Johanna C. Badcock

Georgie Paulik

This practical guide outlines the latest advances in understanding and treating psychotic symptoms and disorders, articulating step-by-step the clinical skills and knowledge required to effectively treat this patient population. A Clinical Introduction to Psychosis takes an evidence-based approach that encourages a wider perspective on clinical practice, with chapters covering stigma and bias, cultural factors, the importance of social functioning, physical health, sleep, and more. A broad array of treatment modalities are discussed, including cognitive behavioral therapy, cognitive remediation, psychosocial interventions, trauma-informed therapies, and recovery-oriented practice. The book also provides a concise overview of the latest advances regarding cognitive profiles in people with psychotic disorders, the developmental progression of cognitive abilities, and the clinical relevance of cognitive dysfunction. The book additionally familiarizes readers with issues and controversies surrounding diagnostic classification, transdiagnostic expression, and dimensional assessment of symptoms in psychosis. Provides treatment and assessment methods for psychotic symptoms and disorders Looks at how psychosis develops and the impact of stigma on clinicians and clients Studies the links between trauma, PTSD, and psychosis, as well as sleep and psychosis Covers digital technologies for treating and assessing psychosis Outlines strategies for treating visual and auditory hallucinations Examines how to incorporate consumer and clinician perspectives in clinical practice

Foundations for Clinical Psychologists and Neuropsychologists

A Clinical Introduction to Psychosis

Paul Allen

Frank Larøi

Kelly M. Diederen

There has been a recent surge of interest in auditory hallucinations (AH) in schizophrenia compared to those experienced by non-clinical (i.e. healthy) individuals. This interest stems in no small part from a keen awareness of the fact that progress in developing more effective treatments for AH in psychosis has been seriously hampered by our limited understanding of the cognitive and biological mechanisms involved. The prevailing notion that AH in clinical and non-clinical populations share the same features and underlying mechanisms - the continuum hypothesis - has been seriously challenged by a growing list of differences, as well as similarities, between these groups. At the phenomenological level this is exemplified in the highly negative content of AH in patients and the markedly earlier age of onset of AH in non-patients. Similarly, several recent studies point to significant differences in cognition, language lateralization and, possibly, dopamine function between these groups. These findings have important implications for the design of future studies, and raise considerable doubt about the adequacy of modelling the functional mechanisms of clinical AH on the basis of non-clinical populations. In short, the time seems ripe to re-evaluate the continuum hypothesis and provide a forum to present alternative perspectives on the functional pathways leading to AH in clinical and non-clinical groups. Such a forum is also timely in view of the renewed interest in AH in other (non-schizophrenic) clinical groups, again examining similarities and differences between such groups. Preliminary studies, for instance, have shown that AH in certain clinical populations (e.g. bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, dissociative disorder) share similar phenomenological features with AH in schizophrenia. However, the implications of such findings are not fully understood, and studies have not adequately examined potential differences between AH in these groups. The goal of this Frontiers Research Topic, therefore, is take the opportunity to bring together research exploring differences and similarities in mechanisms of AH in clinical and non-clinical groups and to stimulate the development of new explanatory models which explicitly link the phenomenological characteristics of AH with underlying mechanisms.

Johanna C. Badcock

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