Reproducibility of brain activation during auditory verbal hallucinations.

Previous studies investigated fMRI-guided repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) as an alternative treatment for auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH). This tailor-made treatment focuses at directing the rTMS coil to the location where hallucinatory activation is maximal, as identified with fMRI scans of individual patients. For the effective use of such treatment it is important to determine whether brain activation during AVH can be reliably detected using fMRI.

Cognitive biases and auditory verbal hallucinations in healthy and clinical individuals.

Background: Several cognitive biases are related to psychotic symptoms, including auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH). It remains unclear whether these biases differ in voice-hearers with and without a 'need-for-care'.

Method: A total of 72 healthy controls, 72 healthy voice-hearers and 72 clinical voice-hearers were compared on the Cognitive Biases Questionnaire for psychosis (CBQp), which assesses 'intentionalizing', 'jumping to conclusions', 'catastrophizing', 'dichotomous thinking' and 'emotional reasoning' in vignettes characterized by two themes, 'threatening events' and 'anomalous perceptions'.

Childhood trauma and auditory verbal hallucinations.

Background: Hallucinations have consistently been associated with traumatic experiences during childhood. This association appears strongest between physical and sexual abuse and auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH). It remains unclear whether traumatic experiences mainly colour the content of AVH or whether childhood trauma triggers the vulnerability to experience hallucinations in general.

How frequent are radiological abnormalities in patients with psychosis? A review of 1379 MRI scans.

Background: The term psychosis refers to a combination of symptoms, without pointing to the origin of these symptoms. In a subset of psychotic patients, symptoms are attributable to an organic disease. It is important to identify these organic causes of psychosis early, as urgent treatment of the primary disease may be required.