The Association Between Change in Symptom Severity and Personal Recovery in Patients With Severe Mental Illness.

This study examined the relationship between change in symptom severity and personal recovery in patients with severe mental illness (SMI). Forty-nine outpatients at Mentrum/Arkin, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, were assessed at baseline and 3 years later, using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and the Mental Health Recovery Measure. Correlation coefficients and linear regression analyses were used.

Predicting clinical outcomes in a blended care intervention for early psychosis: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Daily-Life (ACT-DL).

ACT in Daily Life (ACT-DL) is a blended-care Ecological Momentary Intervention that extends ACT into the daily life of individuals, improving psychotic distress, negative symptoms, and global functioning. However, it remains unclear whether ACT-DL works equally for everyone. We investigated whether moderators (i.

Engagement and Acceptability of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Daily Life in Early Psychosis: Secondary Findings From a Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is promising in the treatment of early psychosis. Augmenting face-to-face ACT with mobile health ecological momentary interventions may increase its treatment effects and empower clients to take treatment into their own hands.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate and predict treatment engagement with and acceptability of acceptance and commitment therapy in daily life (ACT-DL), a novel ecological momentary intervention for people with an ultrahigh risk state and a first episode of psychosis.

Perspective matters in recovery: the views of persons with severe mental illness, family and mental health professionals on collaboration during recovery, a qualitative study.

Background: Recovery from severe mental illness, including psychosis has been described as a personal and unique process, but it rarely is a journey undertaken without profound influences of significant others (family, mental health professionals). Diverging perspectives between persons with severe mental illness, family and professionals are frequent during the recovery process, notably in psychotic disorders. We aimed to explore processes of collaboration during recovery, to inform recovery supporting practices.

Toward Equitable Interventions in Public Mental Health: A Review.

Importance: The field of public mental health is evolving to tackle the profound impact of global challenges such as climate change, migration, and health crises. These issues accentuate health and social inequities, necessitating a focus on how to achieve interventions that are equitable and enhance mental health across all societal strata.

Observations: Population-based interventions can inadvertently exacerbate mental health inequities if they are primarily assessed by, and beneficial to, the most advantaged.

Exploring the Interactions Between Psychotic Symptoms, Cognition, and Environmental Risk Factors: A Bayesian Analysis of Networks.

Background And Hypothesis: Psychotic disorders (PDs) have huge personal and societal impact, and efforts to improve outcomes in patients are continuously needed. Environmental risk factors (ERFs), especially modifiable risk factors, are important to study because they pose a target for intervention and prevention. No studies have investigated ERFs, cognition, and psychotic symptoms together in a network approach.

Response to psychotic experiences: Impact of personality traits on perceived levels of distress.

Background: This study examined the influence of personality traits on (subclinical) positive symptom distress in patients with a psychotic disorder, their unaffected siblings and healthy controls.

Methods: Data were obtained from the Genetic Risk and Outcome of Psychosis study (GROUP), a Dutch longitudinal multicenter cohort study. Data from 140 patients, 216 unaffected siblings and 102 healthy controls was available for baseline levels of Five Factor Model personality traits and frequency and distress due to psychotic experiences three years later, assessed with the Community Assessment of Psychic Experience questionnaire.

The relationship between substance use and self-reported aspects of social functioning in patients with a psychotic disorder.

Background: In patients with a psychotic disorder, rates of substance use (tobacco, cannabis, and alcohol) are higher compared to the general population. However, little is known about associations between substance use and self-reported aspects of social functioning in patients with a psychotic disorder.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study of 281 community-dwelling patients with a psychotic disorder, linear regression models were used to assess associations between substance use (tobacco, cannabis, or alcohol) and self-reported aspects of social functioning (perceived social support, stigmatization, social participation, or loneliness) adjusting for confounders (age, gender, and severity of psychopathology).

Higher emotion regulation flexibility predicts more stable negative emotions and faster affective recovery in early psychosis: an experience sampling study.

Background: While evidence shows that people with early psychosis are flexible in using different emotion regulation (ER) strategies to manage the varying contextual demands, no studies have examined the effectiveness of such regulatory flexibility in this population. We addressed this issue by investigating whether and how ER flexibility relate to different dynamic aspects (variability, instability, inertia, and recovery) of negative affect (NA) in a combined early psychosis sample, consisting of both individuals at high clinical risk for psychosis and those diagnosed with first-episode psychosis.

Methods: Participants were 148 individuals from the INTERACT project, a multi-center randomized controlled trial on the efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy in early psychosis.

The association between childhood trauma and tobacco smoking in patients with psychosis, unaffected siblings, and healthy controls.

In patients with psychosis, rates of tobacco smoking and childhood trauma are significantly higher compared to the general population. Childhood trauma has been proposed as a risk factor for tobacco smoking. However, little is known about the relationship between childhood trauma and smoking in psychosis.

