1,721,073 research outputs found
Hormonal Treatment Reduces Psychobiological Distress in Gender Identity Disorder, Independently of the Attachment Style.
Gender identity disorder may be a stressful situation. Hormonal treatment seemed to improve the general health as it reduces psychological and social distress. The attachment style seemed to regulate distress in insecure individuals as they are more exposed to hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system dysregulation and subjective stress.
AIM:
The objectives of the study were to evaluate the presence of psychobiological distress and insecure attachment in transsexuals and to study their stress levels with reference to the hormonal treatment and the attachment pattern.
METHODS:
We investigated 70 transsexual patients. We measured the cortisol levels and the perceived stress before starting the hormonal therapy and after about 12 months. We studied the representation of attachment in transsexuals by a backward investigation in the relations between them and their caregivers.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:
We used blood samples for assessing cortisol awakening response (CAR); we used the Perceived Stress Scale for evaluating self-reported perceived stress and the Adult Attachment Interview to determine attachment styles.
RESULTS:
At enrollment, transsexuals reported elevated CAR; their values were out of normal. They expressed higher perceived stress and more attachment insecurity, with respect to normative sample data. When treated with hormone therapy, transsexuals reported significantly lower CAR (P < 0.001), falling within the normal range for cortisol levels. Treated transsexuals showed also lower perceived stress (P < 0.001), with levels similar to normative samples. The insecure attachment styles were associated with higher CAR and perceived stress in untreated transsexuals (P < 0.01). Treated transsexuals did not expressed significant differences in CAR and perceived stress by attachment.
CONCLUSION:
Our results suggested that untreated patients suffer from a higher degree of stress and that attachment insecurity negatively impacts the stress management. Initiating the hormonal treatment seemed to have a positive effect in reducing stress levels, whatever the attachment style may be. Colizzi M, Costa R, Pace V, and Todarello O. Hormonal treatment reduces psychobiological distress in gender identity disorder, independently of the attachment style. J Sex Med **;**:**-**
Hormonal Treatment Reduces Psychobiological Distress in Gender Identity Disorder, Independently of the Attachment Style
Introduction: Gender identity disorder may be a stressful situation. Hormonal treatment seemed to improve the general health as it reduces psychological and social distress. The attachment style seemed to regulate distress in insecure individuals as they are more exposed to hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system dysregulation and subjective stress. Aim: The objectives of the study were to evaluate the presence of psychobiological distress and insecure attachment in transsexuals and to study their stress levels with reference to the hormonal treatment and the attachment pattern. Methods: We investigated 70 transsexual patients. We measured the cortisol levels and the perceived stress before starting the hormonal therapy and after about 12 months. We studied the representation of attachment in transsexuals by a backward investigation in the relations between them and their caregivers. Main Outcome Measures: We used blood samples for assessing cortisol awakening response (CAR); we used the Perceived Stress Scale for evaluating self-reported perceived stress and the Adult Attachment Interview to determine attachment styles. Results: At enrollment, transsexuals reported elevated CAR; their values were out of normal. They expressed higher perceived stress and more attachment insecurity, with respect to normative sample data. When treated with hormone therapy, transsexuals reported significantly lower CAR (P<0.001), falling within the normal range for cortisol levels. Treated transsexuals showed also lower perceived stress (P<0.001), with levels similar to normative samples. The insecure attachment styles were associated with higher CAR and perceived stress in untreated transsexuals (P<0.01). Treated transsexuals did not expressed significant differences in CAR and perceived stress by attachment. Conclusion: Our results suggested that untreated patients suffer from a higher degree of stress and that attachment insecurity negatively impacts the stress management. Initiating the hormonal treatment seemed to have a positive effect in reducing stress levels, whatever the attachment style may be. Colizzi M, Costa R, Pace V, and Todarello O. Hormonal treatment reduces psychobiological distress in gender identity disorder, independently of the attachment style. J Sex Med 2013;10:3049-3058. © 2013 International Society for Sexual Medicine
Trends in suicide attempts and deaths in Northeast Italy (2014 to 2023): A rising burden among young women
Prevention in Mental Health: From Risk Management to Early Intervention
