1,721,124 research outputs found
Perinatal Assessment of Paternal Affectivity (PAPA). First validation in Italian samples.
No full textPerinatal Assessment of Paternal Affectivity (PAPA). First validation in Italian samples.
Baldoni F.1, Matthey S.2, Agostini F.1, Schimmenti A.3, Caretti V.4
1Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Italy
2University of Sydney, Australia
3 Kore University of Enna, Italy
4 LUMSA University, Rome, Italy
Background: The assessment of affective disorders in fathers during the perinatal period represents a difficult challenge for clinicians. The Perinatal Assessment of Paternal Affectivity (PAPA) (Baldoni et al., 2016) is a new self-report questionnaire for the screening of affective symptoms in fathers during the perinatal period. It has been developed in recent research on perinatal affective disorders and assesses different dimensions of paternal affective problems: anxiety, depression, hostility, relational and couple difficulties, somatic complaints, dangerous behaviors and addictions (smoke, alcohol, drugs, gambling, internet, physical or sexual compulsive and at risk behavior). The PAPA has a simple structure and is very fast and simple to complete. It also considers some ethnic and socio-cultural influences.
Aim: This study presents the incoming preliminary data of a multicentric validation study of the PAPA that involved many Italian public services (AUSL Romagna, Cagliari, 15 Alta Padovana, Torino, Foggia, Roma1).
Methods: Different samples of fathers and mothers (500 couples, 1000 parents) were involved in the study. All participants, at the VII-VIII months prenatal and at 3 months postnatal, completed the following questionnaires: PAPA (prenatal and postnatal versions), CES-D, SCL-90-R, Analogical Symptom Assessment (ASA), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS), EPDS. Statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics (Version 23).
Results: Preliminary findings concerning the prenatal period showed significant association between PAPA total scores (P = .05) and single scale scores with many scores on CES-D, SCL-90-R, ASA, PSS and DAS.
Discussion: Preliminary data of this Italian validation study confirm the PAPA as a useful tool for the screening of paternal affective disorders in the perinatal period. However, the PAPA doesn’t permit an accurate diagnosis but provides a simple and practical guide for detecting fathers at high-risk of perinatal affective alteration. In these cases, a more in-depth diagnostic assessment and a possible treatment are required.
Reference: Baldoni, F., Matthey, S, Agostini, F., Schimmenti, A., & Caretti, V. (2016). Perinatal Assessment of Paternal Affectivity (PAPA): preliminary report on a new screening tool, Infant Mental Health Journal, 37 (Suppl. 1), 132-133
Perinatal Affective Disorders in fathers: from assessment to treatment
No full textPerinatal Affective Disorders in Fathers: from assessment to treatment
Baldoni F.1, Matthey S.2 and Caretti V.3
1Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Italy
2University of Sydney, Australia
3 LUMSA University, Rome, Italy
Recent research confirms that the father plays an important role from the early stage of pregnancy. However, during the perinatal period many fathers show affective disorders (like Paternal Perinatal Depression or Anxiety disorders) that can negatively affect the couple’s life, the mother’s mental health, and the child’s psychological and physical development (Ramchandani, Psychogiou, 2009; Fletcher et al. 2011; Habib, 2012; Tuszyńska-Bogucka, Nawra, 2014; Edward et al., 2015; Leach et al., 2015; Sethna et al., 2015; Paulson et al., 2016). Affective perinatal disorders in fathers are not uncommon (Paulson, Bazemore, 2010), but tend to occur differently than in women and are often under-assessed or undiagnosed. In fact, men are usually less inclined to reveal any psychological difficulty and tend to show discomfort in the form of externalizing behaviors. For these reasons, the depressive symptoms tend to be milder and more indefinite, and they frequently overlap with other psychological or behavioural problems like: anxiety symptoms, abnormal illness behaviour (hypochondria, somatization, functional medical syndromes), anger attacks and acting out (violent behaviour, extra-marital relations, fugues), relational and couple conflicts, alcohol or drug abuse, and other addict disorders. Although affective disorders in fathers were neglected by research for many years, interest in this field has increased in the last decade, and some new methods for the assessment of these paternal disorders have been proposed (Baldoni et al., 2016). Research data on the role of the father during the perinatal period, and on the specific expression of paternal perinatal affective disorders, have changed the perspective of how to assess for such mood problems in men, which will thus also impinge on the development of more effective prevention and treatment programs.
The topic of this symposium, consisting of four talks, is perinatal affective disorders in fathers and to consider new perspectives in assessment of and early intervention on these disorders, taking into account the data of recent research
Foreword
No full textIn a period in which the Covid-19 pandemic changed the way of life around the world and put the Western way of life (influenced by economic and commercial factors) in serious crisis, Dr. Sansone referred to the enhancement of past experiences and to the wisdom that can be found in ancient habits and cultures, but still present in many populations of Africa and Asia.
