bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Persecutory delusions: developing the understanding of belief maintenance and emotional distress
Authors: FREEMAN D. , GARETY P. A. , KUIPERS E. 
Published: October 2003

Background. The objective of the study was to develop the cognitive understanding of persecutory delusions. It was hypothesized that safety behaviours contribute to the persistence of persecutory delusions by preventing disconfirmation. It was further hypothesized that emotional distress is associated with aspects of the content of delusions. An investigation was designed to establish whether individuals with persecutory delusions use safety behaviours, and to test predicted associations between delusion content and emotional distress.Method. A cross-sectional investigation was conducted on 25 individuals with persecutory delusions. A detailed assessment was made of the presence of safety behaviours, the content of delusions and emotional distress.Results. All participants had used at least one safety behaviour in the last month, most typically avoidance. Higher levels of anxiety were associated with greater use of safety behaviours. New data were obtained on the content of persecutory delusions. Aspects of the content of the delusions were associated with levels of depression, self-esteem, anxiety and delusional distress.Conclusions. Individuals with persecutory delusions use safety behaviours. The findings may develop the understanding of delusion persistence, acting upon delusions and the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. There are implications for cognitive interventions for psychosis. Support was also found for the hypothesis that emotional distress is linked to the content of delusional beliefs; it is speculated that prior emotional distress influences the content of delusions, and that delusion content in turn influences levels of emotional distress.
Diagnostic outcome of self-reported hallucinations in a community sample of adolescents
Authors: DHOSSCHE D. , FERDINAND R. , VAN DER ENDE J. , HOFSTRA M. B. , VERHULST F. 
Published: October 2003

Objective. We aimed to assess the diagnostic outcome of self-reported hallucinations in adolescents from the general population.Method. The sample consisted of 914 adolescents between ages 11–18 participating in an ongoing longitudinal study. The participation rate from the original sample was 70%. Responses on the Youth Self-Report questionnaire were used to ascertain hallucinations in adolescents. Eight years later, Axis 1 DSM-IV diagnoses were assessed using the 12-month version Composite International Diagnostic Interview in 783 (86%) of 914 study subjects. No subjects were diagnosed with schizophreniform disorders or schizophrenia.Results. Hallucinations were reported by 6% of adolescents and 3% of young adults. Self-reported hallucinations were associated with concurrent non-psychotic psychiatric problems in both age groups. Adolescents who reported auditory, but not visual, hallucinations, had higher rates of depressive disorders and substance use disorders, but not psychotic disorders, at follow-up, compared to controls.Conclusions. Self-reported auditory hallucinations in adolescents are markers of concurrent and future psychiatric impairment due to non-psychotic Axis 1 disorders and possibly Axis 2 disorders. It cannot be excluded that there was selective attrition of children and adolescents who developed Schizophrenic or other psychotic disorders later in life.
Frequent attenders in secondary care: a 3-year follow-up study of patients with medically unexplained symptoms
Authors: REID S. , CRAYFORD T. , PATEL A. , WESSELY S. , HOTOPF M. 
Published: October 2003

Background. There are few longitudinal studies of patients with medically unexplained symptoms. The aim of this study was to investigate outcome in frequent attenders in secondary care who present repeatedly with medically unexplained symptoms.Method. Forty-eight patients presenting with medically unexplained symptoms, from a sample of 61, participated in a 3-year follow-up study. Psychiatric morbidity, functional impairment and use of services were evaluated.Results. At follow-up there was a high prevalence of psychiatric morbidity with 69% having at least one psychiatric diagnosis. The sample continued to be high users of a range of health services and substantial functional impairment was reported.Conclusion. In this group of frequent attenders with medically unexplained symptoms outcome as measured by psychiatric morbidity, service use and functional impairment remained poor after 3 years.
Does treatment delay in first-episode psychosis really matter?
Authors: HARRIGAN S. M. , McGORRY P. D. , KRSTEV H. 
Published: October 2003

