Publications by authors named "Aikaterini Rammou"

Limited research has explored the specific impact of voice-hearing experiences upon the social relating of adolescents. This study examined the associations of voice-hearing in youth with social relating, and putative explanatory factors. An observational, cross-sectional design using a clinical comparison group was employed to examine historical and concurrent associations with voice-hearing.

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Introduction: Due to the general psychopathological vulnerability of young people who hear distressing voices, research has stressed the importance for clinicians to assess this experience in youth. Nonetheless, the limited literature on the topic comes from studies with clinicians in adult health services and it primarily reports that clinicians do not feel confident in systematically assessing voice-hearing and doubt the appropriateness of doing so. We applied the Theory of Planned Behavior and identified clinicians' job attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and perceived subjective norms as putative predictors of their intent to assess voice-hearing in youth.

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Objectives: Little is known about the factors that can maintain the distress related to voice-hearing experiences in youth. Building upon understandings developed with adults, this study aimed to explore the associations between negative relating between hearer and voices, persecutory beliefs about voices and voice-related distress in a clinical sample of adolescents. The study also aimed to investigate associations between relating to voices and wider patterns of social relating.

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Background: The effectiveness of psychological treatments for auditory hallucinations ('voices') needs to be enhanced. Some forms of novel treatment are working within relational frameworks to support patients to relate assertively to distressing voices. Yet, no measure of assertive relating to voices is available to assess the extent to which this skill is developed during therapy.

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Hallucinations in children and adolescents are now known to occur on a continuum from healthy to psychopathology-related phenomena. Although hallucinations in young populations are mostly transient, they can cause substantial distress. Despite hallucinations being widely investigated, research so far has had limited implications for clinical practice.

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The experience of hearing voices ('auditory hallucinations') can cause significant distress and disruption to quality of life for people with a psychosis diagnosis. Psychological therapy in the form of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for psychosis is recommended for the treatment of positive symptoms, including distressing voices, but is rarely available to patients in the United Kingdom. CBT for psychosis has recently evolved with the development of symptom-specific therapies that focus upon only one symptom of psychosis at a time.

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Aim: Negative symptoms (NS) have been associated with poor outcome and remain difficult to treat in patients with psychosis. This study examined the association of NS with clinical features at first presentation to mental health services for psychosis and with outcomes at 1-year follow-up.

Methods: Clinical data were utilized from five London Early Intervention Services (EIS) included in the MiData audit database.

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