Report on the 2nd International Consortium on Hallucination Research: Evolving Directions and Top-10 “Hot Spots” in Hallucination Research

This article presents a report on the 2nd meeting of the International Consortium on Hallucination Research, held on September 12th and 13th 2013 at Durham University, UK. Twelve working groups involving specialists in each area presented their findings and sought to summarize the available knowledge, inconsistencies in the field, and ways to progress. The 12 working groups reported on the following domains of investigation: cortical organisation of hallucinations, nonclinical hallucinations, interdisciplinary approaches to phenomenology, culture and hallucinations, subtypes of auditory verbal hallucinations, a Psychotic Symptoms Rating Scale multisite study, visual hallucinations in the psychosis spectrum, hallucinations in children and adolescents, Research Domain Criteria behavioral constructs and hallucinations, new methods of assessment, psychological therapies, and the Hearing Voices Movement approach to understanding and working with voices. This report presents a summary of this meeting and outlines 10 hot spots for hallucination research, which include the in-depth examination of (1) the social determinants of hallucinations, (2) translation of basic neuroscience into targeted therapies, (3) different modalities of hallucination, (4) domain convergence in cross-diagnostic studies, (5) improved methods for assessing hallucinations in nonclinical samples, (6) using humanities and social science methodologies to recontextualize hallucinatory experiences, (7) developmental approaches to better understand hallucinations, (8) changing the memory or meaning of past trauma to help recovery, (9) hallucinations in the context of sleep and sleep disorders, and (10) subtypes of hallucinations in a therapeutic context.Key words: meeting report, hallucinations, psychosis     

Housing First for People With Severe Mental Illness Who Are Homeless: A Review of the Research and Findings From the At Home–Chez soi Demonstration Project

Objective:

To provide a review of the extant research literature on Housing First (HF) for people with severe mental illness (SMI) who are homeless and to describe the findings of the recently completed At Home (AH)–Chez soi (CS) demonstration project. HF represents a paradigm shift in the delivery of community mental health services, whereby people with SMI who are homeless are supported through assertive community treatment or intensive case management to move into regular housing.

Method:

The AH–CS demonstration project entailed a randomized controlled trial conducted in 5 Canadian cities between 2009 and 2013. Mixed methods were used to examine the implementation of HF programs and participant outcomes, comparing 1158 people receiving HF to 990 people receiving standard care.

Results:

Initial research conducted in the United States shows HF to be a promising approach, yielding superior outcomes in helping people to rapidly exit homelessness and establish stable housing. Findings from the AH–CS demonstration project reveal that HF can be successfully adapted to different contexts and for different populations without losing its fidelity. People receiving HF achieved superior housing outcomes and showed more rapid improvements in community functioning and quality of life than those receiving treatment as usual.

Conclusions:

Knowledge translation efforts have been undertaken to disseminate the positive findings and lessons learned from the AH–CS project and to scale up the HF approach across Canada.     

Commentary on: “The Future of Gaming Disorder Research and Player Protection: What Role Should the Video Gaming Industry and Researchers Play?”

International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction - Griffiths and Pontes (2019) outlined a need for the video gaming industry to take responsibility in gamer protection in their paper titled,...     

The “consonance effect” and the hemispheres: A study on a split-brain patient

The present study investigated the consistency of the head-turning bias in kissing. In particular we addressed what happens if a person who prefers to kiss with the head turned to the right kisses a person who prefers to kiss with the head turned to the left. To this end, participants (N=57) were required to kiss a life-sized doll's head rotated in different orientations that were either compatible or incompatible with the participants’ head-turning preference. Additionally, participants handedness, footedness, and eye preference was assessed. Results showed that a higher percentage of participants preferred to kiss with their head turned to the right than to the left. In addition, the right-turners were more consistent in their kissing behaviour than left-turners. That is, with the doll's head rotated in an incompatible direction, right-turners were less likely to switch their head to their non-preferred side. Since no clear relationships between head-turning bias and the other lateral preferences (i.e., handedness, footedness, and eye preference) were discerned, the more consistent head-turning bias among right-turners could not be explained as deriving from a joint pattern of lateral preferences that is stronger among individuals with rightward as compared to individuals with leftward lateral preferences.     

