BACKGROUND It has been previously demonstrated that a cognitive bias against disconfirmatory evidence (BADE) is associated with delusions. However, small samples of delusional patients, reliance on difference scores and choice of comparison groups may have hampered the reliability of these results. In the present study we aimed to improve on this methodology with a recent version of the BADE ta...

Emotional distress and reasoning biases are two factors known to contribute to delusions. As a step towards elucidating mechanisms underlying delusions, the main aim of this study was to evaluate a possible "jumping to new conclusions" reasoning bias in healthy people with delusional ideation and its association with emotions. We surveyed 80 healthy participants, measuring levels of depression,...

Delusional paranoia has been associated with severe mental illness for over a century. Kraepelin introduced a disorder called "paranoid depression," but "paranoid" became linked to schizophrenia, not to mood disorders. Paranoid remains the most common subtype of schizophrenia, but some of these cases, as Kraepelin initially implied, may be unrecognized psychotic mood disorders, so the relations...

Introduction Persistent delusional disorder has some features similar to schizophrenia, although the functionality of patients with this diagnosis is usually higher and diagnosed at an older age. Although pharmacological treatment schizophrenia been studied extensively, there not much data on persistent disorder. Regarding use clozapines specifically in disorders, are case reports encouraging r...

Although delusional statements in people with intellectual disabilities and traumatic brain injury can be treated using behavioral interventions, none have demonstrated long-term treatment effects. In the current study, a functional analysis demonstrated that delusional statements were maintained by attention. Differential reinforcement of alternative behavior and extinction of delusional state...

Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy has been recognised for almost two decades. This review considers the definition, clinical features, consequences (to both victim and perpetrator), diagnosis and outcome of the syndrome.

OBJECTIVE To examine the hypothesis that the "natural" combination of delusions and hallucinations in psychotic disorders in fact represents a selection of early subclinical hallucinatory experiences associated with delusional ideation, resulting in need for care and mental health service use. METHODS In the Early Developmental Stages of Psychopathology study, a prospective, 10-year follow-up...