Reasoning and interpretation cognitive biases related to psychotic characteristics: An umbrella-review.

Cognitive biases have been studied in relation to schizophrenia and psychosis for over 50 years. Yet, the quality of the evidence linking cognitive biases and psychosis is not entirely clear. This umbrella-review examines the quality of the evidence and summarizes the effect sizes of the reasoning and interpretation cognitive biases studied in relation to psychotic characteristics (psychotic disorders, psychotic symptoms, psychotic-like experiences or psychosis risk).

Exploring Therapeutic Outcomes Through Dyadic Interactions: The Role of Patient-Avatar Dynamics in Avatar Therapy.

Objective: Despite the efficacy of current therapies, a significant proportion of patients with schizophrenia, a complex mental disorder marked by both positive (present) and negative (absent) symptoms, are considered to have treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Avatar therapy (AT) allows patients to interact with a three-dimensional representation of their most distressing voices in a virtual reality setting. The therapy shows promise in reducing impairments and improving quality of life through the establishment of a therapeutic alliance and the exploration of dyadic interactions (verbal exchanges) between patients and their avatar.

[The historical synchronicities of the Eli Lilly Canada Chair on schizophrenia research].

Background Created in 2004, the Eli Lilly Canada Chair on schizophrenia research was funded by Eli Lilly, the Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal, Hôpital Sacré-Coeur and Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal. The aim of this article is to provide an historical overview of the scientific activities of the Chair since its inception. Method In order to carry out this historical account, we adopted a bibliometric approach.

Avatar Intervention in Virtual Reality for Cannabis Use Disorder in Individuals With Severe Mental Disorders: Results From a 1-Year, Single-Arm Clinical Trial.

Background: The dual diagnosis of cannabis use disorder (CUD) and severe mental disorder (SMD) results in clinically complex individuals. Cannabis use is known to have negative consequences on psychiatric symptoms, medication compliance, and disease prognosis. Moreover, the effectiveness of currently available psychotherapeutic treatments is limited in this population.

Exploring the Intersection of Schizophrenia, Machine Learning, and Genomics: Scoping Review.

Background: An increasing body of literature highlights the integration of machine learning with genomic data in psychiatry, particularly for complex mental health disorders such as schizophrenia. These advanced techniques offer promising potential for uncovering various facets of these disorders. A comprehensive review of the current applications of machine learning in conjunction with genomic data within this context can significantly enhance our understanding of the current state of research and its future directions.

Patterns of abnormal activations in severe mental disorders a transdiagnostic data-driven meta-analysis of task-based fMRI studies.

Background: Studies suggest severe mental disorders (SMDs), such as schizophrenia, major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder, are associated with common alterations in brain activity, albeit with a graded level of impairment. However, discrepancies between study findings likely to results from both small sample sizes and the use of different functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) tasks. To address these issues, data-driven meta-analytic approach designed to identify homogeneous brain co-activity patterns across tasks was conducted to better characterize the common and distinct alterations between these disorders.

Resting-state alterations in emotion salience and default-mode network connectivity in atypical trajectories of psychotic-like experiences.

Social cognition is commonly altered in people with psychosis. Two main brain networks have been implicated: the default-mode network (DMN), which is associated with socio-cognitive processing, and the salience network (SN) associated with socio-affective processing. Disturbances to the resting-state functional connectivity of these networks have been identified in schizophrenia and high-risk individuals, but there have been no studies in adolescents displaying distinct trajectories of subclinical psychotic-like experiences (PLEs).

Aberrant activity at rest of the associative striatum in schizophrenia: Meta-analyses of the amplitude of low frequency fluctuations.

Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder associated with brain alterations at rest. Amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and its fractional version (fALFF) have been widely used to investigate alterations in spontaneous brain activity in schizophrenia. However, results are still inconsistent.

Investigating the impact of lumping heterogenous conduct problems: aggression and rule-breaking rely on distinct spontaneous brain activity.

Accumulating evidence suggests that aggression and rule-breaking may have distinct origins. However, grouping these heterogeneous behaviors into a single dimension labelled Conduct Problems (CP) has become the norm rather than the exception. Yet, the neurobiological features that differentiate aggression and rule-breaking remain largely unexplored.

The impact of an immersive digital therapeutic tool on experimental pain: a pilot randomized within-subject experiment with an active control condition.

Background: Pain is a complex and multifaced sensory and emotional experience. Virtual reality (VR) has shown promise in reducing experimental pain and chronic pain. This study examines an immersive VR environment initially designed for endometriosis patients, which demonstrated short-term analgesic effects.

Neurocognitive consequences of adolescent sleep disruptions and their relationship to psychosis vulnerability: a longitudinal cohort study.

Adolescence is a key period for neurocognitive maturation where deviation from normal developmental trajectories may be tied to adverse mental health outcomes. Cognitive disruptions have been noted in populations at risk for psychosis and are known to accompany periods of sleep deprivation. This study aims to assess the role of cognition as a mediator between sleep disruptions and psychosis risk.