The “highs and lows” of the human brain on dopaminergics: Evidence from neuropharmacology

Rewards are appetitive events that elicit approach. Ground-breaking findings from neurophysiological experiments in animals, alongside neuropharmacology and neuroimaging research in human samples have identified dopamine as the main neurochemical messenger of global reward processing in the brain. However, dopamine’s contribution to the different components of reward processing remains to be precisely defined. To facilitate the informed design and interpretation of reward studies in humans, we have systematically reviewed all existing human pharmacological studies investigating how drug manipulation of the dopamine system affects reward-related behaviour and its neural correlates. Pharmacological experiments in humans face methodological challenges in terms of the: 1) specificity and safety of the available drugs for administration in humans, 2) uncertainties about pre- or post-synaptic modes of action, and 3) possible interactions with inter-individual neuropsychological or genotypic variables. In order to circumvent some of these limitations, future research should rely on the combination of different levels of observation, in integrative pharmaco-genetics-neurobehavioral approaches, to more completely characterize dopamine’s role in both general and modality-specific processing of reward.     

Commentary on “Psychiatry and Cinema: What can We Learn from the Magical Screen?”

正Filmmakers describe mental illnesses in different ways and show morbid mental phenomena using different film vocabularies.This process is almost as long as the film’s course.After all,film is about ideology.Metaphysically,there cannot be a lack of emotion and spirit,and the emotion towards morbidity and spiritual expression cannot be missing.It is the same     

“There Must be Some Way Out of Here”: Why the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities is Potentially the Best Weapon in the Fight Against Sanism

It is impossible to consider the impact of anti-discrimination law on persons with mental disabilities without a full understanding of how sanism permeates all aspects of the legal system – judicial opinions, legislation, the role of lawyers, juror decision-making – and the entire fabric of society. For those unfamiliar with the term, I define “sanism” as an irrational prejudice of the same quality and character as other irrational prejudices that cause and are reflected in prevailing social attitudes of racism, sexism, homophobia, and ethnic bigotry, ¹ 1 The word “sanism” was, to the best of my knowledge, coined by Dr. Morton Birnbaum. See Morton Birnbaum, “The Right to Treatment: Some Comments on Its Development” in Frank Ayd (ed), Medical, Moral and Legal Issues in Health Care (Williams & Wilkins, 1974) 97, 105; see also Koe v. Califano 573 F.2d 761, 764 n. 12 (2d Cir. 1978). I have relied on the term constantly for the past 20 years to explain the roots of our attitudes towards persons with mental disabilities. See for example Michael L. Perlin, Half-Wracked Prejudice Leaped Forth: Sanism, Pretextuality, and Why and How Mental Disability Law Developed As It Did (1999) 10 J. Contemp. Leg. Iss. 3; Michael L. Perlin, “On Sanism” (1992) 46 SMU L. Rev. 373. View all notes that permeates all aspects of mental disability law and affects all participants in the mental disability law system: litigants, fact finders, counsel, and expert and lay witnesses. ² 2 On the way that sanism affects lawyers’ representation of clients, see Michael L. Perlin, “You Have Discussed Lepers and Crooks: Sanism in Clinical Teaching” (2003) 9 Clin. L. Rev. 683, 689–90. View all notes

Notwithstanding over two decades of anti-discrimination laws ³ 3 42 USC §§ 12101 et seq. View all notes and, in many jurisdictions, an impressive corpus of constitutional case law and state statutes, ⁴ 4 See Michael L. Perlin, “They Keep It All Hid: The Ghettoization of Mental Disability Law and Its Implications for Legal Education” (2010) 54 St. Louis U. L. J. 857, 857–58 n. 1 (listing cases). View all notes the attitudes of judges, jurors and lawyers often reflect the same level of bigotry that defined this area of law half a century ago. ⁵ 5 See generally, Michael L. Perlin, “Lepers and Crooks.” View all notes The reasons for this are complex and, to a great extent, flow from centuries of prejudice – often hidden prejudice, often socially acceptable prejudice ⁶ 6 See generally, Michael L. Perlin, The Hidden Prejudice: Mental Disability on Trial (American Psychological Association, 2000). View all notes – that has persisted in spite of prophylactic legislative and judicial reforms, and – at least superficially – an apparent uptick in public awareness. I have railed multiple times about the “irrational,” “corrosive”, “malignant” and “ravaging” effects of sanism, but its “pernicious power” still poisons all of mental disability law. ⁷ 7 See for example, Michael L. Perlin, “‘And My Best Friend, My Doctor, Won’t Even Say What It Is I’ve Got’: The Role and Significance of Counsel in Right to Refuse Treatment Cases” (2005) 42 San Diego L. Rev. 735, 750 (“irrational”); Michael L. Perlin, “Life Is In Mirrors, Death Disappears: Giving Life to Atkins” (2003) 33 N. Mex. L. Rev. 315, 346 (“ravaging”); Michael L. Perlin, “She Breaks Just Like a Little Girl: Neonaticide, The Insanity Defense, and the Irrelevance of Ordinary Common Sense” (2003) 10 Wm. & Mary J. Women & L. 1, 25 (“malignant and corrosive”); Michael L. Perlin, “Everybody Is Making Love/Or Else Expecting Rain: Considering the Sexual Autonomy Rights of Persons Institutionalized Because of Mental Disability in Forensic Hospitals and in Asia” (2008) 83 U. Wash. L. Rev. 481, 502 (“corrosive”); Michael L. Perlin, “Things Have Changed: Looking at Non-institutional Mental Disability Law Through the Sanism Filter” (2002–03) 46 N.Y.L. Sch. L. Rev. 535, 541 (“pernicious power”). View all notes

