There is a common perception that creativity is associated with psychopathology. Previous studies have shown that members of creative groups such as comedians, artists and scientists scores higher than the norm on psychotic traits, and scientists in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields score highly on autistic traits.

To test whether magicians, a creative group that has not been studied before, also score highly on psychopathological traits and autism, and to test the associations of creative self-efficacy and creative identity with schizotypal and autistic traits among magicians.

A sample of 195 magicians and 233 people from the general population completed measures of schizotypal traits (Oxford–Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences) and autism (Abridged Version of the Autism-Spectrum Quotient), as well as the Short Scale of Creative Self. Magicians were also compared with other creative groups with respect to schizotypal traits, based on previously published data.

Magicians scored lower than the general population sample on three of the four schizophrenia measures (cognitive disorganisation, introvertive anhedonia and impulsive nonconformity) but did not differ with respect to unusual experiences or autism scores. Magicians scored higher on creative self-efficacy and creative personal identity than the general sample. Magicians’ scores on schizotypal traits were largely lower than those of other creative groups. Originality of magic was positively correlated with unusual experiences (r = 0.208), creative self-efficacy (r = 0.251) and creative identity (r = 0.362).

This is the first study to show a creative group with lower scores than norms on psychotic traits. The results highlight the unique characteristics of magicians and the possible myriad associations between creativity and mental disorders among creative groups.

At present, the mental health of members in international Buddhist organizations is often damaged by decontextualized concepts and misleading meditation training. As the treatment of resulting mental diseases presents therapeutic challenges, currently diagnostic and related therapeutic considerations are crucial.

Since subjects predominantly reported having received several diagnoses, with depression, anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder being the most frequently assigned, a diagnostic assessment device was employed for further differentiation.

The questionnaire SCL-90 was used to evaluate the nine dimensions: interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, paranoid ideation, psychoticism, somatization, obsessive-compulsive disorder, hostility and phobic anxiety.

In a pilot group of eight German-speaking subjects of different Buddhist groups the general psychological burden (GSI) was significantly elevated in six of them. However, the intensity of responses in precisely those two individuals in whom it was not increased was far below the norm (PSDI). Furthermore, seven of the subjects had an above-average number of symptoms indicating burden (PST). All of them showed a heightened level of interpersonal sensitivity and for most of the subjects anxiety, depression, paranoid ideation and psychoticism were above the mean value of the norm group.

As for psychiatric treatment and psychotherapy, extended research with a larger group of such subjects and at the beginning of their treatment is crucial. Particularly, hypotheses on the causes of their social insecurity, depressivity, paranoid thinking as well as psychoticism based on the distorted concepts and neologisms these persons were exposed to (e.g. ‘karma-purification’) as well as their ways of ‘meditation-training’ seems to hold core relevance.

This research was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, funding reference number: 01UL1823X.

Some psychological disorder-comorbid with a medical diagnosis-presents a challenge for treatment because of diagnostic and treatment dilemmas. This study investigated associations between Psychoticism and Paranoid ideas in internal medicine and A&E1patient in a university hospital.

In this cross-sectional study, we checked 150 patients of internal medicine department and 150 patients, who have admitted to the A&E department as a control group. They have chosen by a Purposive accessible sampling method. The psychopathological profile was assessed using the SCL-90 questionnaire by Iranian version. Data have been computed and analyzed by SPSS V.17 and we used t-student, Mann-Whitney tests and logistic regression methods. The results have been considered significant when the two tailed p-value was less than 0.05.

In internal ward 70% and A&E department 43.3% of patient have had Paranoid ideas (OR= 4.2; 95% CI, 1.9 to 8.9). Psychoticism were observed in 38% of internal medicine patients and 20% of A&E's patients (OR= 7.64; 95% CI, 3.2 to 17.8).

The present results confirm the high prevalence rate of Psychoticism and Paranoid ideas in patients that hospitalized in internal to A & E ward. Recommendation are made to further investigate by greater sample size and different setting in this field is warranted.

Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the startle response provides an operational index of sensorimotor gating that is reliably demonstrable in both human and animal subjects. Patients with schizophrenia, first-degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia, patients with schizotypal personality disorder and healthy individuals scoring high on psychometric measures of psychosis-proneness display reduced PPI. This study examined associations between individual differences in “psychosis-proneness” and brain activity during a tactile prepulse inhibition paradigm previously found to reveal activation in controls and deficient activation in schizophrenia patients in the striatum, thalamus, insula, hippocampal, temporal, inferior frontal, and inferior parietal regions.

Fourteen right-handed healthy men underwent psychophysiological testing and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a 15-min tactile PPI paradigm involving the use of tactile stimuli as both the pulse (a 40-ms presentation of 30 psi air-puff) and the prepulse (a 20-ms presentation of 6 psi air-puff presented 30-ms or 120-ms before the pulse). Individual differences in “psychosis-proneness” were assessed with Psychoticism scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQ-R).

High psychosis-proneness was associated with lower PPI and reduced activity in the inferior frontal gyrus, insula extending to putamen and thalamus, parahippocampal gyrus, and inferior parietal and middle temporal regions. No regional activity correlated positively with psychosis-proneness.

The present observations extend the findings observed previously in people with schizophrenia to people with high psychosis-proneness, providing support to continuum theories of psychosis with implications for understanding trait-related neural deficits in schizophrenia.

Risk of psychosis is defined by the presence of positive psychotic-like symptoms, by subtle self-perceived cognitive and perceptual deficiencies, or by decreased functioning with familial risk of psychosis. We studied the associations of psychiatric outpatients' self-reported functioning and interpersonal relationships with vulnerability to and risk of psychosis.

A total of 790 young patients attending psychiatric outpatient care completed the PROD screen [Heinimaa M, Salokangas RKR, Ristkari T, Plathin M, Huttunen J, Ilonen T, et al. PROD-screen – a screen for prodromal symptoms of psychosis. Int J Meth Psychiatr Res 2003;12:92–04.], including questions on functioning, interpersonal relationships and subtle specific (psychotic-like) and non-specific symptoms. Vulnerability to psychosis was assessed employing the patient's written descriptions of specific symptoms. Of the patients vulnerable to psychosis, those at current risk of psychosis were assessed using the Bonn Scale for Assessment of Basic Symptoms [Schultze-Lutter F, Klosterkötter J. Bonn scale for assessment of basic symptoms – prediction list, BSABS-P. Cologne: University of Cologne; 2002] and the Structured Interview for Positive symptoms [Miller TJ, McGlashan TH, Rosen JL, Somjee L, Markovich PJ, Stein K, et al. Prospective diagnosis of the initial prodrome for schizophrenia based on the structured interview for prodromal syndromes: preliminary evidence of interrater reliability and predictive validity. Am J Psychiatry 2002;159:863–65.].

In all, 219 patients vulnerable to and 55 patients at current risk of psychosis were identified. Vulnerability to psychosis was associated with all items of functioning and interpersonal relationships. Current risk of psychosis, however, was associated only with the subjectively reported negative attitude of others. Negative attitude of others was also associated with feelings of reference at both vulnerability and risk levels.

The subjective experience of negative attitude of others towards oneself may be an early indicator of psychotic development.