Complex PTSD symptoms predict positive symptoms of psychosis in the flow of daily life.

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been shown to predict psychotic symptomology. However, few studies have examined the relative contribution of PTSD compared to broader post-traumatic sequelae in maintaining psychosis. Complex PTSD (cPTSD), operationalized using ICD-11 criteria, includes core PTSD (intrusions, avoidance, hyperarousal) as well as additional "disturbances of self-organisation" (DSO; emotional dysregulation, interpersonal difficulties, negative self-concept) symptoms, more likely to be associated with complex trauma histories.

Midwives' perspectives and perceptions in relation to perinatal psychotic-like experiences: a qualitative study.

Background: Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) refer to subclinical experiences consistent with psychosis that may include hearing, feeling or seeing things that others cannot, or experiencing unusual beliefs. These experiences appear to be more common during the perinatal period. There appear to be barriers which make it difficult for midwives to support mothers with mental health difficulties.

Trauma-focused therapy in early psychosis: results of a feasibility randomized controlled trial of EMDR for psychosis (EMDRp) in early intervention settings.

Background: Trauma is prevalent amongst early psychosis patients and associated with adverse outcomes. Past trials of trauma-focused therapy have focused on chronic patients with psychosis/schizophrenia and comorbid Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). We aimed to determine the feasibility of a large-scale randomized controlled trial (RCT) of an Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing for psychosis (EMDRp) intervention for early psychosis service users.

Self-Report Measures Assessing Aspects of Personal Recovery in Relatives and Other Informal Carers of Those With Psychosis: A Systematic Review.

Background: Providing long-term care for a family member with psychosis can cause significant distress for informal carers due to the trauma of seeing their loved one in crisis, dealing with the difficult symptoms of psychosis and the burden of providing care. An important aspect of carers' adjustment can be construed as their personal recovery in relation to having a relative affected by psychosis. Self-report measures are increasingly used to assess personal recovery in service users, but less is known about the utility of such tools for carers.

The Role and Clinical Correlates of Complex Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in People With Psychosis.

Traumatic experiences and post-traumatic stress are highly prevalent in people with psychosis, increasing symptom burden, decreasing quality of life and moderating treatment response. A range of post-traumatic sequelae have been found to mediate the relationship between trauma and psychotic experiences, including the "traditional" symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The International Classification of Diseases-11th Edition recognizes a more complex post-traumatic presentation, complex PTSD (cPTSD), which captures both the characteristic symptoms of PTSD alongside more pervasive post-traumatic sequelae known as 'disturbances in self-organization' (DSOs).

Ethnicity and impact on the receipt of cognitive-behavioural therapy in people with psychosis or bipolar disorder: an English cohort study.

Objectives: (1) To explore the role of ethnicity in receiving cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) for people with psychosis or bipolar disorder while adjusting for differences in risk profiles and symptom severity. (2) To assess whether context of treatment (inpatient vs community) impacts on the relationship between ethnicity and access to CBT.

Design: Cohort study of case register data from one catchment area (January 2007-July 2017).

The quest for genuine care: A qualitative study of the experiences of young people who self-harm in residential care.

Levels of self-harm for young people in care are high, and even higher for those in residential care. Recent research highlights the importance of understanding self-harm relationally. Such an approach may be of particular value for understanding the self-harm of young people in care.

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy for psychosis (EMDRp): Protocol of a feasibility randomized controlled trial with early intervention service users.

Aim: Traumatic events are involved in the development and maintenance of psychotic symptoms. There are few trials exploring trauma-focused treatments as interventions for psychotic symptoms, especially in individuals with early psychosis. This trial will evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of conducting a definitive trial of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing for psychosis (EMDRp) in people with early psychosis.

A web-based, peer-supported self-management intervention to reduce distress in relatives of people with psychosis or bipolar disorder: the REACT RCT.

Background: Relatives caring for people with severe mental health problems find information and emotional support hard to access. Online support for self-management offers a potential solution.

Objective: The objective was to determine the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of an online supported self-management tool for relatives: the Relatives' Education And Coping Toolkit (REACT).

Psychological inflexibility and somatization in nonepileptic attack disorder.

Background: There is no clear understanding of what causes and maintains nonepileptic attack (NEA) disorder (NEAD), or which psychological therapies may be helpful. The relationships between variables of psychological inflexibility: experiential avoidance (EA), cognitive fusion (CF), mindfulness, and key outcome variables in NEAD: somatization, impact upon life, and NEA frequency were investigated.

Method: Two hundred eighty-five individuals with NEAD completed validated measures online.

Clinical effectiveness of a web-based peer-supported self-management intervention for relatives of people with psychosis or bipolar (REACT): online, observer-blind, randomised controlled superiority trial.

Background: The Relatives Education And Coping Toolkit (REACT) is an online supported self-management toolkit for relatives of people with psychosis or bipolar designed to improve access to NICE recommended information and emotional support.

Aims: Our aim was to determine clinical and cost-effectiveness of REACT including a Resource Directory (RD), versus RD-only.

Methods: A primarily online, observer-blind randomised controlled trial comparing REACT (including RD) with RD only (registration ISRCTN72019945).

Mental health practitioner experiences of engaging with service users in community mental health settings: A systematic review and thematic synthesis of qualitative evidence.

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Engagement is regarded as important and beneficial for service users and mental health services A universal definition of engagement is not yet fully agreed upon. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: Based upon their experience, mental health staff use varied engagement approaches to fit with the changeable and unique needs of people who use services (service users). Mental health staff demonstrate qualities such as persistence and adaptability to successfully engage with service users.