The recently-ratified Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is the most revolutionary international human rights document – ever – that applies to persons with disabilities. The Disability Convention furthers the human rights approach to disability and recognizes the right of people with disabilities to equality in most every aspect of life. It firmly endorses a social model of disability – a clear and direct repudiation of the medical model that traditionally was part-and-parcel of mental disability law. It calls for “respect for inherent dignity” and “non-discrimination.” Subsequent articles declare “freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” “freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse,” and a right to protection of the “integrity of the person.”

In this paper, I consider the impact that the Convention is likely to have on sanism. First, I will briefly discuss both our sanist past and our sanist present. Then, I will consider how the CRPD has the greatest potential for combating sanism, and for changing social attitudes. In this latter inquiry, I will also draw on the tools of therapeutic jurisprudence. Then, I will offer some brief and modest conclusions.     

Evaluation of the “monolog” spike and wave monitor: a study on patients with typical absences

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness and accuracy of the “monolog,” a pocket-size spike and wave monitor, in patients with typical absence seizures.Two observers were scoring independently and blindly from the monitor the number and duration of the 3 Hz spike-wave discharges from the EEG recordings of 10 selected patients having typical absences.High correlation was found between the two observers' scorings for both the number and the mean duration of events (Spearman's rank correlation (r): 0.9970, P < 0.001, and 0.9758, P < 0.001). Conversely, a poor correlation was found between each of the observer and the duration (r: 0.9848, P < 0.001, and 0.9788, P < 0.001). Conversely, a poor correlation was found between each of the observers and the “monolog” for the number of events (r: 0.7121, P = 0.021, and 0.6939, P = 0.026).In conclusion, the “monolog” accurately measured the duration of 3 Hz spike-wave activity; however, it failed to accurately count the number of events that occurred throughout the recordings. We suggest that this device, with appropriate modification to its memory epochs, may be a useful tool in monitoring patients with typical absences.     

“Positive Attitude”: A multilevel model analysis of the effectiveness of a Social and Emotional Learning Program for Portuguese middle school students

This study investigated the impact, reported by students and their teachers, of a universal, school-based, social-emotional learning program, implemented in three school years on the social-emotional competencies of middle school students (7th to 9th grade). It also analyzes, at post-test and follow-up, the differential results by gender and among students with lower levels of competence. There were 1091 participants, 855 students received the treatment condition (i.e., Project Attitude) and 236 students the control condition. Self-reports identified positive intervention results in social awareness, self-control, self-esteem, social isolation and social anxiety, teachers reported gains in all dimensions. These positive effects were stably effective along the three cohorts. Self-reports also identified bigger gains for girls in social awareness and for boys in social anxiety, self-esteem and leadership. Students with initial lower levels of competence benefited more from the intervention, especially at follow-up. These results support the effectiveness of social-emotional learning programs.     

Letter to the editors: comment on “Dissociation of caloric and head impulse tests: a marker of Meniere’s disease”

Journal of Neurology -     

“Finding a Space for Me Outside the Stereotypes”: Community Engagement in Policy and Research to Foster Canadian Racialised Immigrant Women’s Mental Health and Well-Being

Racialised immigrant women face many challenges with resettlement with potential impacts on their mental health and well-being. Recent community-based research (CBR) and associated knowledge translation/exchange (KTE) activities with racialised immigrant women in Toronto, Canada, suggest that activism can promote their mental health and well-being. In this paper, the researchers describe community engagement processes in the CBR that included a stakeholder Think Tank with communities, researchers and service providers in settlement and mental health sectors to create an action plan based on the research. Using a feminist post-colonial lens to analyse the Think Tank data yielded research, policy and program strategies aligned with principles such as building on individuals’ and communities’ strengths and foregrounding gender and racialisation in strategies that can enhance racialised immigrant women’s capacities to take action and overcome barriers. Research, policy and program implications for comprehensive strategies that support health equity, thereby promoting their mental health and well-being, are considered.