The Assessment of Psychosis

This book reviews the descriptive features of psychotic symptoms in various medical conditions (psychiatric, early psychosis, general medical, neurological and dementia), non-medical settings (individuals without the need for care or at high risk for psychosis) and age groups (children and adolescents, adults, older adults). Similarly, the perspectives of many disciplines are provided (history, psychiatry, psychology, psychopathology, neurology, phenomenological philosophy) so that readers may become familiar with different approaches that are used to define, evaluate and categorize psychosis, at times independently of clinical diagnosis. This book is a resource book for those requiring an understanding of clinical and conceptual issues associated with psychosis, with chapters written by academics and clinicians who are leaders in their respective fields. The book also provides a guide regarding the methods of assessment for psychosis and its symptoms, with 120 rating scales, which are described and evaluated.The Assessment of Psychosis will be particularly useful to the clinical and research community, but also to readers interested in individual differences and human psychopathology.

Flavie Waters, PhD, is a leading cognitive neuroscientist who has made important contributions to the understanding of psychotic symptoms. She is the founder and scientific chair of the International Consortium on Hallucination Research and is the author of numerous scientific articles that have been highly cited. A common theme in her research is to combine different branches of knowledge that can come together in a boldly ambitious effort to better understand psychosis and pursue new interventions approaches. Massoud Stephane, MD, is an influential psychiatrist and neuroscientist whose expertise spans neurology, psychiatry and in vivo brain imaging. A lot of his research is based on the patient experience as a starting point, and he made significant contributions to the understanding of hallucinatory experiences and cognitive and linguistic disturbances in schizophrenia. He is well published and highly cited in these domains.

"This is truly a unique and outstanding book that covers sub-topics and microscopic details about primary and secondary psychoses across the life cycle, that are not found in previous books about the subject. It is generously referenced and contains an unprecedented compilation and description of 120 rating scales relevant to assessing every aspect of psychosis before and after treatment. I highly recommend it to all psychiatrists and mental health professionals as a must-have reference text." --Henry A. Nasrallah, MD, The Sydney W. Souers Professor and Chairman, Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, Saint Louis University School of Medicine "If we are to make any advances in finding the biological basis of psychosis and developing possible cures, we need a much better understanding of psychotic experiences so that they can be properly characterized and identified. This book provides the most wide-ranging and up-to-date account of psychosis currently available and is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand these devastating disorders." -- Chris Frith, FRS, FBA, Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology, Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience at University College London "In The Assessment of Psychosis, Drs. Flavie Waters and Massoud Stephane have collected an excellent compendium of papers about the nature of psychotic experience, how it manifests in various populations, and how these symptoms are assessed. This is an interesting and useful book for people interested in psychosis research or working with populations where psychotic symptoms are common." --John H. Krystal, MD, Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Professor of Translational Research and Chair of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine "I regard this publication as much more than just the assessment of psychosis. It is a fundamental reappraisal of the concept, its history and its biology. There are many innovations to this multi-disciplinary, multi-faceted text. These include the ambitious attempt to embrace the whole syndrome of psychosis f