Understanding delusions

Insane Delusions

Persecutory delusions and catastrophic worry in psychosis: developing the understanding of delusion distress and persistence.

In a recent theoretical account of persecutory delusions, it is suggested that anxiety and worry are important factors in paranoid experience [Freeman, D., Garety, P. A., Kuipers, E., Fowler, D., & Bebbington, P. E. (2002). A cognitive model of persecutory delusions. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 41(4), 331-347]. In emotional disorders worry has been understood in terms of catastrophi...

Understanding jumping to conclusions in patients with persecutory delusions: working memory and intolerance of uncertainty.

BACKGROUND Persecutory delusions are a key psychotic experience. A reasoning style known as 'jumping to conclusions' (JTC) - limited information gathering before reaching certainty in decision making - has been identified as a contributory factor in the occurrence of delusions. The cognitive processes that underpin JTC need to be determined in order to develop effective interventions for delusi...

Delusions of parasitosis.

The most common monosymptomatic hypochondriacal psychosis encountered by a dermatologist is delusions of parasitosis. In this condition, patients have an "encapsulated" fixed, false belief that they are infested with parasites or have foreign objects extruding from their skin. The patient will often experience feelings of biting, crawling and stinging related to the delusion. Most patients do n...

Delusions in Young People

A delusion is usually decribed as an erroneous belief of the falseness of which its possessor cannot be persuaded of by reasoning nor by the evidence of his own senses, and which is contrary to the general belief of persons of his own race, age, standing and training. A person who believes that he can raise men from the dead or one who states that he is a canary or another who believes that he ...