Background. Relatively few predictors of outcome in first-episode psychosis are potentially malleable and duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) is one. However, the degree to which DUP is mediated by other predictors of outcome is unclear. This study examines the specific effects of DUP on 12-month outcome after adjusting for effects of potential confounders and moderating variables.Method. The sample comprised 354 first-episode psychosis patients followed up 12-months after remission/stabilization of their psychotic symptoms. Outcome measures included functional outcome, severity of positive symptoms and negative symptoms. Hierarchical multiple regression assessed whether DUP significantly predicted 12-month outcome after adjusting for other predictors. Contrast analysis further clarified the differential effects of DUP on 12-month outcome.Results. DUP remained a significant predictor of outcome after adjusting for the effects of other variables. This finding remained robust for the subset of patients with schizophrenia or schizophreniform disorder. Functional outcome appeared to decline substantially even after very short treatment delays (>7 days), with more gradual deterioration in functioning until very long DUP (>1 year). Good outcome was variably associated with good pre-morbid adjustment, female gender, diagnosis of affective disorder, short duration of prodromal symptoms, and treatment within the Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention model in contrast to other models of care.Conclusions. DUP consistently predicts outcome independently of other variables, and is not simply a proxy for other factors. As one of the few potentially malleable factors influencing outcome, DUP could prove to be a target for secondary preventive efforts in early psychosis.
Pattern of cognitive dysfunction in depressive patients during maintenance electroconvulsive therapy
Authors: RAMI-GONZÁLEZ L. , SALAMERO M. , BOGET T. , CATALAN R. , FERRER J. , BERNARDO M. 
Published: October 2003

Background. Objective data regarding adverse cognitive deficits associated with maintenance electroconvulsive therapy (M-ECT) are lacking. This study examined the cognitive state of depressive patients during M-ECT.Method. A cross-sectional study was carried out in 11 depressive patients in remission, all with a DSM-IV diagnosis of major depressive disorder. The mean number of previous ECT sessions was 36·1, and the mean intersession interval was 52·7 days. A group of 11 patients who had not received ECT was selected for comparison and matched for diagnosis, sex, age and years of schooling. All subjects were assessed using a complete neuropsychological battery including memory, attention and frontal function tests.Results. Groups did not present differences in long delay verbal recall. Encoding of new information and results on the frontal function tests were significantly lower in the M-ECT patients.Conclusion. Depressed patients preserve long-term memory, but suffer short-term memory impairment and frontal function alteration during M-ECT. Further longitudinal studies are necessary to determine the influence of M-ECT on non-memory functions and different memory subtypes.
Forward and backward visual masking in schizophrenia: influence of age
Authors: GREEN M. F. , NUECHTERLEIN K. H. , BREITMEYER B. , TSUANG J. , MINTZ J. 
Published: October 2003

Background. Visual masking tasks assess the earliest stages of visual processing. This study was conducted to address: (1) whether schizophrenia patients show masking deficits after controlling for sensory input factors; (2) whether patients have relatively intact forward masking (when the mask precedes the target) compared with backward masking (when the mask follows the target); and (3) whether the masking deficits in schizophrenia reflect an accelerated age-related decline in performance.Method. A staircase method was used to ensure that the unmasked target identification was equivalent across subjects to eliminate any confounding due to differences in discrimination of simple perceptual inputs. Three computerized visual masking tasks were administered to 120 schizophrenia patients (ages 18–56) and 55 normal comparison subjects (ages 19–54) under both forward and backward masking conditions. The tasks included: (1) locating a target; (2) identifying a target with a high-energy mask; and (3) identifying a target with a low-energy mask.Results. Patients showed deficits across all three masking tasks. Interactions of group by forward versus backward masking were not significant, suggesting that deficits in forward and backward masking were comparable. All three conditions showed an age-related decline in performance and rates of decline were comparable between patients and controls. Two of the masking conditions showed increased rates of decline in backward, compared to forward, masking.Conclusions. We found age-related decline in performance that was comparable for the two groups. In addition, we failed to find evidence of a relative sparing of forward masking in schizophrenia. These results suggest that: (1) early visual processing deficits in schizophrenia are not due to a simple perceptual input problem; (2) sustained channels are involved in the masking deficit (in addition to transient channels); and (3) for the age range in this study, these deficits in schizophrenia are not age-related.
Depression with late onset is associated with right frontal lobe atrophy
Authors: ALMEIDA O. P. , BURTON E. J. , FERRIER N. , McKEITH I. G. , O'BRIEN J. T. 
Published: October 2003

Background. The objective of this study was to determine whether older adults with first-ever onset of depression after age 60 years (late onset depression, LOD) have smaller frontal lobes than elderly patients with early-onset depression (EOD) and aged controls.Method. Twenty-seven subjects with LOD, 24 with EOD and 37 controls underwent volumetric MRI to determine right and left frontal lobe volumes and total brain volume.Results. The right frontal volume of subjects with LOD was 8·0% and 5·6% smaller than that of patients with EOD (P<0·01) and controls (NS) respectively. Volume of the left frontal lobe was not significantly different from EOD or controls. All analyses were adjusted for age, gender and total brain volume. Unlike controls and those with EOD, patients with LOD did not display a significant positive correlation between cognitive scores and total brain, left frontal or right frontal volumes.Conclusion. LOD is associated with right frontal lobe atrophy and loss of the correlation between cognitive performance and brain volume. This adds support to the fronto-striatal hypothesis of depression and suggests that structural brain changes have a particular role in cases of LOD.
Where is the forest? Where is the dream?
Authors: Greenberg Ramon 
Published: October 2003

