There has been growing awareness of the high prevalence of negative cognitions about the self in patients with persecutory delusions, and it has been proposed that paranoid fears build upon these perceived vulnerabilities. This study aimed to investigate for the first time a wide range of different conceptualisations of the negative self, and to examine associations with suicidal ideation, in p...

In this paper we address the ethics of adopting delusional beliefs and we apply consequentialist and deontological considerations to the epistemic evaluation of delusions. Delusions are characterised by their epistemic shortcomings and they are often defined as false and irrational beliefs. Despite this, when agents are overwhelmed by negative emotions due to the effects of trauma or previous a...

The impact of our desires and preferences upon our ordinary, everyday beliefs is well-documented [Gilovich, T. (1991). How we know what isn't so: The fallibility of human reason in everyday life. New York: The Free Press.]. The influence of such motivational factors on delusions, which are instances of pathological misbelief, has tended however to be neglected by certain prevailing models of de...

PURPOSE To compare the prevalence of delusions in different stages in Taiwanese patients with very mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD). METHODS A consecutive series of 91 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease visited the dementia clinic in a regional hospital in mid-Taiwan were enrolled in this study. All patients were examined with the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI), the Cogniti...

Gestures are an important aspect of non-verbal communication, but people with schizophrenia have poor comprehension of them. However, the tests of gesture comprehension that have been used present only scenes in which interpersonal meaning is communicated, though there is evidence that people with psychotic disorders tend to perceive communications where none were intended. Such mistakes about ...

Abstract Delusions are usually considered as harmful and dysfunctional beliefs, one of the primary symptoms a psychiatric illness mark madness in popular culture. However, recent times much more positive role has been advocated for delusions. More specifically, it argued that delusions might be an (imperfect) answer to problem rather than problems themselves. By delivering psychological epistem...

IMPORTANCE Psychotic persons who are violent often explain their violence as being due to delusions. However, research has failed to confirm associations between delusions and violent behavior. OBJECTIVES To investigate which delusional beliefs and characteristics are associated with violent behavior during a first episode of psychosis and whether these associations are mediated by affect due...

Family studies of schizophrenia frequently include relatives of schizophrenia probands with diagnoses falling within the schizophrenia spectrum. As part of an ongoing genetic linkage study of schizophrenia, the authors examined case material from 50 relatives (of schizophrenia probands) who received a DSM-III-R diagnosis of a nonaffective psychotic disorder or schizotypal or paranoid personalit...

Over the past decades, delusions have become the subject of growing and productive research spanning clinical and cognitive neurosciences. Despite this, the nature of belief, which underpins the construct of delusions, has received little formal investigation. No account of delusions, however, would be complete without a cognitive level analysis of belief per se. One reason for this neglect is ...

This article attempts to explore the genesis of the world’s end (Apocalyptic) delusions. Religious ideas of the world end given in the Sacred Scripture is found in the content of delusions but is added with inclusion of modern signs and description of the apocalypse, produced in delusional thinking of contemporary patients suffering from schizophrenia and related disorders. 295 patients sufferi...