The temporal association between social isolation, distress, and psychotic experiences in individuals at clinical high-risk for psychosis.

Background: Psychotic experiences (PEs) and social isolation (SI) seem related during early stages of psychosis, but the temporal dynamics between the two are not clear. Literature so far suggests a self-perpetuating cycle wherein momentary increases in PEs lead to social withdrawal, which, subsequently, triggers PEs at a next point in time, especially when SI is associated with increased distress. The current study investigated the daily-life temporal associations between SI and PEs, as well as the role of SI-related and general affective distress in individuals at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis.

The association between clinical, sociodemographic, familial, and environmental factors and treatment resistance in schizophrenia: A machine-learning-based approach.

Background: Prediction of treatment resistance in schizophrenia (TRS) would be helpful to reduce the duration of ineffective treatment and avoid delays in clozapine initiation. We applied machine learning to identify clinical, sociodemographic, familial, and environmental variables that are associated with TRS and could potentially predict TRS in the future.

Study Design: Baseline and follow-up data on trait(-like) variables from the Genetic Risk and Outcome of Psychosis (GROUP) study were used.

Emotion regulation in daily life in early psychosis: The role of contextual appraisals.

Background: Little is known about whether and how contextual appraisals relate to emotion regulation (ER) strategy use across the ultra-high risk and first episode stages of psychosis. The present study extends previous research by investigating the extent to which different appraisal dimensions of the most negative and positive events of the day are associated with ER strategy use in individuals with ultra-high risk (UHR) and first-episode psychosis (FEP).

Method: Sixty-eight UHR individuals and fifty-five FEP individuals filled out an experience sampling evening questionnaire for six consecutive days, in which their appraisal of intensity, importance and perceived control concerning the most negative or positive event of the day, and the ER strategies they deploy in response to these events were measured.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for individuals at risk for psychosis or with a first psychotic episode: A qualitative study on patients' perspectives.

Aim: The aim of this qualitative study is to explore patients' perspectives on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for early stages of psychosis. Therefore, we interviewed participants of the INTERACT study, that quantitatively investigated Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Daily Life (ACT-DL) in combination with treatment as usual, for early stages of psychosis, comparing it to treatment as usual.

Methods: Within 6 months after finishing ACT-DL, we conducted semi-structured, individual interviews with 19 participants.

Age-Related Social Cognitive Performance in Individuals With Psychotic Disorders and Their First-Degree Relatives.

Background: Social cognitive impairment is a recognized feature of psychotic disorders. However, potential age-related differences in social cognitive impairment have rarely been studied.

Study Design: Data came from 905 individuals with a psychotic disorder, 966 unaffected siblings, and 544 never-psychotic controls aged 18-55 who participated in the Genetic Risk and Outcome of Psychosis (GROUP) study.

Attachment Style and Self-Experience: The Association Between Attachment Style and Self-Reported Altered Self-Experience in Patients With Psychotic Disorders, Unaffected Siblings, and Healthy Controls.

The present study aimed to examine the cross-sectional association between attachment style and self-reported disturbed self-awareness (disturbed sense of mineness of experiences) and depersonalization (disturbed sense of first-person perspective) in patients with psychotic disorders, unaffected siblings, and healthy controls. Data pertain to a subsample of the GROUP (Genetic Risk and Outcome of Psychosis) study. We found positive associations between anxious attachment and disturbed self-awareness and depersonalization across participants with different psychosis vulnerability.

Personal recovery suits us all: A study in patients with non-affective psychosis, unaffected siblings and healthy controls.

Personal recovery transcends illness and is a unifying human experience. Core elements in personal recovery are hope, meaning, and rebuilding oneself. Here we aim to investigate whether factors associated with personal recovery in patients with non-affective psychosis, unaffected siblings and healthy controls are similar.

The association between attachment style and social functioning in patients with non-affective psychotic disorders, unaffected siblings and healthy controls.

Objective: In patients with psychotic disorders, insecure attachment styles and impaired social functioning are highly prevalent. Our aim was to explore the multi-cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between attachment style and social functioning.

Methods: This study was performed in a subsample of 119 patients with non-affective psychotic disorders, 128 unaffected siblings and 66 healthy controls within the Genetic Risk and Outcome of Psychosis (GROUP) Study.

Differential trajectories of tobacco smoking in people at ultra-high risk for psychosis: Associations with clinical outcomes.

Objective: People at ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis have a high prevalence of tobacco smoking, and rates are even higher among the subgroup that later develop a psychotic disorder. However, the longitudinal relationship between the course of tobacco smoking and clinical outcomes in UHR subjects is unknown.

Methods: We investigated associations between tobacco smoking and clinical outcomes in a prospective study of UHR individuals ( = 324).