In this commentary I discuss the importance of considering the isomorphism between the full richness of dreams and the great body of information about REM sleep that is amply documented in the five target articles. With this inclusive mode I point out the importance of looking at REM sleep as involving both pontine and cortical activity in an integrated network. We cannot have a full appreciation of sleep and dreaming (view of the forest) without taking both physiology and mental activity seriously.[Hobson et al., Nielsen, Revonsuo, Solms, Vertes & Eastman]
The illusory function of dreams: Another example of cognitive bias
Authors: Mealey Linda 
Published: October 2003

Patterns of dream content indicating a predominance of themes relating to threat are likely to reflect biases in dream recall and dream scoring techniques. Even if this pattern is not artifactual, it is yet reflective of threat-related biases in our conscious and nonconscious waking cognition, and is not special to dreams.[Revonsuo]
Post-traumatic nightmares as a dysfunctional state
Authors: Nielsen Tore A. , Germain Anne 
Published: October 2003

That PTSD nightmares are highly realistic threat simulations triggered by trauma is difficult to reconcile with the disturbed, sometimes debilitating sleep and waking functioning of PTSD sufferers. A theory that accounts for fundamental forms of imagery other than threat scenarios could explain the selection of many more adaptive human functions – some still pertinent to survival today. For example, interactive characters, a virtually ubiquitous form of dream imagery, could be simulations of attachment relationships that aid species survival in many different ways.[Revonsuo]
Evolutionary internalized regularities
Authors: Schwartz Robert 
Published: October 2003

Roger Shepard's proposals and supporting experiments concerning evolutionary internalized regularities have been very influential in the study of vision and in other areas of psychology and cognitive science. This paper examines issues concerning the need, nature, explanatory role, and justification for postulating such internalized constraints. In particular, I seek further clarification from Shepard on how best to understand his claim that principles of kinematic geometry underlie phenomena of motion perception.My primary focus is on the ecological validity of Shepard's kinematic constraint in the context of ordinary motion perception. First, I explore the analogy Shepard draws between internalized circadian rhythms and the supposed internalization of kinematic geometry. Next, questions are raised about how to interpret and justify applying results from his own and others' experimental studies of apparent motion to more everyday cases of motion perception in richer environments. Finally, some difficulties with Shepard's account of the evolutionary development of his kinematic constraint are considered.
THE DEBATE ON SONG IN THE ACCADEMIA FIORENTINA
Authors: Nosow Robert 
Published: October 2003

For James Haar on his 70th BirthdayThe sixteenth century in Italy was a time when academies of all kinds flourished as venues, and often as arbiters, of literature and high culture. A casual look at the academies might give the impression that they were mostly social in nature, that they functioned as a pastime for bored aristocrats and ambitious letterati. As originally constituted, the Accademia degli Umidi, founded 1 November 1540, indeed fitted this description, but with one difference characteristic of Florentine society - it was organised by twelve men of various social classes with a common interest in poetry and language. The academy expanded considerably under the patronage of Duke Cosimo I de' Medici and on 25 March 1541 was reconstituted as the Accademia Fiorentina. Its avowed purpose was to promote the Tuscan language as an instrument of literature and knowledge, in an age when mastery of Latin was required of any educated man. In advancing the cause of vernacular literature, the Accademia Fiorentina, like other academies of the time, greatly extended the programme of Italian humanism, making available the fruits of humanist thought and enquiry to a larger public.
Yes, ‘Awaken’, and the progressive rock style
Authors: PALMER JOHN R. 
Published: October 2003

Going for the One was a good rebirth of Yes at that time, to find its feet and really know what it wanted to do. And we made ‘Awaken’ . . . (Morse 1996, p. 58).Since the release of their third recording, The Yes Album, in March 1971, the music of the English band Yes has been associated with the rock music substyle called ‘progressive rock’. The first two Yes albums showcase a very capable, inventive group of musicians who drew freely from the multitude of sounds around them, emulating aspects of the various musical styles they found engaging. However, it was not until they composed the works appearing on The Yes Album that the band coupled this eclecticism with a quest for originality to develop a voice highly idiosyncratic when judged against prevailing popular music styles. Subsequent albums reveal a predeliction for experimentation and expansion, and successful record sales in both the UK and US encouraged further development in the same direction. Although not members of the ‘first wave’ of progressive rock bands, Yes became ‘codifiers’ and for many, especially later detractors, the flagship of the ‘progressive' fleet. Before I go on to describe and illustrate, through the analysis of a particular song, aspects of Yes's musical language, I will briefly describe the environment in which it appeared and flourished.
‘I learn English since ten years’: The global English debate and the German university classroom
Authors: Erling Elizabeth J. 
Published: October 2003