The author also highlights sociological and philosophical problems and promotes a vision of parenting which, by integrating different cultures, leads to changing our western stereotypes. In particular, the early (also prenatal) relationship between mother and baby is influenced, enhanced not only by the mental health of the mother, but also of the father, the healthcare practitioners, and the entire community. In fact, research has shown that the relationship between parents, especially in romantic love, tends to be configured as an attachment relationship in which, during the perinatal period, both protect the partner and their mental states influence each other. Mothers’ and their infants’ well-being have also been supported since pregnancy and beforehand by the entire village for millenia.In this perspective, Sansone proposes an innovative mindfulness relationship-based model rooted in the most ancient practice, enhancing mother-fetus communication and connection to support parental mental health and the mother-father-baby triad relationship in pregnancy and beyond birth.
This book is invaluable reading not only for psychologists and health professionals (gynecologists, pediatricians, obstetricians, midwives, neonatologists, nurses) who deal with perinatal, but also for new parents who want to grow their babies healthy and safe and thus contribute to a healthier society
Attachment, mentalization and emotional regulation: what relationship with the psychological trauma?
No full textATTACHMENT, MENTALIZATION AND EMOTION REGULATION: WHAT RELATIONSHIP WITH THE PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA?
Baldoni Franco
Attachment Assessment Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Bologna
[email protected]
Research on mentalization processes and knowledge on brain activity recently acquired by neurosciences have allowed to identify mental functions and processes involved in the regulation of emotions and impulses, including aggressive ones. People who have experienced maltreatment or neglect during childhood (developmental trauma), or other psychological traumas, show an inhibition of the prefrontal areas with a deficit in the mentalizing processes (Van der Kolk, 2014). In these cases, emotions (and the related physiological states) are not regulated and the impulses can be uncontrolled manifested in the form of acting-outs or generalized reactions, such as Fight-or-flight or Freezing. The same people will tend to present dissociative symptoms and to control mental tension using external regulators of emotions (smoking, alcohol, drugs, physical or compulsive sexual activity, internet abuse) that will promote the exhibition of maladaptive behaviors and addictions (Baldoni, 2014).
Two clinical cases undergoing dynamic psychotherapy and assessed through Adult Attachment Interview (coded according to the Dynamic-Maturative Model, DMM) will be described. In these patients the alteration of mentalization processes, and the consequent emotional dysregulation and maladaptive behavior, can be interpreted as the result of the non-resolution of a traumatic experience.
Knowledge acquired on attachment and mentalization in psychological trauma can open new perspectives in the psychotherapy of impulse control and emotional regulation problems (panic attacks, antisocial and violent patients, personality disorders), abnormal illness behavior (somatization, functional disorders, hypochondria) and dissociative and post-traumatic disorders. In these cases, interventions based on rational and conscious aspects are not very effective, while therapist’s non-verbal behavior and interventions focused on the body experiences are more important for the treatment
From psychosomatics to fatherhood research.
No full textI began to be interested in fathers from a psychological perspective at the beginning of the 90s, when, after becoming father myself and after years of psychosomatic research at the University of Bologna, I had the opportunity to study parental affective disorders and illness behaviour during the perinatal period. I was a doctor, but a psychoanalyst too, and a member of a family therapy team in public services. Considering my psychoanalytic and systemic training, it seemed natural to me carry out research by addressing the parental couple, and not only the mother. I had planned to talk to parents, as well as giving them self-report questionnaires — but I found myself immediately in difficulty. Most of the fathers did not come to meetings and when they came, they usually spoke instead of the mother. The doctors themselves and the nurses considered this normal and tended to address only the mothers. I experienced what today is called “maternal gatekeeping” and understood that the problem was complex and had social and cultural implications. With much effort and patience, I collected data from both parents and published a study comparing depression, anxiety and somatization in mothers and fathers. Following this, I began to be considered one of the first Italian researchers who took care of the fathers: a great and unexpected responsibility!
