A Dimensional Approach To Schizotypy

This timely volume explores the range of personality traits and psychosocial deficits which are associated with the broadly defined construct of schizotypy. Describing schizotypy as a phenomenon that can be located on a continuum ranging from sub-clinical states to severe disorders, the editors have brought together experts in this field to discuss approaches to assessment, conceptualization, and treatment. This volume aims to provide a unique and clinically oriented perspective on schizotypy as a feature of personality and psychopathology. An essential resource for professionals, researchers, and academics the reader will gain knowledge of: Underlying maladaptive traits that can emerge as schizotypy Dimensional and transdiagnostic approaches to psychopathology Relationship to metacognition, mentalizing, attachment, self-criticism and interpersonal criticism

This book is devoted to schizotypal personality. It provides a comprehensive overview of our knowledge from some of the world's leading researchers in the field, and includes reviews of genetics, neurodevelopment, assessment, psychophysiology, neuropsychology and brain imaging. Central themes are the exploration of categorical and dimensional approaches to the understanding of schizotypal disorder and its relationship to schizophrenia. Valuable introductory and concluding chapters set in context the sometimes divergent opinions and findings presented by the book's contributors and there are reviews of methodological issues and assessment schedules for the benefit of researchers in the field. In setting out to answer, from phenomenological, psychological and neurobiological perspectives, the fundamental question 'What is schizotypal disorder?' and to develop coherent etiological models, this book will serve as an authoritative resource for clinicians and researchers interested in this major personality disorder.

For several decades there has been an increasing move towards viewing the psychotic illnesses from a dimensional perspective, seeing them as continuous with healthy functioning. The idea, concentrating mostly on schizophrenia, has generated considerable theoretical debate as well as empirical research, conducted under the rubric of 'schizotypy'. This book offers a timely discussion of the most significant themes and developments in this research area. Divided into four key sections which represent current concerns in schizotypy research – Measurement, Brain and Biology; Development and Environment; Consequences and Outcomes; and Future Directions – chapters reflect a broad range of approaches and discuss varied theoretical perspectives on schizotypy. Topics include: cognitive and perceptual biases psychometric assessments creativity and schizotypy genetic associations. developmental perspectives Schizotypy: New dimensions will appeal to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the area of psychotic illnesses, as well as professionals including psychiatrists and clinical psychologists who are concerned with the basis of serious mental disorder. The book will inform readers who are new to the topic and will update and expand the knowledge base of those more experienced in the field.

The central theme of this book presents a challenging and controversial new view of psychosis--that the features of psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia actually lie on a continuum with, and form part of, normal behavior and experience. The dispositional or "schizotypal" traits associated with psychotic disorders, while increasing one's chances for mental illness, also lead to positive outcomes such as enhanced creativity or spiritual experience. Each aspect of this theme is supported by extensive experimental and clinical evidence, questioning the conventional medical wisdom that treats psychotic illness in the narrow context of neurological disease. The result is an authoritative and provocative overview of an important topic in psychological research and clinical practice.

This is the first book to address the clinical and neurobiological interface between schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). There is growing evidence that obsessive-compulsive symptoms in schizophrenia are prevalent, persistent and characterized by a distinct pattern of familial inheritance, neurocognitive deficits and brain activation. This text provides guidelines for differential diagnosis of schizophrenic patients with obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and patients with primary OCD alongside poor insight, psychotic features or schizotypal personality. Written by a leading expert in the coexistence of obsessive-compulsive and schizophrenic phenomena, Schizo-Obsessive Disorder uses numerous case studies to present diagnostic guidelines and to describe a recommended treatment algorithm, demystifying this complex disorder and aiding its effective management. The book is essential reading for psychiatrists, neurologists and the wider range of multidisciplinary mental health practitioners.

This text provides a summary of what is currently known about the diagnosis, assessment, construct validity, etiology, pathology, and treatment of personality disorders. It also provides extensive coverage of the many controversial changes for the DSM-5, including chapters by proponents and opponents to these changes.

