The clinical and developmental applications of this new measure are discussed.

Voice hearing (VH) is often regarded as pathognomic for schizophrenia. The purpose of this article is to review and integrate historical, clinical, epidemiological, and phenomenological evidence in order to suggest that VH may be more appropriately understood as a dissociative rather than a psychotic phenomenon. First, we discuss the lifetime prevalence of VH in the general population, which is estimated to range between 1% and 16% for adult nonclinical populations and 2% and 41% in healthy adolescent samples. Second, we demonstrate how the ubiquity of VH phenomenology, including variables like voice location, content, and frequency, limits its diagnostic and prognostic utility for differentiating psychotic from trauma-spectrum and nonclinical populations. Finally, we report on the empirical associations between VH, measures of dissociation, and trauma particularly (though not exclusively) childhood sexual abuse. There are 2 main conclusions from this review. First, we argue that available evidence suggests that VH experiences, including those in the context of psychotic disorders, can be most appropriately understood as dissociated or disowned components of the self (or self-other relationships) that result from trauma, loss, or other interpersonal stressors. Second, we provide a rationale for clinicians to use psychotherapeutic methods for integrating life events as precipitating and/or maintaining factors for distressing voices. Potential mechanisms for the relationship between trauma, dissociation, VH, and clinical diagnosis are described, including the relevance of literature from the field of attachment in providing a diathesis for dissociation. Suggestions for future research are also discussed.

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Background Self-harm, whether attributed to suicidal or non-suicidal motives, is associated with several poor outcomes in young people, including eventual suicide. Much of our understanding of self-harm in young people is based on literature from Europe (particularly, the UK), North America, and Australia. We aimed to synthesise the available evidence on prevalence, the commonly reported self-harm methods, correlates, risk and protective factors, and reasons for self-harm, in adolescents (aged 10–25 years) in sub-Saharan Africa. Method We searched MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PubMed, African Journals OnLine, and African Index Medicus for records from 1950 through August 2019, without language restrictions. We supplemented the database searches by searching relevant portals for postgraduate theses, reference harvesting, contacting authors for unpublished studies, and hand searching relevant print sources. We applied narrative synthesis to the evidence. Results Seventy-four studies from 18 sub-Saharan African countries met the inclusion criteria. The median lifetime prevalence estimate was 10·3% (interquartile range [IQR] 4·6% – 16·1%); median 12-month prevalence estimate was 16·9% (IQR: 11·5% – 25·5%); median 6-month prevalence estimate was 18·2% (IQR: 12·7% – 21·8%); and the median 1-month prevalence estimate was 3·2% (IQR: 2·5–14·8%). Studies from Western sub-Saharan Africa reported the highest 12-month prevalence estimates (median = 24·3%; IQR = 16·9% – 27·9%). Clinical samples commonly reported overdose, whereas self-cutting was most commonly reported in non-clinical samples. Academic failure, sexual, emotional, and physical abuse, romantic relationship problems, family conflict, depression, and previous self-harm were identified as key correlates of self-harm. No study reported protective factors against self-harm. Conclusion Variation in estimates was explained by small sample sizes and variation in definitions and measures used. Exploration of associations, risks and protective factors was based upon concepts and measures derived from high income countries. More detailed and culturally sensitive research is needed to understand the context-specific risks and protective factors for self-harm in adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa.

As part of an ongoing research project we examined information-processing biases in forensic and nonforensic participants (n = 10 sex offenders, n = 10 violent offenders, n = 10 nonviolent offenders, and n = 13 undergraduates). A computerised version of the Stroop task demonstrated that offenders convicted of both sexual and violent offences were significantly slower than undergraduates to color-name words relating to sexual offending (with sex offenders demonstrating the greatest interference bias). Furthermore, processing bias was also evident for aggression words in violent offenders and violent sexual offenders but not in non-violent sexual offenders. Specifically, paedophiles convicted of indecent assault presented different response profiles compared to heterosexual rapists. These findings suggest that tests that assess information processing bias for salient material may also prove useful as an assessment tool within forensic populations.

Three experiments that focus on explicit and implicit response effects when listening to or performing music are reported. Experiment 1 involved musically trained and untrained subjects listening to 5 musical extracts. Quantitative and qualitative measures were adopted in the form of a number of emotional responses per bar, and interview data focusing upon how subjects felt during each extract. Experiment 2 involved 8 of the 30 subjects from experiment 1 listening to two of the same five extracts, approximately one year after the earlier study. Similar measures were recorded. Experiment 3 involved four trained performers, paired as two duets. The same quantitative and qualitative measures were recorded from their performances of two duet pieces. Data from all three experiments indicated few systematic patterns. Trained and untrained listeners differed in their qualitative responses, but not quantitatively in their emotional responses. Both explicit and implicit effects were evident in the qualitative data, with variation in both being greatest amongst untrained listeners. Performers exhibited both explicit and implicit effects. Explicit effects were more evident when referring to their own performance, and implicit effects were more evident in responses to the performance of the other instrumentalist. The qualitative data are discussed with reference to contemporary cognitive theories of emotion, context and congruency effects in memory, and traditional views of the emotional response to music.

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