Paranoia and unusual sensory experiences in Parkinson's disease.

Objectives: There has been limited exploration into the nature and development of psychotic experiences (PEs) in Parkinson's disease (PD). We aimed to comprehensively assess the frequency, severity, and associated distress of paranoia and unusual sensory experiences (USEs) in PD, and to assess what variables are significantly associated with these experiences, focussing on psychological processes central to understanding PEs in non-PD groups.

Method: A questionnaire battery was completed by 369 individuals with PD with a mean age of 66 years and mean time since diagnosis of 5 years.

Daydreaming and grandiose delusions: development of the Qualities of Daydreaming Scale.

Background: Daydreaming may contribute to the maintenance of grandiose delusions. Repeated, pleasant and vivid daydreams about the content of grandiose delusions may keep the ideas in mind, elaborate the details, and increase the degree of conviction in the delusion. Pleasant daydreams more generally could contribute to elevated mood, which may influence the delusion content.

Efficiency, Precision, Validity, and Reliability of GlauCAT-Asian Computerized Adaptive Tests in Measuring Glaucoma-Related Quality of Life.

Purpose: To determine the efficiency, precision, and agreement of GlauCAT-Asian and its corresponding validity and reliability.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 219 participants (mean ± standard deviation age, 66.59 ± 8.

Explaining paranoia: cognitive and social processes in the occurrence of extreme mistrust.

Background: Paranoia-incorrectly thinking that others are deliberating trying to harm you-causes distress, undermines social interactions and leads to withdrawal. It presents across multiple psychiatric diagnoses.

Objective: The primary aim was to determine the extent that cognitive and social processes may explain paranoia.

Measuring dissociation across adolescence and adulthood: developing the short-form Černis Felt Sense of Anomaly scale (ČEFSA-14).

Background: Dissociation may be important across many mental health disorders, but has been variously conceptualised and measured. We introduced a conceptualisation of a common type of dissociative experience, 'felt sense of anomaly' (FSA), and developed a corresponding measure, the Černis Felt Sense of Anomaly (ČEFSA) scale.

Aims: We aimed to develop a short-form version of the ČEFSA that is valid for adolescent and adult respondents.

Validating the Unmind Index as a measure of mental health and wellbeing among adults in USA, Australia, and New Zealand.

Background: The Unmind Index is a 26-item, 7-subscale measure of mental health and wellbeing designed for use on the Unmind digital workplace mental health platform. The Unmind Index was developed and validated in the UK but is used internationally. This paper reports further psychometric validation of this measure for use in USA, Australia, and New Zealand (ANZ).

Measuring glaucoma quality of life in an Asian population using item banking: psychometric evaluation and computerized adaptive testing simulations.

Purpose: To assess the psychometric properties of glaucoma-specific health-related quality of life (HRQoL) item banks (IBs), and explore their efficiency using computerized adaptive testing (CAT) simulations.

Methods: In this cross-sectional, clinical study, 300 Asian glaucoma patients answered 221 items within seven IBs: Ocular Comfort Symptoms (OS); Activity Limitation (AL); Lighting (LT); Mobility (MB); Glaucoma Management (GM); Psychosocial (PSY); and Work (WK). Rasch analysis was conducted to assess each IB's psychometric properties (e.

The Oxford Agoraphobic Avoidance Scale.

Background: Agoraphobic avoidance of everyday situations is a common feature in many mental health disorders. Avoidance can be due to a variety of fears, including concerns about negative social evaluation, panicking, and harm from others. The result is inactivity and isolation.

The Oxford Positive Self Scale: psychometric development of an assessment of cognitions associated with psychological well-being.

Background: Developing, elaborating, and consolidating positive views of the self is a plausible route to increased psychological well-being. We set out to provide an assessment of positive self-beliefs that could be used in research and clinical practice.

Methods: A non-probability online survey was conducted with 2500 UK adults, quota sampled to match the population for age, gender, ethnicity, income, and region.

The Difficulties of Grandiose Delusions: Harms, Challenges, and Implications for Treatment Engagement.

Background And Hypothesis: Grandiose delusions may entail difficult responsibilities and detrimental actions for patients. Recognition of these consequences by patients may provide an avenue for engagement in treatment. Furthermore, when patients carry out actions within the delusional system ("immersion behaviors") or spend considerable time thinking about their grandiose beliefs this may contribute to the persistence of the grandiosity and further harmful consequences.

Developing a sentence level fairness metric using word embeddings.

Fairness is a principal social value that is observable in civilisations around the world. Yet, a fairness metric for digital texts that describe even a simple social interaction, e.g.

COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Australian Patients with Solid Organ Cancers.

Background: Vaccination is the cornerstone of the global public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Excess morbidity and mortality of COVID-19 infection is seen in people with cancer. COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy has been observed in this medically vulnerable population, although associated attitudes and beliefs remain poorly understood.

Listening to and Believing Derogatory and Threatening Voices.

Background And Hypothesis: A plausible cause of distress for voice hearers is listening to and believing the threats and criticisms heard. Qualitative research indicates that patients have understandable reasons to listen. This study aimed to develop the understanding of distress using this listening and believing framework.