Objective: Schizophrenia subtypes were discarded because of their clinical insignificance. Correspondingly, DSM-5 presented a dimensional approach to rating severity for the core symptoms of psychosis, which consists of 8 items. The purpose of this study is to investigate the structure categorizing the items of dimensional assessment through factor analysis in patients with early psychosis. In addition, we tried to see if the categorized structure is useful for predicting the clinical course.Methods: The subjects were 498 patients with early psychosis who were enrolled in the Korean Early Psychosis Cohort Study. They were between u226518 years and u226445 years of age who fulfill the criteria of DSM-5 for schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders. The proportion of males was 41.9% and their mean age and age at onset were 28.7(SD=8.9) and 26.8(SD=9.1) years, respectively. An exploratory factor analysis(EFA) was conducted on the 8 items of dimensional assessment of psychosis in DSM-5 with principle components extracted by the varimax method. Also, we grouped the patients according to the factors listed in the factor structure and compared the data of baseline and 3-year longitudinal follow-up by the groups.Results: Two factors were identified which were labeled as u2018psychoticu2019 and u2018deficitu2019 domain. The first factor included delusions, hallucinations, disorganization and abnormal psychomotor behavior. The second factor included negative symptoms and impaired cognition. Depression and mania were excluded in factor analysis due to the lack of communality. In deficit dominant group, the patients were younger in age, longer in duration of DUP, younger in onset and had higher rate of comorbidity and higher non-urban residential rate. The baseline severity represented by PANSS total score and CGI-S was higher in the psychotic dominant group, but the difference began to disappear from two months later. However, in the deficit-dominant group, the PANSS negative scale, deficit scale, and CGI-I remain constantly poorer for three years.Conclusion: The factor analysis demonstrates a factor structure of dimensional assessment of psychosis in DSM-5, which were labeled u2018psychoticu2019, and u2018deficitu2019 domain, respectively. It is meaningful that it is the first study to analyze patients with early psychosis. In addition, grasping the dominance according to the structure can also be helpful in predicting the clinical course of the patients.

Recoge: 1. Science and personality -- 2. The dimensional approach -- 3. The neurotic dimension: operational definition -- 4. The neurotic dimension: objective measurement -- 5. Heredity and environment -- 6. The psychotic dimension -- 7. Applications of dimensional analysis -- 8. The organization of personality.

In recent years, the assumption that there is a significant connection between normal psychological and biological differences and the development of psychological disorders has grown and research in this area has developed rapidly. This textbook, written by internationally known psychologists with expertise in both the areas of abnormal and differential psychology, aims to integrate evidence and idea from healthy personality and temperament on the one hand and psychological disorders on the other. This is achieved by viewing personality traits as predispositions to disorder, and by questioning how far the causes of various disorders can be seen as an extension or exaggeration of processes underlying normal personality or temperament. These main themes are discussed using a biological perspective, i.e., based on the theory that personality can be deconstructed into a number of basic dimensions (of biological origin) that also act as vulnerability factors for disorder. This is a second-level textbook for undergraduate students of psychology, but will also be recommended for health professionals and their trainees, psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and nurses.

Schizophrenia is the central problem in the sciences of the mind, not only for its etiological, psychopathological and clinical aspects, but also because of its implications for therapy and rehabilitation. In this volume the author describes a series of new scientific and clinical perspectives for schizophrenia influenced by cognitivist and constructivist approaches and informed by the logic of complexity and non-linear, dynamic systems. The author delineates a new complex theory of the brain and a procedural theory of the mind, founded on the concept of the modular brain and the coalitional mind. Subsequently, the author develops a multi-factorial conceptualization of the etiological dynamic and an original, complex, and evolutionary perspective concerning the psychotic condition, which has been redefined, in this case, as Entropy of the Mind or Phrenentropy. In conclusion, the author illustrates an innovative, integrated protocol, denominated Negative Entropy, for the treatment and rehabilitation of patients with schizophrenia.