One Health assessment of persistent organic chemicals and PFAS for consumption of restored anadromous fish.

Background: Restoration efforts have led to the return of anadromous fish, potential source of food for the Penobscot Indian Nation, to the previously dammed Penobscot River, Maine.

Objective: U.S.

A qualitative process evaluation of social recovery therapy for enhancement of social recovery in first-episode psychosis (SUPEREDEN3).

Background: Many individuals with first-episode psychosis experience severe and persistent social disability despite receiving specialist early intervention. The SUPEREDEN3 trial assessed whether augmenting early intervention in psychosis services with Social Recovery Therapy (SRT) would lead to better social recovery.

Aims: A qualitative process evaluation was conducted to explore implementation and mechanisms of SRT impact from the perspective of SUPEREDEN3 participants.

Risks from mercury in anadromous fish collected from Penobscot River, Maine.

Levels of total mercury were measured in tissue of six species of migratory fish (alewife, American shad, blueback herring, rainbow smelt, striped bass, and sea lamprey), and in roe of American shad for two consecutive years collected from the Penobscot River or its estuary. The resultant mercury levels were compared to reference doses as established in the U.S.

Measuring adherence in social recovery therapy with people with first episode psychosis.

Background: The SUPEREDEN3 study, a phase II randomized controlled trial, suggests that social recovery therapy (SRT) is useful in improving functional outcomes in people with first episode psychosis. SRT incorporates cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) techniques with case management and employment support, and therefore has a different emphasis to traditional CBT for psychosis, requiring a new adherence tool.

Aims: This paper describes the SRT adherence checklist and content of the therapy delivered in the SUPEREDEN3 trial, outlining the frequency of SRT techniques and proportion of participants who received a full therapy dose.

The Dunn Worry Questionnaire and the Paranoia Worries Questionnaire: new assessments of worry.

Background: The cognitive process of worry, which keeps negative thoughts in mind and elaborates the content, contributes to the occurrence of many mental health disorders. Our principal aim was to develop a straightforward measure of general problematic worry suitable for research and clinical treatment. Our secondary aim was to develop a measure of problematic worry specifically concerning paranoid fears.

Group-Based Worry Intervention for Persecutory Delusions: an Initial Feasibility Study.

Background: A one-to-one cognitive behavioural therapy intervention targeting worry significantly reduces both worry and persecutory delusions (Freeman et al., 2015).

Aim: To adapt this intervention for group delivery and conduct a feasibility trial within routine clinical practice.

Responsibility beliefs and persecutory delusions.

Recent research implicates cognitive processes traditionally linked to anxiety disorders in the maintenance of paranoia. Responsibility beliefs have traditionally been associated with OCD, and recent research suggests they may be transdiagnostic. The present study reports the first data on responsibility beliefs in individuals with persecutory delusions.

Worry processes in patients with persecutory delusions.

Objectives: Worry may be common in patients with paranoia and a contributory causal factor in the occurrence of the delusions. A number of psychological mechanisms have been linked to the occurrence of worry in emotional disorders but these are yet to be investigated in psychosis. The primary aim of the study was to test the links between five main worry mechanisms - perseverative thinking, catastrophizing, stop rules, metacognitive beliefs, and intolerance of uncertainty - and the cognitive style of worry in patients with persecutory delusions.

Effects of cognitive behaviour therapy for worry on persecutory delusions in patients with psychosis (WIT): a parallel, single-blind, randomised controlled trial with a mediation analysis.

Background: Worry might be a contributory causal factor in the occurrence of persecutory delusions in patients with psychotic disorders. Therefore we postulated that reducing worry with cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) would reduce persecutory delusions.

Methods: For our two-arm, assessor-blinded, randomised controlled trial (Worry Intervention Trial [WIT]), we recruited patients aged 18-65 years with persistent persecutory delusions but non-affective psychosis from two centres: the Oxford Health National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust (Oxford, UK) and the Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust (Southampton, UK).

The Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire in Patients with Persecutory Delusions.

Background: Ruminative negative thinking has typically been considered as a factor maintaining common emotional disorders and has recently been shown to maintain persecutory delusions in psychosis. The Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire (PTQ) (Ehring et al., 2011) is a transdiagnostic measure of ruminative negative thinking that shows promise as a "content-free" measure of ruminative negative thinking.

An early Phase II randomised controlled trial testing the effect on persecutory delusions of using CBT to reduce negative cognitions about the self: the potential benefits of enhancing self confidence.

Background: Research has shown that paranoia may directly build on negative ideas about the self. Feeling inferior can lead to ideas of vulnerability. The clinical prediction is that decreasing negative self cognitions will reduce paranoia.

Depersonalization in patients with persecutory delusions.

