Facteurs psychologiques et neuropsychologiques du processus délirant dans les psychoses de l’adulte

Abstract

It is recognized that psychological and neuropsychological processes play a role in the development and maintenance of positive psychotic symptoms. The sense of persecution and delusions are the result of processes in which the context of the person's life plays an important role in producing a feeling of being threatened. The maintenance of this state is favored by factors that can be grouped into two types according to their purpose. Firstly, obtaining confirmatory evidence is favored by the delusion itself. Secondly, contradictory evidence is set aside. Neuropsychologically, the aberrant salience for neutral stimuli is due to an excessive production of dopamine that underlies the positive symptoms. Attentional deficits, inhibition, executive function and social cognition are also present in these patients. This brief review of the literature highlights the importance of conducting a comprehensive assessment of psychological and neuropsychological processes as soon as possible, as deficits tend to make one more vulnerable to the perpetuation of more significant psychotic symptoms (both positive and negative) with a deleterious functional impact.