Paranoia, Functioning, and the Moderating Effect of Well-Being in a Community Sample of Adolescents.

Introduction: Paranoid ideation is a relatively common experience in adolescence, yet it has not been well-explored in relation to psychological well-being and functioning in general population samples of youth. The current study aimed to investigate the relations between paranoia (operationalized as "persecutory ideation"), well-being, and two domains of functioning, social (e.g.

Revisiting Cognitive Deficits in Outpatients with Psychotic Disorders: A Transdiagnostic Comparison of Cognitive Performance While Accounting for Putative Confounding Factors.

Recent research suggests that cognitive deficits in individuals with psychotic disorders could be overestimated because poor cognitive test performance is partly attributable to non-cognitive factors. To further test this, we included non-hospitalized individuals with psychotic disorders (PSY, = 38), individuals with attenuated psychotic symptoms ( = 40), individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorders ( = 39), and healthy controls ( = 38). Relevant cognitive domains were assessed using the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery.

Linking Cognitive Integrity to Working Memory Dynamics in the Aging Human Brain.

Aging is accompanied by a decline of working memory, an important cognitive capacity that involves stimulus-selective neural activity that persists after stimulus presentation. Here, we unraveled working memory dynamics in older human adults (male and female) including those diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) using a combination of behavioral modeling, neuropsychological assessment, and MEG recordings of brain activity. Younger adults (male and female) were studied with behavioral modeling only.

Predicting the onset of psychotic experiences in daily life with the use of ambulatory sensor data - A proof-of-concept study.

Introduction: Predictive models of psychotic symptoms could improve ecological momentary interventions by dynamically providing help when it is needed. Wearable sensors measuring autonomic arousal constitute a feasible base for predictive models since they passively collect physiological data linked to the onset of psychotic experiences. To explore this potential, we investigated whether changes in autonomic arousal predict the onset of hallucination spectrum experiences (HSE) and paranoia in individuals with an increased likelihood of experiencing psychotic symptoms.

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far from the Tree? Paranoia and Safety Behaviours in Adolescent-Parent-Dyads.

Paranoia is a common experience in adolescence that may entail the use of safety behaviours (e.g. avoidance), which are assumed to maintain paranoia in the long run.

A Child-Parent Dyad Study on Adolescent Paranoia and the Influence of Adverse Life Events, Bullying, Parenting Stress, and Family Support.

Background: Paranoid beliefs commonly occur in the general adolescent population. Exposure to adverse life events (ALEs) and/or bullying are important environmental risk factors. The extent to which others, especially parents, are available to help a young person cope with stressful situations may offset this risk.

Effectiveness of a transdiagnostic emotion regulation training in an at-risk sample: a randomized-controlled trial of group-based training versus self-help bibliotherapy.

Objectives: Subclinical psychotic, depression, and anxiety symptoms form a transdiagnostic 'at-risk state' for the development of mental disorders. Emotion regulation has been identified as a transdiagnostic factor relevant to the formation of these symptoms that can be successfully addressed in clinical interventions. Here, we tested whether a group-based emotion regulation training would be effective in reducing distress and at preventing the transition to mental disorders in an at-risk sample.

Pinpointing affective disturbances in psychosis: A comparison of temporal affect dynamics in individuals with psychotic disorders, individuals with attenuated psychotic symptoms, and clinical and healthy controls.

Affective disturbances in psychosis are well-documented but our understanding of their phenotypic nature in everyday life remains limited. Filling this gap could advance mechanistic models of the affective pathway to psychosis and pave the ground for new research avenues. Therefore, this study focused on temporal affect dynamics in psychosis, i.

From Memories of Past Experiences to Present Motivation? A Meta-analysis on the Association Between Episodic Memory and Negative Symptoms in People With Psychosis.

Based on findings from cognitive science, it has been theorized that the reductions in motivation and goal-directed behavior in people with psychosis could stem from impaired episodic memory. In the current meta-analysis, we investigated this putative functional link between episodic memory deficits and negative symptoms. We hypothesized that episodic memory deficits in psychosis would be related to negative symptoms in general but would be more strongly related to amotivation than to reduced expressivity.

Aberrant adapting of beliefs under stress: a mechanism relevant to the formation of paranoia?

Background: Difficulties in the ability to adapt beliefs in the face of new information are associated with psychosis and its central symptom - paranoia. As cognitive processes and psychotic symptoms are both known to be sensitive to stress, the present study investigated the exact associations between stress, adapting of beliefs [reversal learning (RL), bias against disconfirmatory evidence (BADE), and jumping to conclusions (JTC)] and paranoia. We hypothesized that paranoia would increase under stress and that difficulties in adapting of beliefs would mediate or moderate the link between stress and paranoia.

Linking psychophysiological adaptation, emotion regulation, and subjective stress to the occurrence of paranoia in daily life.

