1,720,964 research outputs found
Prison suicides and self-harming behaviours in Italy, 1990-2002
No full textData on suicides, attempted suicides and other self-harming behaviours that occurred in Italian prisons from 1990 to 2002 was studied on official records, as documented by the Ministry of Justice. Over the study interval, completed suicide rates in Italian prisons were constantly about ten times higher than among the general population, but over time they did not increase significantly despite nearly a doubling in the absolute number of inmates. The rate of completed suicides in overcrowded prisons was about ten times higher than in non-overcrowded ones. Attempted suicides were about ten times higher than completed suicides, with females being significantly more likely to attempt to take their own lives and males being more likely to complete suicide. Self-injuring acts without the intent to die involve about one in every ten individuals, with foreigners (non-EU citizens mostly) being twice as likely to self-harm than residents. A better identification of the people suffering from mental disorders and a reduction in prison overcrowding are two key issues that need to be implemented to reduce the impact of suicide and self-harming behaviours among convicts
Seasonality and suicide in Italy: amplitude is positively related to suicide rates
No full textBACKGROUND:
Recent studies have reported changes in the time patterns of suicide, with conflicting findings regarding the direction of these changes: data from Italy were investigated to evaluate the influence of recent social and medicine-related changes on the seasonality of suicides in the country.
METHODS:
A total of 71,227 male suicides and 26,466 female suicides occurring in Italy from 1974 to 2003 were investigated with harmonic spectral analysis to extract their monthly seasonal dispersion by five-year intervals.
RESULTS:
The suicide rates of both males and females showed a rising trend, with an evident peak in the 1987-1994 period and a decrease thereafter. Seasonality of suicides, with a clear peak in spring as against the other seasons, accounted for a statistically significant proportion of total variance: around 40% among males and 39% among females. Seasonality did not change across time in a relevant way; however, an anticipation of the peak was observed in both males and females over time, with amplitude increasing or decreasing as a function of yearly suicide rates.
LIMITATIONS:
Data could not be analysed according to age or to the method of suicide, since this information was not available across the whole time interval.
CONCLUSION:
The seasonal effect on mortality by suicide is positively related to suicide rates, so much that changes in suicide rates over time correspond to changes in suicide seasonality
Validation of the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales as a routine measure of outcome in early intervention programmes
No full textAim: So far, no study has assessed the validity of the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS) in patients enrolled in early intervention programmes, nor has any study evaluated the validity of the HoNOS in people at ultra high-risk (UHR) of psychosis. This study set out to assess the validity and reliability of the HoNOS as a measure of outcome in the patients enrolled in an early intervention programme. Methods: The concurrent, discriminant and predictive validity, and the reliability of the HoNOS as a measure of outcome in an early intervention programe were assessed in 87 first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients, and in 81 patients at UHR of psychosis. Results: Reliability indexes were good in the FEP sample, and less good in the UHR sample. HoNOS total scores differentiated between FEP and UHR patients, and the HoNOS subscales proved able to assess a specific profile of symptoms in the two samples, demonstrating a helpful adjunctive measure of health status without complete overlap with other scales. Sensitivity to change was also very good, again with differences between FEP and UHR patients. HoNOS scores at intake did not predict failure to attain remission in FEP patients. There were too few cases of transition to psychosis (n = 2) to assess predictive validity of HoNOS in the UHR sample. Conclusion: HoNOS possesses satisfactory sensitivity and validity to be used in the routine assessment in early intervention programmes
Obstetric complications in early psychosis: Relation with family history of psychosis
