Main description:

Delusions (fixed, false beliefs that are not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence) typically occur in the context of mental disorders and are the most prominent symptom of psychosis. They are accompanied by severe distress both for the person who holds them and for other people involved.

In recent years, interest in psychological models and interventions has started to grow. Cognitive behavioral interventions, in particular, have shown promise in reducing delusional conviction and distress, however, the effect sizes leave room for improvement. A step towards improved interventions would be to arrive at a better understanding of the mechanisms that contribute to the formation and maintenance of delusions. Building on research pointing to the relevance of several psychological mechanisms, such as emotion regulation, reasoning biases, and processing of self-relevant information, interventions that focus more explicitly on these mechanisms might be beneficial.

This collection of research from around the world focuses both on the challenge of improving our understanding of the psychological mechanisms that underlie delusions and on psychological therapy approaches that can be derived from this knowledge.

Contents:

Editorial
Are Delusions Understandable? From the Mechanisms of Delusion Formation and Maintenance to the Development of Novel Interventions
Tania M. Lincoln
Review Articles
A Systematic Review of Trials Targeting Depression and Anxiety in Patients With Delusions: An Emotion-Focused Perspective
Sandra M. Opoka, Lea Ludwig, and Tania M. Lincoln
Original Articles
Does CBT for Psychosis Have an Impact on Delusions by Improving Reasoning Biases and Negative Self-Schemas? A Secondary Mediation
Analysis of Data From an Effectiveness Trial
Stephanie Mehl, Bjoern Schlier, and Tania M. Lincoln
An Investigation of Module-Specific Effects of Metacognitive Training for Psychosis
Brooke C. Schneider, Barbara Cludius, Wolfgang Lutz, Steffen Moritz, and Julian A. Rubel
Psychotic Symptoms Predicting Evidence Integration in Schizophrenia: A Multivariate Analysis of the BADE Task
Jessica Luk, Kendra Underhill, and Todd S. Woodward
Research Spotlights
How Do Delusion-Prone Individuals Respond to Disconfirmatory Evidence? Improving Comprehension of the Beads Task May Help
Jessica Howe, Robert Ross, Ryan McKay, and Ryan P. Balzan
Paranoid Delusions as an Adaptive Response to Social Evaluative Stress?
Annika Clamor and Katarina Krkovic
Opinion
Maintaining Delusional Beliefs to Satisfy and Protect Psychological Needs
Stefan Westermann, Vivien Gantenbein, Franz Caspar, and Marialuisa Cavelti