Delusions are, in part, attempts to explain confusing anomalous experience. Depersonalization, a key subset of anomalous experience, has been little studied in relation to persecutory delusions. The aims of this study were to assess the presence of depersonalization in patients with persecutory delusions and to examine associations with levels of paranoia and worry.

How do individuals with persecutory delusions bring worry to a close? An interpretive phenomenological analysis.

Background: Worry is a significant problem for individuals with paranoia, leading to delusion persistence and greater levels of distress. There are established theories concerning processes that maintain worry but little has been documented regarding what brings worry to a close.

Aims: The aim was to find out what patients with persecutory delusions report are the factors that bring a worry episode to an end.

Persecutory delusions and psychological well-being.

Purpose: Persecutory delusions are one of the key problems seen in psychotic conditions. The aim of the study was to assess for the first time the levels of psychological well-being specifically in patients with current persecutory delusions.

Method: One hundred and fifty patients with persecutory delusions in the context of a diagnosis of non-affective psychosis, and 346 non-clinical individuals, completed the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale and symptom assessments.

The interaction of affective with psychotic processes: a test of the effects of worrying on working memory, jumping to conclusions, and anomalies of experience in patients with persecutory delusions.

Worry has traditionally been considered in the study of common emotional disorders such as anxiety and depression, but recent studies indicate that worry may be a causal factor in the occurrence and persistence of persecutory delusions. The effect of worry on processes traditionally associated with psychosis has not been tested. The aim of the study was to examine the short-term effects of a bout of worry on three cognitive processes typically considered markers of psychosis: working memory, jumping to conclusions, and anomalous internal experience.

Correlates of perceptual distortions in clinical and non-clinical populations using the Cardiff Anomalous Perceptions Scale (CAPS): associations with anxiety and depression and a re-validation using a representative population sample.

Although the literature on hallucinations in psychiatric patients shows clear links with anxiety and depression, associations of affect with a wider array of anomalous perceptual experiences have been much less studied. This study investigated patients with psychosis (N=29) and a non-clinical population (N=193) using the Cardiff Anomalous Perceptions Scale (CAPS), a measure of perceptual distortion and associated distress, intrusiveness and frequency; along with measures of depression, anxiety and worry. The study also allowed a re-validation of the CAPS in a more representative sample of the UK population.

Isolation and characterisation of amphotericin B analogues and truncated polyketide intermediates produced by genetic engineering of Streptomyces nodosus.

Amphotericin B is a powerful but toxic drug used against fungal infections and leishmaniases. These diseases would be treated more effectively if non-toxic amphotericin derivatives could be produced on a large scale at low cost. Genetic manipulation of the amphotericin B producer, Streptomyces nodosus, has previously led to the detection and partial characterisation of 8-deoxyamphotericin B, 16-descarboxyl-16-methyl-amphotericin B, 15-deoxy-16-descarboxyl-16-methyl-15-oxo-amphotericin B, 7-oxo-amphotericin B and pentaene analogues.

Testing the continuum of delusional beliefs: an experimental study using virtual reality.

A key problem in studying a hypothesized spectrum of severity of delusional ideation is determining that ideas are unfounded. The first objective was to use virtual reality to validate groups of individuals with low, moderate, and high levels of unfounded persecutory ideation. The second objective was to investigate, drawing upon a cognitive model of persecutory delusions, whether clinical and nonclinical paranoia are associated with similar causal factors.

Insomnia and paranoia.

Insomnia is a potential cause of anxiety, depression, and anomalies of experience; separate research has shown that anxiety, depression and anomalies of experience are predictors of paranoia. Thus insomnia may contribute to the formation and maintenance of persecutory ideation. The aim was to examine for the first time the association of insomnia symptoms and paranoia in the general population and the extent of insomnia in individuals with persecutory delusions attending psychiatric services.

Jumping to conclusions and paranoid ideation in the general population.

An association of a 'jumping to conclusions' (JTC) reasoning style and delusions has been repeatedly found. The data-gathering bias has been particularly implicated with higher levels of delusional conviction in schizophrenia. For the first time the symptom, psychological and social correlates of jumping to conclusions are examined in a large general population sample.

Virtual reality study of paranoid thinking in the general population.

Background: Judging whether we can trust other people is central to social interaction, despite being error-prone. A fear of others can be instilled by the contemporary political and social climate. Unfounded mistrust is called paranoia, and in severe forms is a central symptom of schizophrenia.

A measure of state persecutory ideation for experimental studies.

Experimental research is increasingly important in developing the understanding of paranoid thinking. An assessment measure of persecutory ideation is necessary for such work. We report the reliability and validity of the first state measure of paranoia: The State Social Paranoia Scale.