No full textThe people classified as being at ultra-high risk (UHR) of developing psychosis are expected to share many risk factors for psychosis with the patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, including an enhanced incidence of obstetric complications (OCs). This study set out to investigate the incidence and correlates of OCs in a sample of patients accessing an early intervention center. Patients' mothers were asked whether they had suffered from any somatic complication during pregnancy from a list of OCs with potential direct relevance to the physical wellbeing of the offspring. Out of 86 patients diagnosed with first-episode psychosis, 20 (23%) cases were positive for the occurrence of severe OCs, as reported by their mothers during an interview; out of 83 UHR patients, 21 (25%) cases were positive for OCs. OCs were more common in individuals with a family history of psychosis than in those without such a history. OCs might interact with genetic vulnerability to increase the risk of psychosis. Lack of comparison to healthy controls is a limitation that decreases the value of these findings
Italian validation of the "Early Recognition Inventory for the retrospective assessment of the Onset of Schizophrenia Checklist": Reliability, validity and instructions for use
Full text linkObjectives: Screening questionnaires are often used at first-contact with psychiatric services to identify, among those displaying psychological distress, those who need more in-depth assessment. The Early Recognition Inventory for the retrospective assessment of the Onset of Schizophrenia Checklist (ERIraos-CL) may be a useful tool to prompt further screenings in young help-seekers, who are experiencing symptoms that are compatible with a prodromic state of psychosis. This study describes the psychometric proprieties of the Italian version of ERIraos-CL in high risk and early onset populations. Materials and methods: The study was carried out as part of Programma2000 in Milan (Italy). Participants were 113 individuals with a diagnosis of First Episode Psychosis (FEP) and 97 individuals with a diagnosis of high-risk psychosis (UHR). The ERIraos-CL reliability was measured by internal consistency (Cronbach alpha) and by test-retest stability after 6 months (intraclass correlation coefficient). The concurrent validity of ERIraos-CL was assessed by correlation with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and with the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS). The discriminant validity of this tool was assessed by comparing scores between FEP and URP with threshold at 10, which is slightly less than the threshold that discriminates between at risk cases and non-cases (12). Results: Internal consistency was good for all the scales in both samples, with low values for ERIraos-CL. Retest stability after 6 months of ERIraos-CL was acceptable (> 0.70) in both diagnostic groups. In both groups, ERIraos-CL correlated positively with HoNOS and BPRS. ERIraos-CL discriminates effectively between FEP and UHR. The two groups differ statistically by symptoms that qualify for the presence of an active episode of psychosis: suspiciousness/distrust, ideas of self-reference, changes in perception, paranoid ideation and hallucinations. Conclusions: The Italian version of the ERIraos-CL has good psychometric properties that make it suitable for routine use as a scale for the identification of the cases that might benefit from a more in-depth assessment of the risk of psychosis
Patterns of referral in first-episode schizophrenia and ultra high-risk individuals: results from an early intervention program in Italy
No full textPURPOSE:
This study set out to investigate the patterns of referral in a sample (n = 206) of patients having first-time access to an Italian comprehensive program that targets the early detection of and early intervention on subjects at the onset of psychosis. The primary goal of the study was to investigate the duration of untreated illness (DUI) and/or the duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) in the sample since the implementation of the program.
METHOD:
Data on pathways of referrals prospectively collected over a 11-year period, from 1999 to 2010; data referred to patients from a defined catchment area, and who met ICD-10 criteria for a first episode of a psychotic disorder (FEP) or were classified to be at ultra-high risk of psychosis (UHR) according to the criteria developed by the Personal Assessment and Crisis Evaluation (PACE) Clinic in Melbourne. Changes over time in the DUI and DUP were investigated in the sample.
RESULTS:
Referrals increased over time, with 20 subjects enrolled per year in the latter years of the study. A large majority of patients contacted a public or private mental health care professional along their pathway to treatment, occurring more often in FEP than in UHR patients. FEP patients who had contact with a non-psychiatric health care professional had a longer DUP. Over time, DUP and DUI did not change in FEP patients, but DUI increased, on average, in UHR patients.
CONCLUSIONS:
The establishment of an EIP in a large metropolitan area led to an increase of referrals from people and agencies that are not directly involved in the mental health care system; over time, there was an increase in the number of patients with longer DUI and DUP than those who normally apply for psychiatric services
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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