Empathy Amplified: Exploring the Transformative Potential of Understanding Auditory Hallucinations Through Staff Training.

Background: Stigmatization of individuals diagnosed with psychosis, especially those who experience auditory hallucinations, is a well-documented issue with negative outcomes on provision of care. Existing research has predominantly concentrated on experiential training for students, leaving a significant gap in knowledge regarding the training's impact on practicing psychiatric nurses and technicians.

Aims: This study aims to address this gap by investigating the efficacy of a concise, 1-hour educational activity designed to improve empathy, confidence, competence, and knowledge in psychiatric professionals.

Multi-site six month outcome study of complex psychiatric patients evaluated with addition of brain SPECT imaging.

Background: Psychiatric diagnoses are made primarily through clinical histories, with psychiatrists searching for DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)-driven symptom clusters, and outcomes for patients have not substantially improved in decades for many disorders.

Primary Study Objective: In this study, the research team examined the outcome impact of the addition of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) to the assessment of complex patients.

Design: The research team designed a multisite, prospective, 6-mo outcome study.

A robust 3-D IVUS transducer tracking using single-plane cineangiography.

During an intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) intervention, a catheter with an ultrasound transducer is introduced in the body through a blood vessel, and then, pulled back to image a sequence of vessel cross sections. Unfortunately, there is no 3-D information about the position and orientation of these cross-section planes, which makes them less informative. To position the IVUS images in space, some researchers have proposed complex stereoscopic procedures relying on biplane angiography to get two X-ray image sequences of the IVUS transducer trajectory along the catheter.

The amygdala: is it an essential component of the neural network for social cognition?

Observations from human subjects with focal brain lesions and animal subjects with experimental lesions have implicated a variety of brain regions in the mediation of social behavior. Previous studies carried out in the macaque monkey found that lesions of the amygdala not only decrease emotional reactivity but also disrupt normal social interactions. We have re-investigated the relationship between amygdala lesions and social behavior in cohorts of mature and neonatal rhesus monkeys who were prepared with selective and complete bilateral ibotenic acid lesions of the amygdaloid complex.