Hearing voices: Explanations and implications

Integrating information on voice hearing from multiple disciplines and perspectives, we review current explanatory models and their implications for intervention strategies. Far from always signifying a mental illness, voice hearing may result from other causes, including drug side effects, brain lesions, and culturally-sanctioned phenomena. Accordingly, a wide range of assessment, intervention, and self-management strategies are available and appropriate. We conclude that by offering a diversity of treatment options, eliciting patients' causal theories, and incorporating these into an individualized treatment strategy, clinicians are likely to help clients control the distressing aspects of the voices, minimize stigma and discrimination, and make meaning of the experience

The Alzheimer's Disease Knowledge Scale: Development and Psychometric Properties

Purpose: This study provides preliminary evidence for the acceptability, reliability, and validity of the new Alzheimer's Disease Knowledge Scale (ADKS), a content and psychometric update to the Alzheimer's Disease Knowledge Test. Design and Methods: Traditional scale development methods were used to generate items and evaluate their psychometric properties in a variety of subsamples. Results: The final 30-item, true/false scale takes approximately 5–10 min to complete and covers risk factors, assessment and diagnosis, symptoms, course, life impact, caregiving, and treatment and management. Preliminary results suggest that the ADKS has adequate reliability (test–retest and internal consistency) and validity (content, predictive, concurrent, and convergent). Implications: The ADKS is designed for use in both applied and research contexts, capable of assessing knowledge about Alzheimer's disease among laypeople, patients, caregivers, and professionals