Previous studies have suggested that cognitive and psychosocial underfunctioning in early-treated adults with phenylketonuria (PKU) may be explained by suboptimal adherence to dietary treatments, however, these studies often employ small samples, with different outcome measures, definitions and cut-offs. Samples have also tended to comprise participants with a limited range of blood phenylalanine concentrations, and often individuals who may not have been treated early enough to avoid neurological damage. In this study, we explore the impact of lifetime dietary control, as indicated by blood phenylalanine concentrations in childhood, adolescence and adulthood, on long-term cognitive and psychosocial outcomes in a large sample of adults with PKU who were diagnosed by neonatal screening and commenced on dietary treatment within the first month of life. One hundred and fifty-four participants underwent cognitive testing, assessing attention, learning, working memory, language, executive functioning and processing speed. One hundred and forty-nine completed measures of psychosocial functioning, documenting educational, occupational, quality of life, emotional and social outcomes which were compared with a group of healthy controls. Many adults with PKU demonstrated cognitive impairments, most frequently affecting processing speed (23%), executive function (20%) and learning (12%). Cognitive outcomes were related to measures of historic metabolic control, but only processing speed was significantly related to phenylalanine concentration at the time of testing after controlling for historic levels. Adults with PKU did not, however, differ from controls in educational, occupational, quality of life or emotional outcomes, or on a measure of family functioning, and showed only minor differences in relationship style. These findings have implications for patient counselling and decisions regarding the management of PKU in adulthood.

This paper discusses the hierarchy within the NHS, as well as the experiences of barriers faced by BME aspiring psychologists on their journey into clinical training. It highlights areas for change and offers ideas on how to move things forward.

AimsPsychosis has a strong social component and often involves the experience of being affected by ‘illusory social agents’. However, this experience remains under-characterised, particularly for social agents in delusions and non-vocal hallucinations. One useful approach is a form of computational linguistics called corpus linguistics that studies texts to identify patterns of meaning encoded in both the semantics and linguistic structure of the text.MethodsTwenty people living with psychosis were recruited from community and inpatient services. They participated in open-ended interviews on their experiences of social agents in psychosis and completed a measure of psychotic symptoms. Corpus linguistics analysis was used to identify key phenomenological features of vocal and non-vocal social agents in psychosis.ResultsSocial agents are i) represented with varying levels of richness in participants’ experiences, ii) are attributed with different kinds of identities including physical characteristics and names, iii) are perceived to have internal states and motivations that are different from those of the participants, and iv) interact with participants in various ways including through communicative speech acts, affecting participants’ bodies and moving through space. These representation were equally rich for agents associated with hallucinated voices and those associated with non-vocal hallucinations and delusions.ConclusionsWe show that the experience of illusory social agents is a rich and complex social experience reflecting many aspects of genuine social interaction and is not solely present in auditory hallucinations, but also in delusions and non-vocal hallucinations.

Objectives. Psychosis has a strong social component and often involves the experience of being affected by 'illusory social agents'. However, this experience remains undercharacterized, particularly for social agents in delusions and non-vocal hallucinations. One useful approach is a form of computational linguistics called corpus linguistics that studies texts to identify patterns of meaning encoded in both the semantics and linguistic structure of the text.Methods. Twenty people living with psychosis were recruited from community and inpatient services. They participated in open-ended interviews on their experiences of social agents in psychosis and completed a measure of psychotic symptoms. Corpus linguistics analysis was used to identify key phenomenological features of vocal and nonvocal social agents in psychosis.Results. Social agents i) are represented with varying levels of richness in participants' experiences, ii) are attributed with different kinds of identities including physical characteristics and names, iii) are perceived to have internal states and motivations that are different from those of the participants, and iv) interact with participants in various ways including through communicative speech acts, affecting participants' bodies, and moving through space. These representations were equally rich for agents associated with hallucinated voices and those associated with non-vocal hallucinations and delusions.Conclusions. We show that the experience of illusory social agents is a rich and complex social experience reflecting many aspects of genuine social interaction and is not solely present in auditory hallucinations, but also in delusions and non-vocal hallucinations.