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Auditory hallucinations (AHs) are one of the central symptoms of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD). Current cognitive models of AH implicate source monitoring, top-down processes, and inhibitory control. However, research combining these processes is limited. Our study aimed to examine how source monitoring bias, top-down processes, and inhibitory control contribute to AHs in individuals with SSD. Eighty seven patients (aged 18-45 years) with SSD were included in the analyses. Participants completed cognitive tasks assessing source monitoring (Action Memory Task), top-down processes (False Perception Task; FPT), and inhibitory control (Auditory Go/NoGo task). AH was positively associated with response bias on the FPT. Correlations between AH and the other cognitive tasks were nonsignificant. Source monitoring errors correlated positively with response bias measures and negatively with Hits on the FPT. PANSS total score was positively correlated with source monitoring bias and False Alarms on the Go/NoGo task. The severity of disorganized symptoms was related to Source Monitoring Errors and False Alarms in the Go/NoGo task. Negative symptoms were associated with Hits and False Alarms in the Go/NoGo task. Future studies are necessary to further elucidate the relationships between different cognitive processes that may be related to clinical symptoms of psychosis.

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The influence of personal internal resources (IRs) on coping with traumatic events is constantly researched. This study aimed to determine how the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic affected anxiety, depression, and loneliness in two groups at different levels of exposure (low and high) to the infection. We analysed the impact of IRs in the form of the level of hope and self-efficacy on mental reactions (anxiety and depression) and social well-being (loneliness). The study was conducted as an internet survey. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and difference tests were used for preliminary analyses. Structural equation models (SEM) were used for multivariate data analysis. The SEM model revealed that people working in a profession with a higher risk of infection coped better in the pandemic. We observed a higher level of IRs in the higher exposure group, and the consequences were less pronounced. We concluded by stating that the level of hope and sense of self-efficacy could moderate the response in a pandemic situation and constitute protective factors against psychopathological symptoms.

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Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the most frequent mental disorders. Exposure to virtual reality can be a solution complementing standard CBT (cognitive-behavioral therapy) or can be used as an independent therapeutic tool. The study's objective was to assess the safety and efficacy of using self-administered virtual reality exposure vs. CBT and CBT with virtual exposure. We assessed the efficacy of the applied intervention with the Leibowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS). We compared three groups: CBT (n = 25), CBT + VR (n = 29), and self-administered therapy without aid of a therapist (n = 19). The results indicated that all three groups showed changes on the LSAS. The simple effect analysis showed that there were no differences between experimental conditions at T0 (session 1) and T1 (session 9) and that the only significant difference occurred at T2 (session 14). The pairwise comparisons showed that the participants in the VR condition scored higher on the LSAS score during the measurement at T2 than participants in CBT condition. Our study has several limitations. The presented initial study shows that the methods of CBT for social anxiety used so far are also effective, while the VR tool for self-therapy requires further research.

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OBJECTIVES: The analysis of the extent, sociodemographic and clinical predictors, and consequences of disclosing mental health problems for people with psychotic disorders. METHODS: 147 individuals with a diagnosis of psychotic disorder (ICD-10 categories F20-F29) were examined with questionnaires to assess the extent and consequences of their disclosing of mental health problems to others, as well as their social functioning, depressive symptoms, and the global severity of psychopathological symptoms. RESULTS: The majority of respondents talked openly about their mental health problems to their parents, spouses or life partners, as well as physicians and other non-psychiatric health care professionals, while a substantial minority (less than one-fifth) talked about these issues to casual acquaintances, neighbors, teachers and lecturers, co-workers, police officers and municipal guards, representatives of the court system, or public officials. Multiple regression analysis showed that the older the respondents were, the less willing they were to disclose their mental problems to others (ß = -0.34; p <0.05). In contrast, the longer they were ill, the more inclined they were to disclose their mental health issues (ß = 0.29; p <0.05). Disclosure of mental health problems had varying effects on the subjects' social relationships, with a significant proportion reporting no difference in the way they were treated by others, while others reported either deterioration or improvement in this area. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the study provide clinicians with practical guidance on supporting and assisting patients with psychotic disorders in the process of making informed decisions about "coming out".

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Computational linguistics has enabled the introduction of objective tools that measure some of the symptoms of schizophrenia, including the coherence of speech associated with formal thought disorder (FTD). Our goal was to investigate whether neural network based utterance embeddings are more accurate in detecting FTD than models based on individual indicators. The present research used a comprehensive Embeddings from Language Models (ELMo) approach to represent interviews with patients suffering from schizophrenia (N=35) and with healthy people (N=35). We compared its results to the approach described by Bedi et al. (2015), referred to here as the coherence model. Evaluations were also performed by a clinician using the Scale for the Assessment of Thought, Language and Communication (TLC). Using all six TLC questions the ELMo obtained an accuracy of 80% in distinguishing patients from healthy people. Previously used coherence models were less accurate at 70%. The classifying clinician was accurate 74% of the time. Our analysis shows that both ELMo and TLC are sensitive to the symptoms of disorganization in patients. In this study methods using text representations from language models were more accurate than those based solely on the assessment of FTD, and can be used as measures of disordered language that complement human clinical ratings.

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Purpose: The aim of this study is to discuss the validity of introducing an intervention based on anti-self-stigma in a group of patients with psychotic disorders. The article describes the assumptions of the proposed intervention and the approximate model of therapeutic work. In this article, the most important concepts in the area of stigmatization and self-stigma are presented and discussed. Views: Self-stigma is part of a wider social phenomenon known as stigma. The process of stigmatization was first described in the 1960s and consists of ascribing undesirable features to certain social groups, which leads to many negative consequences such as social exclusion and discrimination. While every aspect of the human experience can be stigmatized, recent psychological research has focused mainly on the stigma and self-stigma associated with a diagnosis of mental illness. Self-stigma results in negative self-esteem and a vicious circle of the "why try" effect. Low self-esteem strengthens self-stigma. We predicted that therapy aimed at improving self-esteem may have a positive effect on reducing of self-stigma. Recent studies have shown that therapies targeting low self-esteem are more effective than those targeting self-stigmatizing beliefs. Conclusions: Self-stigma is an important problem among patients hospitalized due to psychotic disorders. No training aimed at working with this aspect of experience has been introduced in Poland to date. Our observations show that the proposed training can support the healing process of patients and positively affect the ways in which the patient deals with self-stigma. The proposed intervention requires the evaluation of the effectiveness in a clinical trial involving patients diagnosed with psychotic disorders.

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