The book brings together into a single text the interrelated but different research efforts to translate the current evidence on risk and outcome of severe mental disorders into a preventive perspective. The book also introduces a holistic approach to prevention in mental health, by combining biological, psychological and environmental evidence that attempts to blunt the risk and reduce the number of individuals with mental health vulnerabilities who eventually progress to the manifestation of a severe mental disorder. Finally, the book wants also to highlight the possibility to overcome the single disorder-oriented preventive approach in an attempt to intercept a wider at-risk youth population and explore clinical research areas underperformed where future efforts will have to concentrate.Mental health problems have their peak of incidence during the transition from childhood to young adulthood, interesting up to 20% adolescents. Half of those eventually developing such difficulties experience clinically relevant mental distress by the age of 14. Even more importantly, the symptomatic onset is generally anticipated by non-specific warning signs of psychosocial impairment potentially evolving in any severe mental disorder. This is of crucial importance, as almost one in two health problems contributing to the global disease burden across the 0-25 age span is a mental disorder.The search for preventive strategies among youth has developed over the past 2-3 decades, invigorated by a rethinking of mental disorders’ ineluctable prodromal phase into a period where the trajectory of illness can be slowed down, blunted, or even halted. The paradigms for implementing preventing approaches in mental health have often developed independent of each other. This book aims at summarizing the available evidence and make a step towards a more mature vision of the potentialities of promotion and prevention in mental health
Attachment styles in transsexual patients and clinical and nonclinical control groups: a response
[no abstract available
Can we interrogate public databases to fill critical gaps in mental health epidemiology? Testing the association between cannabis and psychosis in the UK as an example
The psychoactive properties of cannabis have been known forever. Since 1987, several prospective studies have suggested an increased risk of psychosis among cannabis users, with alternative explanations failing to account for such an effect. A cause-effect relationship has thus been implied. Further evidence has indicated that there is a dose-response relationship, and high-potency cannabis varieties confer the greatest risk of psychosis. As cannabis use has become more common over the last decades, one would expect a related increase in the number of schizophrenia cases. However, evidence in this regard remains equivocal for several reasons, including relying on databases that are not primarily designed to address such question and the issue that solid information regarding the incidence of schizophrenia is a relatively recent acquisition. Recent years have seen the development of online web publications, such as Google Trends and "Our World in Data", where data are explorable and interactable for tracking and comparing trends over specific periods and world regions. By using such databases, we believe that the question whether changes in cannabis use are associated with changes in schizophrenia rates can be answered, at least partly. Therefore, we tested these tools by evaluating trends in cannabis use and both cases and prevalence of schizophrenia in the United Kingdom, one of the countries where the incident rates for psychotic disorder have been suggested to be particularly increased by cannabis consumption. Crossing data from these tools revealed that interest in cannabis has been growing at the country level for over 10 years, with a parallel overlapping raise in psychosis cases and prevalence. Following up on this example, let us think of how many public health opportunities these public resources may offer. The question now is whether public health interventions for the benefit of the general population will follow suit
Transsexual patients' psychiatric comorbidity and positive effect of cross-sex hormonal treatment on mental health: results from a longitudinal study.
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the presence of psychiatric diseases/symptoms in transsexual patients and to compare psychiatric distress related to the hormonal intervention in a one year follow-up assessment. We investigated 118 patients before starting the hormonal therapy and after about 12 months. We used the SCID-I to determine major mental disorders and functional impairment. We used the Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) for evaluating self-reported anxiety and depression. We used the Symptom Checklist 90-R (SCL-90-R) for assessing self-reported global psychological symptoms. Seventeen patients (14%) had a DSM-IV-TR axis I psychiatric comorbidity. At enrollment the mean SAS score was above the normal range. The mean SDS and SCL-90-R scores were on the normal range except for SCL-90-R anxiety subscale. When treated, patients reported lower SAS, SDS and SCL-90-R scores, with statistically significant differences. Psychiatric distress and functional impairment were present in a significantly higher percentage of patients before starting the hormonal treatment than after 12 months (50% vs. 17% for anxiety; 42% vs. 23% for depression; 24% vs. 11% for psychological symptoms; 23% vs. 10% for functional impairment). The results revealed that the majority of transsexual patients have no psychiatric comorbidity, suggesting that transsexualism is not necessarily associated with severe comorbid psychiatric findings. The condition, however, seemed to be associated with subthreshold anxiety/depression, psychological symptoms and functional impairment. Moreover, treated patients reported less psychiatric distress. Therefore, hormonal treatment seemed to have a positive effect on transsexual patients' mental health
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