Development of the Delusional Interpretation Scale and examination of related variables.

Aim: Delusions are a common symptom in schizophrenia. Some scales have been developed to measure delusional tendencies in healthy people, and nonpathological delusional thinking can occur even among these individuals. The existing scales measure the presence and frequency of delusional thoughts, distress levels, and confidence levels.

Better adherence to guidelines among psychiatrists providing pharmacological therapy is associated with longer work hours in patients with schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder that is associated with various social dysfunctions, including shorter work hours. To measure the degree to which psychiatrists adhere to guidelines for pharmacological therapy of schizophrenia, we recently developed the individual fitness score (IFS) for adherence among psychiatrists in each patient. However, it remains unclear whether better adherence among psychiatrists is associated with higher patients' social functional outcomes, such as work hours.

Longitudinal characteristics of insight and clinical factors in patients with schizophrenia.

Aims: Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder presenting a lack of insight. Although insight changes over time, longitudinal studies of insight in schizophrenia are scarce. Furthermore, most previous studies on insight and intelligence have not measured full-scale IQ and have not been able to examine the relationship between detailed dimensions of cognitive function and insight.

Relationship between autistic traits and social functioning in healthy individuals.

Aim: Social functioning is influenced by various factors. Autistic traits could be one of the factors that affect social functioning.

Methods: In the present study, the relationship between autistic traits and social functioning among 755 healthy individuals was analyzed.

[Sexual orientation and self-esteem maintenance: a sense of social inclusion].

Self-esteem of sexual orientation minority members is not necessarily low, contrary to what might be theoretically expected. An explanation has been offered that self-protective strategies were in use. Instead, it is argued in this paper that sense of social inclusion plays an important role, and two questionnaire studies examined the possibility.