A report on German university students learning and working in English.WHEN A student produces a sentences like “I learn English since ten years” it can be
assumed that they haven't had a very good English teacher, that they may not, in fact, be
very good in English despite the amount of time they've spent learning the language.
However, some of my students may indeed produce a sentence like this. In the English Department
of the Freie Universität in Berlin, I teach students who have already studied English for
at least ten years by the time they enter university. And in order to study in our department,
the students must pass a proficiency-level entrance exam. These students then have English as
one of their major subjects, so their knowledge of the language is fairly sophisticated and their
contact with the language regular.
Teaching English in Taiwan: issues of inequality and low motivation
Authors: Yeh Aiden 
Published: October 2003

A discussion of the impact of parental demand on the terms of employment of imported native-speaking and local non-native-speaking teachers in private language schools.As more and more parents realize the importance
of learning the language at an early
stage, the teaching of English as a Foreign Language
(EFL) to young learners has become a
lucrative adventure for Taiwanese entrepreneurs.
Taiwanese students and parents alike
represent a stable and growing market, at least
for now. The demand for both Native Speaking
(NS) and Non-Native Speaking (NNS) teachers
is also on the rise and can certainly be attributed
to the flourishing EFL industry in Taiwan.
However, there is a distinctively huge difference
in the pay and reward policies and practices
for the two kinds of teacher. This article
touches on relatively sensitive issues concerning
NS/NNS as EFL teachers and as members of
staff.
FACTORS INFLUENCING HEALTH INSURERS' DECISIONS TO COVER NEW GENETIC
TECHNOLOGIES
Authors: Schoonmaker Michele M. , Bernhardt Barbara A. , Holtzman Neil A. 
Published: October 2003

Objective: To examine the relative importance of factors
influencing health insurers' coverage of new genetic technologies.Methods: A national survey in which the decision makers for
private health insurers were asked whether they would cover cystic fibrosis
(CF) carrier screening, testing for genetic susceptibility to breast cancer
(BRCA test), and medical costs of a clinical trial of gene therapy for CF
under a variety of conditions.Results: Respondents' coverage of the two tests and of
medical costs of clinical trials was low at the time of the study
(4%–15.5% of insurers.) Their coverage of CF carrier screening and BRCA
testing would be increased significantly if the group tested was restricted to
those at high risk, if detection rates were higher and costs lower, and if
testing was endorsed by a national professional group or consensus conference.
Coverage of the medical costs of a trial of CF gene therapy would be
significantly more likely if the trial was restricted to children or adults
with severe CF, safety and effectiveness was proven, and therapy could be
administered in a regional hospital or an outpatient setting rather than in a
research hospital.Conclusions: Health insurers play a critical role in the diffusion
of new genetic technologies. The validity of genetic tests and the safety and
effectiveness of new therapies are primary factors influencing health
insurers' coverage. Lower costs and approval of professional groups are
other factors associated with increased coverage.
INTRODUCTION: MASS SCREENING, HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT, AND HEALTH POLICY IN SOME EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
Authors: Oortwijn Wija , Banta H. David , Cranovsky Richard 
Published: October 2003

Objective: The series of papers in this issue was developed to examine the use of health technology assessment in policies toward prevention—specifically toward mass screening—in European countries. The papers actually examined three screening strategies: mammography screening for breast cancer, prostate-specific antigen screening for prostate cancer, and routine ultrasound in normal pregnancy.Methods: Papers were sought from the member states of the European Union, plus Switzerland. Ultimately, nine acceptable papers were received, and were reviewed, revised, and edited.Results: Screening is an accepted strategy in many countries for reducing the burden of disease through early detection and intervention. In part, this is because of successful screening programs that have been evaluated and implemented in many countries. At the same time, unevaluated and even useless and harmful screening programs—unjustified medically or economically—are widespread. Health technology assessment could help assure that only effective and cost-effective screening programs are implemented.Conclusion: The main conclusion is that screening is an important preventive strategy. Any screening program, however, should be carefully assessed before implementation.