Avoidance in nonepileptic attack disorder: A systematic review and meta-analyses.

Background: Avoidance is the active process of trying to escape from or not experience situations, places, thoughts, or feelings. This can be done through behavioral or cognitive strategies, or more broadly, a combination of both, utilized in an attempt to disengage from private experiences referred to as experiential avoidance (EA). Avoidance is considered important in the development and maintenance of nonepileptic attack disorder (NEAD).

Mapping early environment using communication deviance: A longitudinal study of maternal sensitivity toward 6-month-old children.

Communication deviance (CD) reflects features of the content or manner of a person's speech that may confuse the listener and inhibit the establishment of a shared focus of attention. The construct was developed in the context of the study of familial risks for psychosis based on hypotheses regarding its effects during childhood. It is not known whether parental CD is associated with nonverbal parental behaviors that may be important in early development.

The role of social isolation and social cognition in thought disorder.

A better understanding of how social factors relate to the psychological processes in thought disorder (TD) is necessary for the development of effective psychological interventions. Sixty-eight participants diagnosed with psychosis (18-65; 47.1% female) were recruited and evaluated on social cognition (Hinting Task, HT; and reading the mind in the eyes test, RMET), social isolation (size of social network, frequency and quality of contact), psychotic symptoms (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, PANSS) and TD (Thought, Language and Communication Disorders Scale, TLC).

Disorganisation, thought disorder and socio-cognitive functioning in schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Background: Poor social cognition is prevalent in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Some authors argue that these effects are symptom-specific and that socio-cognitive difficulties (e.g.

Attachment, mentalisation and expressed emotion in carers of people with long-term mental health difficulties.

Background: Expressed emotion (EE) is a global index of familial emotional climate, which is comprised of emotional over-involvement (EOI) and critical comments (CC)/hostility. Although EE is an established predictor of negative outcomes for both people with long-term mental health difficulties and their family carers, its psychological underpinnings remain relatively poorly understood. This paper examined associations between attachment, mentalisation ability and aspects of EE.

Birth experiences, trauma responses and self-concept in postpartum psychotic-like experiences.

The frequency of psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) amongst new mothers is beginning to be explored but the mechanisms underlying such experiences are yet to be understood. First time mothers (N=10,000) receiving maternity care via the UK National Health Service were contacted postnatally via Emma's Diary, an online resource for mothers. Measures assessed birth experience, trauma appraisals, post-traumatic stress symptoms, adjustment to motherhood, self-concept clarity and PLEs (in the form of hallucinations and delusions).

Guilt, shame and expressed emotion in carers of people with long-term mental health difficulties: A systematic review.

Expressed emotion (EE) is a global index of familial emotional climate, whose primary components are emotional over-involvement (EOI) and critical comments (CC)/hostility. There is a strong theoretical rationale for hypothesising that carers' guilt and shame may be differentially associated with their EOI and CC/hostility respectively. This systematic review investigates the magnitude of these theorised associations in carers of people with long-term mental health difficulties.

Inner Speech and Clarity of Self-Concept in Thought Disorder and Auditory-Verbal Hallucinations.

Eighty patients and thirty controls were interviewed using one interview that promoted personal disclosure and another about everyday topics. Speech was scored using the Thought, Language and Communication scale (TLC). All participants completed the Self-Concept Clarity Scale (SCCS) and the Varieties of Inner Speech Questionnaire (VISQ).

The dynamics of attachment insecurity and paranoid thoughts: An experience sampling study.

It has been proposed that insecure attachment can have adverse effects on the course of psychosis once symptoms have emerged. There is longitudinal evidence that increased insecure attachment is associated with increased severity of psychotic symptoms. The present study examined whether in the flow of daily life attachment insecurity fluctuates, whether elevated stress precedes the occurrence of attachment insecurity, and whether elevated attachment insecurity precedes the occurrence of paranoia.

The affective reactivity of psychotic speech: The role of internal source monitoring in explaining increased thought disorder under emotional challenge.

Thought disorder (TD) has been shown to vary in relation to negative affect. Here we examine the role internal source monitoring (iSM, i.e.

'No man is an island'. Testing the specific role of social isolation in formal thought disorder.

Recent work has focused on the role of the environment in psychosis with emerging evidence that specific psychotic experiences are associated with specific types of adversity. One risk factor that has been often associated with psychosis is social isolation, with studies identifying isolation as an important feature of prodromal psychosis and others reporting that social networks of psychotic patients are smaller and less dense than those of healthy individuals. In the present study, we tested a prediction that social isolation would be specifically associated with formal thought disorder.

Trauma and psychosis: The mediating role of self-concept clarity and dissociation.

Childhood trauma (CT) and psychosis may be associated. Drawing on the dissociation and social psychological literature, the current study examined the mediating role of structural aspects of self in explaining the relationship between childhood trauma and psychosis. Twenty-nine individuals with psychosis were compared with 31 healthy volunteers regarding childhood trauma, dissociation and self-concept clarity (SCC).

Group CBT for psychosis: a longitudinal, controlled trial with inpatients.

Individual cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis (CBTp) is a recommended treatment in the acute phase and beyond. However, less is known about the effectiveness of group CBTp in acute care. This mixed methods study explored the implementation and effectiveness of brief group CBTp with inpatients.