Linguistic analysis of the valence, arousal and dominance of auditory hallucinations and internal thoughts in schizophrenia: Implications for psychoeducation and CBT

70% of patients with schizophrenia suffer from auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) which are frequently described as distressing and disabling. The content of AVH, in relation to internal thought, has never been linguistically tested in a self-monitoring study. The aim of this preliminary study was to establish if there was a significant difference between AVH and inner thoughts on the key linguistic parameters of valence (pleasantness), dominance (control) and arousal (intensity of emotion produced). Six volunteers with a diagnosis of schizophrenia from voice hearing support groups produced real-time, detailed diaries of AVH and inner thoughts using randomised/fixed timers. Analysis of content was completed using an established linguistic database. AVH were significantly more unpleasant and controlling but not more emotionally arousing than inner thoughts. Psychoeducation around the experience of hallucination in schizophrenia should include information that the voices will be significantly more unpleasant and controlling than their own thoughts but not more emotionally arousing. CBT might therefore include the use of compassion focussed techniques to help with the unpleasantness of AVH and schema level techniques to improve coping with the dominance of AVH

Human and data-driven design fictions: : Entering the near-future zone

© 2019 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under the Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Final Published versio

Generalized canonical ensembles and ensemble equivalence

This paper is a companion article to our previous paper (J. Stat. Phys. 119, 1283 (2005), cond-mat/0408681), which introduced a generalized canonical ensemble obtained by multiplying the usual Boltzmann weight factor $e^{-\beta H}$ of the canonical ensemble with an exponential factor involving a continuous function $g$ of the Hamiltonian $H$. We provide here a simplified introduction to our previous work, focusing now on a number of physical rather than mathematical aspects of the generalized canonical ensemble. The main result discussed is that, for suitable choices of $g$, the generalized canonical ensemble reproduces, in the thermodynamic limit, all the microcanonical equilibrium properties of the many-body system represented by $H$ even if this system has a nonconcave microcanonical entropy function. This is something that in general the standard ($g=0$) canonical ensemble cannot achieve. Thus a virtue of the generalized canonical ensemble is that it can be made equivalent to the microcanonical ensemble in cases where the canonical ensemble cannot. The case of quadratic $g$-functions is discussed in detail; it leads to the so-called Gaussian ensemble.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures (best viewed in ps), revtex4. Changes in v2: Title changed, references updated, new paragraph added, minor differences with published versio

A card game for the treatment of delusional ideas: A naturalistic pilot trial

BACKGROUND: "Michael's game" is a card game which aims at familiarizing healthcare professionals and patients with cognitive behavioral therapy of psychotic symptoms. This naturalistic study tests the feasibility and the impact of the intervention in various naturalistic settings. METHOD: Fifty five patients were recruited in seven centers. They were assessed in pre and post-test with the Peters Delusion Inventory – 21 items (PDI-21). RESULTS: Forty five patients completed the intervention significantly reducing their conviction and preoccupation scores on the PDI-21. CONCLUSION: This pilot study supports the feasibility and effectiveness of "Michael's game" in naturalistic setting. Additional studies could validate the game in a controlled fashion