Effects of Recreational Cannabis Legalization on Mental Health: Scoping Review.

Objective: Recreational cannabis legalization (RCL) is expanding rapidly. RCL's effects on mental health issues are of particular concern because cannabis use is more frequent among people receiving psychiatric care and is associated with several psychiatric disorders. The authors conducted a scoping review to examine the evidence and discern gaps in the literature concerning the effects of RCL on mental health and to assess the factors responsible for an observed heterogeneity in research results.

Dysconnectivity of the Nucleus Accumbens and Amygdala in Youths with Thought Problems: A Dimensional Approach.

Youths with thought problems (TP) are at risk to develop psychosis and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Yet, the pathophysiological mechanisms underpinning TP are still unclear. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have shown that striatal and limbic alterations are associated with psychosis-like and obsessive-like symptoms in individuals at clinical risk for psychosis, schizophrenia, and OCD.

Perspectives on Communication Technology Use for Alleviating the Impact of COVID-19 on Hospitalized Patients' Well-Being and Transitions in Care.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic created many challenges for in-patient care including patient isolation and limitations on hospital visitation. Although communication technology, such as video calling or texting, can reduce social isolation, there are challenges for implementation, particularly for older adults.

Objective/methods: This study used a mixed methodology to understand the challenges faced by in-patients and to explore the perspectives of patients, family members, and health care providers (HCPs) regarding the use of communication technology.

Label-based meta-analysis of functional brain dysconnectivity across mood and psychotic disorders.

Background: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) studies have revealed patterns of functional brain dysconnectivity in psychiatric disorders such as major depression disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder (BD) and schizophrenia (SZ). Although these disorders have been mostly studied in isolation, there is mounting evidence of shared neurobiological alterations across them.

Methods: To uncover the nature of the relatedness between these psychiatric disorders, we conducted an innovative meta-analysis of dysconnectivity findings reported separately in MDD, BD and SZ.

The Signature Biobank: A longitudinal biopsychosocial repository of psychiatric emergency patients.

The Signature Biobank is a longitudinal repository of biospecimen, psychological, sociodemographic, and diagnostic data that was created in 2012. The Signature Consortium represents a group of approximately one hundred Quebec-based transdisciplinary clinicians and research scientists with various expertise in the field of psychiatry. The objective of the Signature Biobank is to investigate the multi-faceted underpinnings of psychiatric disorders among patients in crisis.

The company you keep: The neglected role of affiliating with delinquent friends in the development of the cannabis-violence link.

A growing body of research suggests a potential role of cannabis use on aggressive behaviors. In literature on adolescents, the lack of consideration of important confounders, such as adolescent's affiliation with delinquent peers, limits the possibility to determine whether there might be a direct or indirect link between cannabis use and aggression. Therefore, we sought to examine the effect of delinquent peers on the association between cannabis use and violence.

Enhancing Predictive Power: Integrating a Linear Support Vector Classifier with Logistic Regression for Patient Outcome Prognosis in Virtual Reality Therapy for Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia.

(1) Background: Approximately 30% of schizophrenia patients are known to be treatment-resistant. For these cases, more personalized approaches must be developed. Virtual reality therapeutic approaches such as avatar therapy (AT) are currently undergoing investigations to address these patients' needs.

Auditory Steady-State Responses in Schizophrenia: An Updated Meta-Analysis.

This meta-analysis investigates auditory steady-state responses (ASSRs) as potential biomarkers of schizophrenia, focusing on previously unexplored clinical populations, frequencies, and variables. We examined 37 studies, encompassing a diverse cohort of 1788 patients with schizophrenia, including 208 patients with first-episode psychosis, 281 at-risk individuals, and 1603 healthy controls. The results indicate moderate reductions in 40 Hz ASSRs in schizophrenia patients, with significantly greater reductions in first-episode psychosis patients and minimal changes in at-risk individuals.

Losing the chain of thought: A meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies using verbal tasks in schizophrenia.

Background: Disorganization symptoms are a main feature of schizophrenia, which include illogical and incoherent thinking, circumstantiality, tangentiality and loose associations. As these symptoms entail language deficits, several functional neuroimaging studies have been performed in schizophrenia using verbal tasks, producing somewhat heterogenous results. Hence, we performed a meta-analysis seeking to identify the most reliable neural alterations observed in schizophrenia patients during such tasks.

Serotonin Transporter mRNA Expression Is Reduced in the Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells of Subjects with Major Depression but Normal in Fibromyalgia.

Background: Fibromyalgia (FM) and major depression disorder (MDD) frequently co-occur. Both disorders may share common serotonergic alterations, although there is less evidence of such alterations in FM. It is also unclear as to whether these alterations are persistent over time or transient.