In the same years I began to be interested in attachment theory and to study the role of the father from this perspective. Affective disorders in fathers and paternal attachment became the most important fields of research within my Attachment Assessment Lab at the Department of Psychology of Bologna. In 2013 I organised “Fathers and Perinatality: Attachment, Adaptation and Psychopathology”, the first International congress on this issue. Since then I have published articles and held workshops and lectures on the father for public and private institutions. More recently, I have been collaborating with Australian researchers, in particular Stephen Matthey, University of Sidney, with whom I have developed the PAPA, a questionnaire for the screening of paternal perinatal affective disorders
Prefazione
No full textIl concetto di trauma e di stress psicologico hanno ottenuto negli ultimi decenni un progressivo riconoscimento scientifico e di conseguenza le ricerche in questo ambito si sono sviluppate moltissimo. Sulla base di questo riconoscimento sono nati i primi centri specializzati per lo studio e la cura del PTSD e di ogni altra psicopatologia conseguente a un trauma psichico, come il Trauma Center di Brookline, Massachusetts, diretto da Bessel van der Kolk, o quello di Amsterdam diretto da Berthold Gersons (University of Amsterdam, ARQ Psychotrauma Expert Group). I ricercatori e i clinici, inoltre, hanno cominciato a collaborare sulla condivisione dei risultati dei loro studi all’interno di associazioni scientifiche dedicate al trauma psicologico e al lutto traumatico come l’International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), l’International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS), la European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ESTSS) o, in Italia, la Società Italiana per lo Studio delle Stress Traumatico (SISST).
L’interesse dei ricercatori e dei clinici ha permesso di elaborare tecniche terapeutiche sempre più specifiche che permettono di migliorare il controllo e la regolazione delle emozioni e degli stati somatici alterati dalle esperienze traumatiche attraverso modalità efficaci, tenendo conto che in queste persone le capacità di mentalizzazione e di conseguenza, la regolazione delle emozioni, sono compromesse
Una prospettiva umanistica per la psicoterapia. L’importanza della relazione.
No full textLa psicologia nasce come una branca della filosofia, ma verso la fine del XIX secolo, grazie al contributo della psicoanalisi e degli studi di grandi psicologi come Pierre Janet (1859-1947), nacque la Psicologia Clinica, che ha iniziato a occuparsi di sintomi e sofferenza mentale, argomenti prima riservati alla medicina e alla neuropsichiatria. L’influenza di Freud e la tendenza ad assumere una prospettiva medico-biologica in psicoterapia si è protratta per molti anni, ma verso la metà del secolo scorso grandi clinici e psicoterapeuti cominciarono a rivalutare le emozioni degli psicoterapeuti e a ritenere la relazione clinica la base della terapia
Perinatal Distress in Fathers: Toward a Gender-Based Screening of Paternal Perinatal Depressive and Affective Disorders
No full textContemporary research has highlighted the need to assess perinatal distress using gender-specific tools for mothers and fathers . It is essential to develop new instruments to evaluate a broad range of depressive equivalents increasing the sensitivity and specificity of the screening . Currently, a diagnosis of Paternal Perinatal Affective Disorder (PPAD) may reflect a more integrated and inclusive perspective to evaluate men's mental health during the perinatal period. This approach may help in reducing sex disparities and mother-centered bias in the screening practice of the perinatal affective disorders. An appropriate screening of at-risk fathers should constitute an essential prerequisite for perinatal health services, given the impact of psychological distress on maternal health, family adaptation, and child development
The Psychosomatic Dysregulation Inventory (PDI).
No full textTo date, many assessment scales have been developed for the study of emotion dysregulation. Ideal scales used should be reliable and practical, and able to catch the specificity topic considered. This study discusses the rationale underlying the Psychosomatic Dysregulation Inventory (PDI), the methods employed in item selection and scale construction, and describes preliminary results regarding psychometric properties. 100 subjects were administered the PDI and a battery of established self-report measures. The internal consistency of PDII scales ranged from 0.71 to 0.93. The PDI showed good criterion validity, with participants with a clinical diagnosis having a significantly higher corresponding PDI scale score than participants not assigned that diagnosis. Concurrent validity, tested by correlating PDI scale scores with those of relevant, validated measures, was generally good. The PDI appears to be a good psychometrically founded self-report. These results indicate that the PDI may be useful for detecting individuals who are at high risk for psychosomatic dysregulation
Working Alliance, Attachment, and Mentalization as Relational Indexes for a Systemic Manualization of Psychotherapy
No full textEvidence-based research have confirmed that various models of psychotherapy produce very positive results, but no particular psychotherapeutic technique has shown a significant superiority compared to the others. A factor significantly related to patient or family satisfaction and to the final result of psychotherapy seems to be the quality of the therapeutic alliance or Working Alliance (WA), and the attachment paradigm has been used as a key for interpretation and assessment of this dimension. Another relational factor that seems to be a common goal for most therapies is to increase mentalization of patients and their families, but how can this factor be measured within therapeutic relationships? Following a systemic perspective that takes this evidence into account and pursues a biopsychosocial vision, in the manualization of a psychotherapeutic protocol, relational indexes as working alliance, attachment and mentalization can be considered. Different models of assessment of WA, attachment and mentalization in psychotherapy will be described. Unfortunately, most of them assess these dimensions as individual characteristics. Reflective Function in the Family (RFF) will be described, one of the few tools to evaluate mentalization in family therapy following a systemic perspective. Its integration in the manualization of a therapeutic protocol is suggested
- …
