Empathy Amplified: Exploring the Transformative Potential of Understanding Auditory Hallucinations Through Staff Training.

BACKGROUND: Stigmatization of individuals diagnosed with psychosis, especially those who experience auditory hallucinations, is a well-documented issue with negative outcomes on provision of care. Existing research has predominantly concentrated on experiential training for students, leaving a significant gap in knowledge regarding the training's impact on practicing psychiatric nurses and technicians. AIMS: This study aims to address this gap by investigating the efficacy of a concise, 1-hour educational activity designed to improve empathy, confidence, competence, and knowledge in psychiatric professionals. METHODS: Participants engaged in a 1-hour training session that included simulated activities while listening to distressing voices and completed pretraining and posttraining assessments. RESULTS: Results demonstrated a notable increase in empathy toward individuals who hear voices, suggesting that the training had a positive effect. Furthermore, significant differences were observed in the participants' perceptions of the level of difficulty as well as increased levels of confidence and perceived competence in their ability to provide care. CONCLUSIONS: The results underscore the practicality and effectiveness of brief hearing voices simulations as a means to enhance the skills of existing health care providers. This approach allows professionals to better express empathy and gain a deeper understanding of the experiences of voice hearers.

Multi-site six month outcome study of complex psychiatric patients evaluated with addition of brain SPECT imaging.

BACKGROUND: Psychiatric diagnoses are made primarily through clinical histories, with psychiatrists searching for DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)-driven symptom clusters, and outcomes for patients have not substantially improved in decades for many disorders. PRIMARY STUDY OBJECTIVE: In this study, the research team examined the outcome impact of the addition of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) to the assessment of complex patients. DESIGN: The research team designed a multisite, prospective, 6-mo outcome study. The study was completed after final outcome measures were obtained on 500 participants. SETTING: The study occurred in four psychiatric clinics, the Amen Clinics in Newport Beach and San Francisco, CA; Bellevue, WA; and Reston, VA. PARTICIPANTS: Participants were new outpatients at the four clinics who were entered into the study between January 2011 and August 2012. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Evaluations included (1) histories, (2) mental-status examinations, (3) a Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-IV), (4) the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), (5) the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), (6) the Quality of Life Inventory (QOLI), and (7) brain SPECT scans during rest and concentration. At 6 mo, standardized outcome measurements were readministered (BDI-II, BSI, QOLI), and the research team asked questions about improvement and compliance. RESULTS: Seventy-five percent of participants reported significant clinical improvement; 55% reported being "very compliant," 41% "somewhat compliant," and 4% "noncompliant." Significant improvements were observed across all three assessments: (1) BDI, 360 out of 500 (72%) participants decreased, mean difference=-6.92; (2) BSI, 367 out of 461 (80%) participants decreased, mean difference=-0.39.; (3) QOLI, 427 (85%) of participants improved) at 6 mo (Hotelling T2=460; P<.0001), mean difference=+1.65. Net improvement was measured at 81% (n=405). CONCLUSIONS: To the research team's knowledge, this study is the first outcome study of complex psychiatric patients using SPECT as an additional diagnostic tool and demonstrating significant improvement. Further studies comparing the addition of brain SPECT to "treatment as usual" groups are warranted.

A robust 3-D IVUS transducer tracking using single-plane cineangiography.

During an intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) intervention, a catheter with an ultrasound transducer is introduced in the body through a blood vessel, and then, pulled back to image a sequence of vessel cross sections. Unfortunately, there is no 3-D information about the position and orientation of these cross-section planes, which makes them less informative. To position the IVUS images in space, some researchers have proposed complex stereoscopic procedures relying on biplane angiography to get two X-ray image sequences of the IVUS transducer trajectory along the catheter. To simplify this procedure, we and others have elaborated algorithms to recover the transducer 3-D trajectory with only a single view X-ray image sequence. In this paper, we present an improved method that provides both automated 2-D and 3-D transducer tracking based on pullback speed as a priori information. The proposed algorithm is robust to erratic pullback speed and is more accurate than the previous single-plane 3-D tracking methods.

The amygdala: is it an essential component of the neural network for social cognition?

Observations from human subjects with focal brain lesions and animal subjects with experimental lesions have implicated a variety of brain regions in the mediation of social behavior. Previous studies carried out in the macaque monkey found that lesions of the amygdala not only decrease emotional reactivity but also disrupt normal social interactions. We have re-investigated the relationship between amygdala lesions and social behavior in cohorts of mature and neonatal rhesus monkeys who were prepared with selective and complete bilateral ibotenic acid lesions of the amygdaloid complex. These animals display clear alterations in emotional and social behavior. We interpret these changes as due to a loss of the ability to evaluate environmental stimuli as potential threats. However, adult animals with bilateral lesions of the amygdala demonstrate near normal, and even increased, social interactions with conspecifics. Moreover, neonatal animals, prepared with amygdala lesions at 2 weeks of age, also demonstrate species typical social behaviors such as the generation of facial expressions, grooming and play behavior. These results argue against the idea that the amygdala is essential for the interpretation of social communication or for the expression of social behavior. Because it does appear to participate in the evaluation of the "safety" of social interactions, we believe that it does have a role in modulating the amount of social behavior in which an organism will participate. However, our current answer to the question posed in the title of this paper is no!

The amygdala: is it an essential component of the neural network for social cognition?

Observations from human subjects with focal brain lesions and animal subjects with experimental lesions have implicated a variety of brain regions in the mediation of social behavior. Previous studies carried out in the macaque monkey found that lesions of the amygdala not only decrease emotional reactivity but also disrupt normal social interactions. We have re-investigated the relationship between amygdala lesions and social behavior in cohorts of mature and neonatal rhesus monkeys who were prepared with selective and complete bilateral ibotenic acid lesions of the amygdaloid complex. These animals display clear alterations in emotional and social behavior. We interpret these changes as due to a loss of the ability to evaluate environmental stimuli as potential threats. However, adult animals with bilateral lesions of the amygdala demonstrate normal, and even increased, social interactions with conspecifics. Moreover, neonatal animals, prepared with amygdala lesions at 2 weeks of age, also demonstrate species typical social behaviors such as the generation of facial expressions, grooming and play behavior. These results argue against the idea that the amygdala is essential for the interpretation of social communication or for the expression of social behavior. Because it does appear to participate in the evaluation of the "safety" of social interactions, we believe that it does have a role in modulating the amount of social behavior in which an organism will participate. However, our current answer to the question posed in the title of this paper is no!