Background. Like evidence-based medicine, clinical psychology is interested in obtaining results that can be extrapolated to many areas of studying the human psyche. Meta-analysis is the method of obtaining results that can be used in other areas of psychological research. The study of meta-analysis in relation to clinical psychology is of particular importance.

The Objective of this research is to analyze the features of using meta-analysis in clinical psychology, to show its limitations and procedure. Design. At the initial stage of our theoretical research, the main directions and tasks of using meta-analysis in clinical psychology were analyzed. The next step was the description of the meta-analytical clinical and psychological research procedure. The solution of tasks identified in this work are the basis of meta-analytical research in clinical psychology.

Results. In clinical and psychological research, meta-analysis was found to be used in evaluating the effectiveness of behavioural, cognitive, and cognitive-behavioural therapy, psycho-pharmacological interventions in schizophrenia, anxiety and depressive disorders, chronic fatigue, personality pathology, and autistic spectrum disorders.

A separate part of the research embraces the assessment results of the influence of various factors on the psychopathology. The difficulties of using meta-analysis in clinical psychology were described.

Conclusion. Meta-analysis is a powerful tool for obtaining data in clinical psychology; thanks to him, it becomes possible to generalize the results of a multitude of clinical and psychological studies and to evaluate the effectiveness of various types of psychosocial interventions.

The paper considers the first case of using polygraph («lie detector») in the history of Russia for diagnosing possible simulation of auto amnesia symptoms (biographical amnesia).

In recent years, the number of cases of biographical amnesia have increased greatly. Today there are several scientific concepts to explain the amnesia of biographical information using a number of approaches. Some psychiatrists believe that the existence of specified disorder is false. The appeal of scientists to the method of psychophysiological research using the polygraph to diagnose possible simulation of auto amnesia is due to the fact that the object of such research is human memory, i.e. mental process of influenced by different types of amnesia.

This paper describes basic provisions of carrying out technology research for diagnosing possible cases of simulating symptoms of biographical amnesia, highlighting the progress in detail, conditions and results of the performed experiment that showed that the functional status of the patient was unsuitable for using the polygraph. Therefore, to reach a conclusion about the simulation of the symptoms of the disease is not possible.

The most probable causes of this result deal with the assumption about patient taking therapeutically potent drugs that produce a pronounced anti-anxiety effect. Reexamination after the expiration of pharmacological drug term is recommended.

The paper is of practical interest to psychiatrists, experts in the field of medical and clinical psychology, polygraph practitioners.

The paper deals with a complex of issues relating to the current state and use of the category of “syndrome”, which until recently has been inclusive within the field of professional medical use and clinical psychology. However, since late 20th century, this category has been more and more often used when describing the specific manifestations of human psyche in the particular circumstances of life and activity with the absence of disease symptoms and presented a huge list of so-called “psychological syndromes” of the norm. In this connection, there arise a number of issues concerning the relations of new approaches to understanding the category of “syndrome” with past performances, and also research methodology, which determines task setting, the unit of analysis of human psyche and psychological syndrome-making determinants. The authors assume the answer to these questions lie in the methodology by L.S.Vygotsky and further syndrome analysis method by A.R. Luria. The paper provides a brief history of the notion of “syndrome” and its transition from medical study to psychology with the developed meaning based on the structure of higher mental functions in the neuropsychological paradigm. The basic structural components of the syndrome in system-dynamic relationship are discussed. Special attention is paid to the problem of “factor” as a common syndrome-making state which integrates symptoms into hierarchically organized circuit. Various aspects of the categorization are discussed, i.e. whether it belongs to the norm or pathology.

In the context of the syndrome approach development prospects, new issues of polycausativity syndrome appear in relation to the classical paradigm, with compensatory symptoms, the need for statistical data verification, the role of individual supervision and others to be further included into the paradigm. The main current approaches of studying different syndromes using the potential of the Russian methodology of syndrome analysis, the basic principles of postnonclassical model of scientific rationality are considered.

Hostility is considered as a psychological factor in the development of physical and mental diseases. The author specifies the term “hostility“, differentiating it from such concepts as aggression, aggressiveness, anger and cynicism. The results of studies showing the role of hostility in development of physical and mental disorders, as well as in occurrence of antisocial and criminal behavior in humans, are discussed.