As stress is relevant to the formation of paranoia, maladaptive behavioral and physiological stress regulation is discussed as a crucial indicator of vulnerability. This is supported by research linking psychosis to the tendency to make less use of functional and more use of dysfunctional emotion regulation strategies (ER) and with a lower vagally-mediated heart rate variability (HRV). However, it remains unclear whether ER serves as a mediator between resting-state HRV on the one hand and subjective stress levels and paranoia on the other and whether this is specific to paranoia as compared to depression.

The relevance of chronic stress for the acute stress reaction in people at elevated risk for psychosis.

Background: Theoretical models and empirical evidence suggest that alterations of the acute stress reaction are a vulnerability indicator of psychosis. However, more studies are needed that use laboratory stressors and a multimodal assessment of the stress reaction. Furthermore, it needs to be clarified whether alterations of the acute stress reaction result from the chronic stress level.

Effectiveness of emotion regulation in daily life in individuals with psychosis and nonclinical controls-An experience-sampling study.

Individuals with psychosis report employing more maladaptive and less adaptive emotion regulation (ER) strategies compared to nonclinical controls (NCs). However, it is unknown whether this is predictive of affect experienced in daily life and whether ER strategies are used less frequently and effectively by individuals with psychosis in daily life. Individuals with psychosis and current delusions (PDs; = 71) and NCs ( = 42) completed questionnaires of habitual ER and experience sampling over 6 consecutive days, in which they reported 10 times a day on the presence of negative and positive affect and deployment of ER strategies (reappraisal, acceptance, awareness, suppression, rumination, distraction, and social sharing).

Awareness and rumination moderate the affective pathway to paranoia in daily life.

Numerous cross-sectional studies found psychosis to be associated with less awareness of emotions, a decreased use of adaptive (e.g. reappraisal) and an increased use of maladaptive emotion regulation (ER) strategies (e.

Emotions and persecutory ideation in daily life: On the trail of the "chicken and egg" problem.

Etiological models highlight the importance of emotions for the emergence of persecutory ideation. To increase our understanding of their exacerbation, we tested whether this process can be explained by a vicious cycle of negative emotions and persecutory ideation in daily life. Furthermore, we examined whether this process differs in people with and without a psychotic disorder by testing a sample of 34 individuals with elevated psychotic experiences without a diagnosis (subclinical sample) and a sample of 33 individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorder (clinical sample).

Autonomic arousal during psychosis spectrum experiences: Results from a high resolution ambulatory assessment study over the course of symptom on- and offset.

Introduction: Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies show that stressors trigger the onset or increase of psychotic symptoms. These studies, however, predominantly rely on large sampling intervals and self-report assessment. This study aims to identify the autonomic stress-response to psychosis-spectrum experiences by using a one-day high-resolution EMA with continuous skin conductance and heart rate monitoring in a sample with attenuated positive symptoms.

An experience sampling study on the nature of the interaction between traumatic experiences, negative affect in everyday life, and threat beliefs.

Research suggests that trauma is associated with the development of psychotic experiences, such as paranoia, via affective processes. However, the empirical evidence on the exact mechanism is limited and it is unclear which aspects of trauma are relevant. Here we tested whether self-reported frequency of trauma, recurring trauma, age, and type of trauma are predictive of later threat beliefs in daily life and which role affective processes (self-reported negative affect and autonomic arousal) play in this association.

Emotion regulation as a predictor of the endocrine, autonomic, affective, and symptomatic stress response and recovery.

Stress is associated with the development of mental disorders such as depression and psychosis. The ability to regulate emotions is likely to influence how individuals respond to and recover from acute stress, and may thus be relevant to symptom development. To test this, we investigated whether self-reported emotion regulation predicts the endocrine, autonomic, affective, and symptomatic response to and recovery from a stressor.

Emotion regulation as a moderator of the interplay between self-reported and physiological stress and paranoia.

Experience sampling method (ESM) studies have found an association between daily stress and paranoid symptoms, but it is uncertain whether these findings generalize to physiological indicators of stress. Moreover, the temporality of the association and its moderating factors require further research. Here, we investigate whether physiological and self-rated daily stress predict subsequent paranoid symptoms and analyze the role of emotion regulation as a putative moderator.

What predicts inattention in adolescents? An experience-sampling study comparing chronotype, subjective, and objective sleep parameters.

Objective: Many adolescents sleep insufficiently, which may negatively affect their functioning during the day. To improve sleep interventions, we need a better understanding of the specific sleep-related parameters that predict poor functioning. We investigated to which extent subjective and objective parameters of sleep in the preceding night (state parameters) and the trait variable chronotype predict daytime inattention as an indicator of poor functioning.

Neurocognitive deficits or stress overload: Why do individuals with schizophrenia show poor performance in neurocognitive tests?

Poor performance in neurocognitive tasks is consistently found across studies in all stages of schizophrenia spectrum disorders and is interpreted as an underlying, brain function-related, neurocognitive deficit. However, neurocognitive test performance in schizophrenia might be compromised by patients' increased stress level. We investigated group-differences in neurocognitive performance while accounting for psychophysiological (salivary cortisol, heart rate, skin conductance level) and self-reported stress.