Metacognitive training (MCT) is a new, widely used intervention for psychosis. The present meta-analysis examines the efficacy of MCT in schizophrenia. Fifteen studies comparing effects of MCT on positive symptoms, delusions or acceptance of MCT with a control group were included in this meta-analysis. These studies comprised a total of 408 patients in the MCT condition and 399 in the control c...

The presence of delusions, a significant feature of many schizophrenic patients, implies a disturbance of reality testing. Through descriptions of a number of organic delusion syndromes featuring frontal damage, and a theory of prefrontal functions, a correlation of schizophrenic delusions and prefrontal malfunctions is postulated.

We report four cases (three women, one man) having delusions of pregnancy seen over a four month period at a short - stay in-patient facility in a General Hospital Psychiatry Department. None had organic factors and all could be explained on the basis of psychological mechanisms. Delusions of pregnancy may not be as uncommon as was previously believed.

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...

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 ...

Patients who are falsely convinced that a parasite has invaded their body are extremely difficult to treat. They are at once desperate for help and disdainful of efforts to help them. They insist that anti-infective medication be prescribed, but they are dubious that it will be effective. These patients despair of finding a credulous physician, and they continue to seek different therapies to c...