Serious Underlying Medical Conditions and COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: A Large Cross-Sectional Analysis from Australia.

As COVID-19 vaccinations became available and were proven effective in preventing serious infection, uptake amongst individuals varied, including in medically vulnerable populations. This cross-sectional multi-site study examined vaccine uptake, hesitancy, and explanatory factors amongst people with serious and/or chronic health conditions, including the impact of underlying disease on attitudes to vaccination. A 42-item survey was distributed to people with cancer, diabetes, or multiple sclerosis across ten Australian health services from 30 June to 5 October 2021.

The Disease Influenced Vaccine Acceptance Scale-Six (DIVAS-6): Validation of a Measure to Assess Disease-Related COVID-19 Vaccine Attitudes and Concerns.

Patients with underlying comorbidities are particularly vulnerable to poor outcomes from SARS-CoV-2 infection. Despite the context-specific nature of vaccine hesitancy, there are currently no scales that incorporate disease or treatment-related hesitancy factors. We developed a six-item scale assessing disease-related COVID-19 vaccine attitudes and concerns (The Disease Influenced COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance Scale-Six: DIVAS-6).

Virtual reality (VR) therapy for patients with psychosis: satisfaction and side effects.

Background: Automated virtual reality therapies are being developed to increase access to psychological interventions. We assessed the experience with one such therapy of patients diagnosed with psychosis, including satisfaction, side effects, and positive experiences of access to the technology. We tested whether side effects affected therapy.

Understanding agoraphobic avoidance: the development of the Oxford Cognitions and Defences Questionnaire (O-CDQ).

Background: Many patients with mental health disorders become increasingly isolated at home due to anxiety about going outside. A cognitive perspective on this difficulty is that threat cognitions lead to the safety-seeking behavioural response of agoraphobic avoidance.

Aims: We sought to develop a brief questionnaire, suitable for research and clinical practice, to assess a wide range of cognitions likely to lead to agoraphobic avoidance.

General intelligence disentangled via a generality metric for natural and artificial intelligence.

Success in all sorts of situations is the most classical interpretation of general intelligence. Under limited resources, however, the capability of an agent must necessarily be limited too, and generality needs to be understood as comprehensive performance up to a level of difficulty. The degree of generality then refers to the way an agent's capability is distributed as a function of task difficulty.

Injection fears and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.

Background: When vaccination depends on injection, it is plausible that the blood-injection-injury cluster of fears may contribute to hesitancy. Our primary aim was to estimate in the UK adult population the proportion of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy explained by blood-injection-injury fears.

Methods: In total, 15 014 UK adults, quota sampled to match the population for age, gender, ethnicity, income and region, took part (19 January-5 February 2021) in a non-probability online survey.

Effects of different types of written vaccination information on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the UK (OCEANS-III): a single-blind, parallel-group, randomised controlled trial.

Background: The effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccination programme depends on mass participation: the greater the number of people vaccinated, the less risk to the population. Concise, persuasive messaging is crucial, particularly given substantial levels of vaccine hesitancy in the UK. Our aim was to test which types of written information about COVID-19 vaccination, in addition to a statement of efficacy and safety, might increase vaccine acceptance.

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the UK: the Oxford coronavirus explanations, attitudes, and narratives survey (Oceans) II.

Background: Our aim was to estimate provisional willingness to receive a coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine, identify predictive socio-demographic factors, and, principally, determine potential causes in order to guide information provision.

Methods: A non-probability online survey was conducted (24th September-17th October 2020) with 5,114 UK adults, quota sampled to match the population for age, gender, ethnicity, income, and region. The Oxford COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy scale assessed intent to take an approved vaccine.

Maximizing the Potential of Patient-Reported Assessments by Using the Open-Source Concerto Platform With Computerized Adaptive Testing and Machine Learning.

Patient-reported assessments are transforming many facets of health care, but there is scope to modernize their delivery. Contemporary assessment techniques like computerized adaptive testing (CAT) and machine learning can be applied to patient-reported assessments to reduce burden on both patients and health care professionals; improve test accuracy; and provide individualized, actionable feedback. The Concerto platform is a highly adaptable, secure, and easy-to-use console that can harness the power of CAT and machine learning for developing and administering advanced patient-reported assessments.

Computerized Adaptive Tests: Efficient and Precise Assessment of the Patient-Centered Impact of Diabetic Retinopathy.

Purpose: Evaluate efficiency, precision, and validity of RetCAT, which comprises ten diabetic retinopathy (DR) quality of life (QoL) computerized adaptive tests (CATs).

Methods: In this cross-sectional clinical study, 183 English and/or Mandarin-speaking participants with DR (mean age ± standard deviation [SD] 56.4 ± 11.

The assessment of paranoia in young people: Item and test properties of the Bird Checklist of Adolescent Paranoia.

Background: Precise assessment tools for psychotic experiences in young people may help identify symptoms early and facilitate advances in treatment. In this study we provide an exemplar - with a paranoia scale for youth - for improving measurement precision for psychotic experiences using item response theory (IRT). We evaluate the psychometric properties of the new measure, test for measurement invariance, and assess its potential for computerised adaptive testing (CAT).