Sleep-Related Hallucinations.

The diagnostic category of sleep-related hallucinations (SRH) replaces the previous category of Terrifying Hypnagogic Hallucinations in the 2001 edition of International Classification of Sleep Disorders-R. Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations (HHH) that occur in the absence of other symptoms or disorder and, within the limits of normal sleep, are most likely non-pathological. By contrast, complex nocturnal visual hallucinations (CNVH) may reflect a dimension of psychopathology reflecting different combinations of etiologic influences.

Clozapine-related tachycardia: A conundrum to identify and treat.

Objective: This study examined the rates and persistence of clozapine-induced tachycardia and heart-rate differences in patients treated with β-blockers in the largest sample of patients with a psychotic disorder to date.

Method: An audit of medical files for 101 patients who attended a clozapine community clinic and analysis of monthly measurements of resting heart rates.

Results: 51% met the clinical criteria for tachycardia.

Reasons for non-attendance in youth mental health clinics: Insights from mobile messaging communications.

Aim: Non-attendance at appointments in youth mental health services is a common problem which contributes to reduced service effectiveness and unmet needs. Reasons cited by young people for non-attendance are poorly understood. Information derived from short-message-service (SMS) conversations about appointments between patients and clinicians can uncover new insights about the circumstances leading to 'did not attend' events.

Weight changes in people with early psychosis treated with oral or long-acting injectable aripiprazole.

Objectives: Weight gain remains a major problem in young people with psychosis treated with antipsychotic medication. Aripiprazole is now available in monthly long-acting injection (LAI) and daily oral tablet formulation, but information is lacking about differences in weight gain between the two formulations. We monitored for up to 24 months the weight changes associated with oral or LAI-administered aripiprazole and in a group who not prescribed any antipsychotic medication.

The future of hallucination research: Can hallucinogens and psychedelic drugs teach us anything?

Hallucinations are one of the most interesting and least understood of all human experiences. This commentary addresses the ideas which most influenced my thinking in the past 20 years and what I believe to be the most currently promising area of enquiry. Interest in hallucinations reaches far back into antiquity and across cultures.

Clozapine Therapy and COVID-19: A Systematic Review of the Prevalence Rates, Health Outcomes, Hematological Markers, and Patient Perspectives.

Background/objectives: There have been concerns that clozapine treatment may undermine the capacity of the body to fight infection and increase the vulnerability to contracting COVID-19. This review of recent cohort studies investigated (1) whether people with a severe psychiatric disorder are at increased risk of COVID-19 and complications, (2) the immunological response of clozapine-users who contract COVID-19, and (3) patients' perspectives on COVID-19 and the pandemic response.

Methods: A systematic search of EMBASE, Medline, Pubmed, and PsycINFO databases using PRISMA guidelines using "COVID-19", "clozapine", and "vaccination" terms.

Implementing telepsychiatry in an early psychosis service during COVID-19: Experiences of young people and clinicians and changes in service utilization.

Aim: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, our early psychosis program rapidly transitioned to telepsychiatry. This study examined the change in health service utilization and experiences of young people and clinicians in response to the implementation of telepsychiatry.

Methods: Mixed methodology and triangulation of evidence drawn from health service databases and survey data.

Visual phenomenology in schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder: an exploratory study.

Background: Visual experiences such as hallucinations are commonly reported by people with psychosis, psychological trauma and dissociative states, although questions remain about their similarities and differences. For diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, clinical research must better delineate and compare the characteristics of these experiences in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and in schizophrenia.

Aims: To compare visual phenomena and dissociation in participants with a primary psychotic illness and those with a trauma diagnosis.

Aripiprazole in young people with early psychosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of weight gain.

Objective: Aripiprazole is often prescribed to young people, although there remain unanswered questions about its effects on weight gain. This study undertook a meta-analysis of weight gain occurring in young people with early psychosis who were prescribed aripiprazole.

Method: A systematic search was conducted for studies reporting on aripiprazole and weight change in young people with a psychotic disorder.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea Is Treatable With Continuous Positive Airway Pressure in People With Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a highly prevalent condition in people living with schizophrenia or other psychotic disorder. Its treatment with continuous positive airway pressure therapy (CPAP) can dramatically improve daytime and physical health function. People with a psychotic disorder, however, are rarely diagnosed and treated and there are no large-scale studies showing evidence of successful treatment with CPAP.

Visual hallucinations in psychiatry - what aren't we seeing?

Objective: To increase awareness of practising clinicians and researchers to the phenomenological distinctions between visual hallucinations and trauma-based, dissociative, visual re-experiencing phenomena seen in psychiatric disease.

Conclusions: The experience of visual hallucinations is not exclusive to psychotic disorders in psychiatry. Different forms of experiences that resemble visual hallucinations may occur in patients with a trauma background and may potentially affect diagnosis.

Time Distortions: A Systematic Review of Cases Characteristic of Alice in Wonderland Syndrome.

Of the perceptual distortions characteristic of Alice in Wonderland syndrome, substantial alterations in the immediate experience of time are probably the least known and the most fascinating. We reviewed original case reports to examine the phenomenology and associated pathology of these time distortions in this syndrome. A systematic search in PubMed, Ovid Medline, and the historical literature yielded 59 publications that described 168 people experiencing time distortions, including 84 detailed individual case reports.

Addressing the psychological impact of COVID-19 on healthcare workers: learning from a systematic review of early interventions for frontline responders.

