the fact that patients rarely act according to their delusions. This study proposes an investigation of how this issue is addressed in psychopathological literature.
METHODS
This article offers a critical review of psychopathological literature which focuses on the influence of delusional ideation on behaviour.
RESULTS
Phenomenological psychiatry has relied on the paradox pointed out by Bleuler and Jaspers to emphasize disorders of self-experience in psychosis whereas analytical philosophy of delusion has focused on the psychological status of delusion, regarded as belief, certainty, or imagination. The empirical studies conducted during the past three decades - which were devoted to acting on delusion - focused on violent and safety-seeking behaviours. These studies have shown that these behavioural disorders are motivated by an emotional outburst (anger and/or fear) rather than by delusional content.
CONCLUSION
Delusional inconsequentiality can be clarified by conceptual research in phenomenological psychiatry and analytical philosophy, even though its role in the psychopathological processes has not yet been clearly identified or conceptualised. Empirical psychopathology on acting on delusion confirms the delusional inconsequentiality, but only implicitly, by highlighting the role of affectivity (rather than beliefs) in delusional actions. Given the major implications of better understanding this phenomenon, in terms of psychopathology and clinical practices, we suggest considering delusional inconsequentiality as a promising concept which could guide further research in contemporary psychopathology.
Topics: Delusions; Humans; Psychiatry; Psychopathology; Psychotic Disorders; Thinking
PubMed: 33581447
DOI: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2021.152230 -
Current Neurology and Neuroscience... Jun 2019Delusional misidentification syndromes (DMS) include conditions in which a false belief about the identity of a person, place, or object occurs in the context of... (Review)
Review
PURPOSE OF REVIEW
Delusional misidentification syndromes (DMS) include conditions in which a false belief about the identity of a person, place, or object occurs in the context of psychiatric or neurological disorders. One form of DMS involves the delusion that the patient's mirror image is a separate individual. This review of reported cases characterizes the psychiatric, neuropathological, and neuropsychological aspects of DMS for the mirror image. An individual case presentation highlights the patient's subjective experience. Finally, the impact of this syndrome on the sense of self is considered.
RECENT FINDINGS
Mirror DMS is a persistent delusion that occurs in the context of neurological illness. It is associated with right hemisphere impairment and a variety of neuropsychological and neuroimaging abnormalities. This phenomenon contributes to our understanding of a range of neurobehavioral syndromes that can be classified as neuropathologies of the self (NPS). DMS for the mirror image is a neurobehavioral syndrome in which the inability to recognize oneself in the mirror entails neurological, neuropsychological, as well as psychiatric aspects of the sense of self.
Topics: Capgras Syndrome; Delusions; Humans
PubMed: 31250123
DOI: 10.1007/s11910-019-0972-5