Objectives: Protecting healthcare workers from psychological harm is an urgent clinical issue within the current COVID-19 pandemic. Research on early psychological programmes that aim to prevent or reduce mental health symptoms and that have been tested in frontline responders may assist service providers with choosing a suitable intervention for rapid dissemination in healthcare settings.

Design And Outcome Measures: First, Embase, Web of Science, PsycINFO and Google Scholar were searched through a systematic literature review of early psychological interventions administered to frontline responders in the last 15 years.

A Retrospective Evaluation of a Pilot Youth Community Assessment and Treatment Service.

Objective: Targeted, highly accessible early intervention for youths with emerging and complex psychiatric presentations is increasingly needed. The Youth Community Assessment and Treatment Team (YCATT) multidisciplinary service was established to provide intensive intervention for youths in Perth, Australia.

Methods: The authors conducted a retrospective evaluation to examine YCATT's impact on emergency department (ED) visits, psychiatric inpatient admissions, and provision of care for youths in the transition period between adolescent and adult psychiatric services.

Hallucination, imagery, dreaming: reassembling stimulus-independent perceptions based on Edmund Parish's classic misperception framework.

Within the broad field of human perception lies the category of stimulus-independent perceptions, which draws together experiences such as hallucinations, mental imagery and dreams. Traditional divisions between medical and psychological sciences have contributed to these experiences being investigated separately. This review aims to examine their similarities and differences at the levels of phenomenology and underlying brain function and thus reassemble them within a common framework.

The time course of psychotic symptom side effects of ketamine in the treatment of depressive disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: Ketamine is a potential rapid-acting treatment for depression. Studies have suggested that the side effects are minimal and temporary, but the psychotic symptom side effects have yet to be fully examined. This study investigated whether ketamine infusion in the treatment of mood disorders is associated with increases in positive symptoms and whether these symptom effects endure over time.

Emergency department mental health presentations before and during the COVID-19 outbreak in Western Australia.

Objective: Coronavirus (COVID-19) has led to high levels of psychological distress in the community. This study aimed to examine whether emergency departments (EDs) also recorded a rise in mental health presentations.

Method: Changes in the number, and type, of mental health presentations to Western Australia EDs were examined between January and May 2020, and compared to 2019.

Hallucinations Under Psychedelics and in the Schizophrenia Spectrum: An Interdisciplinary and Multiscale Comparison.

The recent renaissance of psychedelic science has reignited interest in the similarity of drug-induced experiences to those more commonly observed in psychiatric contexts such as the schizophrenia-spectrum. This report from a multidisciplinary working group of the International Consortium on Hallucinations Research (ICHR) addresses this issue, putting special emphasis on hallucinatory experiences. We review evidence collected at different scales of understanding, from pharmacology to brain-imaging, phenomenology and anthropology, highlighting similarities and differences between hallucinations under psychedelics and in the schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.

A Review of Multimodal Hallucinations: Categorization, Assessment, Theoretical Perspectives, and Clinical Recommendations.

Hallucinations can occur in different sensory modalities, both simultaneously and serially in time. They have typically been studied in clinical populations as phenomena occurring in a single sensory modality. Hallucinatory experiences occurring in multiple sensory systems-multimodal hallucinations (MMHs)-are more prevalent than previously thought and may have greater adverse impact than unimodal ones, but they remain relatively underresearched.

Weight gain and metabolic screening in young people with early psychosis on long acting injectable antipsychotic medication (aripiprazole vs paliperidone).

Aim: Long-acting injectable (LAI)antipsychotics are often used in psychosis to assist with medication compliance and relapse prevention, although the weight gain and metabolic effects in young people are yet to be examined. This study examined the long-term effects of aripiprazole and paliperidone in LAI formulation on weight gain and metabolic parameters in young people with early episode psychosis.

Methods: Weight gain and other metabolic effects of aripiprazole and paliperidone in LAI formulation were examined in 59 young people with early episode psychosis over a 12-month period.

Exploring the relationship between auditory hallucinations, trauma and dissociation.

Background: It is clinically imperative to better understand the relationship between trauma, auditory hallucinations and dissociation. The personal narrative of trauma has enormous significance for each individual and is also important for the clinician, who must use this information to decide on a diagnosis and treatment approach.

Aims: To better understand whether dissociation contributes in a significant way to hallucinations in individuals with and without trauma histories.

Different patterns of treatment response to Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) in psychosis.

People with psychosis benefit enormously from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBTI), although some variability exists in treatment outcomes. While recent efforts have focused on profiling sleep at treatment initiation, an alternative methodological approach involves using treatment response as a starting point to better understand what constitutes an effective treatment. This study used Grade of Membership analysis (GoM) to estimate the occurrence of unique treatment outcomes and associated patient characteristics.

Physiotherapists' views about providing physiotherapy services to people with severe and persistent mental illness: a mixed methods study.

Questions: What perceptions do physiotherapists have about their role in managing the physical health of people with severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI)? What are the barriers to treating physical health conditions in this clinical population, and what enablers may improve access to physiotherapy services?

Design: Mixed-methods research design combining focus groups, interviews and an online survey.

Participants: Eighty-eight Australian registered physiotherapists: 31 in the focus groups and interviews (mean age 32 years, 68% female) and 57 in the survey (mean age 38 years, 86% female).

Methods: Focus groups and interviews explored participants' understanding of mental illness; their role in managing the physical health of people with SPMI; and the barriers and enablers to service delivery.