1,721,068 research outputs found
Uno studio preliminare sul funzionamento riflessivo degli adolescenti adottati: implicazioni cliniche
No full textUn’ampia letteratura ha messo in luce il collegamento tra un cattivo funzionamento della mentalizzazione e alcuni disturbi psicologici in età adulta ed evolutiva (Sharp e Venta, 2012). Molto meno è noto rispetto alla capacità di mentalizzare degli adolescenti adottati tardivamente che, date le loro relazioni di attaccamento precoci gravemente compromesse, potrebbero rappresentare una popolazione portatrice di particolari vulnerabilità nel funzionamento riflessivo (FR). Questo contributo si propone l’obiettivo di esaminare quanto sia variabili descrittive (età, genere, scuola frequentata, numero di fratelli), sia variabili legate all’adozione (età al momento del collocamento, paese d’origine, durata dell’adozione, istituzionalizzazione) possano esercitare un’influenza sul funzionamento riflessivo di un gruppo di 36 adolescenti che al momento dell’adozione avevano tutti più di 4 anni.
La capacità riflessiva è stata valutata attraverso la Friend and Family Interview, che misura il FR comprendendo tre dimensioni: la prospettiva evolutiva (PE), la teoria della mente (ToM) e la diversità dei sentimenti (DS). I dati hanno mostrato che le variabili legate all’adozione non sono correlate ai punteggi di funzionamento riflessivo eccetto una correlazione tra la durata dell’inserimento e la DS (amico). Delle variabili descrittive, l’età al momento della valutazione risulta correlata positivamente sia con la ToM (madre, fratello, amico, insegnante), sia con la DS (madre, fratello, amico), mentre le ragazze mostrano punteggi superiori nella PE (U Mann Whitney=84,000, p<.05) e nella DS (amico, U Mann Whitney=69,000, p<.01). Non emergono differenze di FR rispetto alla numerosità della fratria.
Questi risultati evidenziano che tra gli adolescenti adottati, come emerso negli studi con campioni normativi, l’essere più grandi di età e l’appartenenza al genere femminile rappresentino fattori che favoriscono una migliore espressione delle abilità di mentalizzazione
The psychological counseling service of Foggia: safeguarding the psychological well-being of the university population during the pandemic
No full textThe Covid-19 health emergency has entailed the need to reorganize academia’s research, teaching and third mission activities as well as its services for students. Adapting to distance learning, in association with social restrictions, has led to an increase in university students’ distress and levels of anxiety and depression. From November 2020, the Psychological Counseling Service of the University of Cagliari has shifted to the online mode, supported by two trainees of the University’s School of Specialization in Health Psychology.
The online counseling mostly follows the in-person model, which consists of a first interview to collect both general socio-demographic information and to identify the reasons for seeking help; then, four sessions and a follow up session after three months are offered. Questionnaires are administered throughout the process to monitor the individual’s state and progresses.
The trainees were included in the monthly planned activities under the supervision of the structured psychologist.
During the psychological counseling, the trainees have helped the students to increase their self- awareness, to clarify and redefine the meaning of their emotional experiences and to activate their individual resources, with particular attention to the impact of the forced social isolation due to Covid- 19 on their psychophysical wellbeing.
Indeed, the enhancement of life skills and resilience, the development of autonomy, and fostering functional, cognitive and metacognitive strategies are fundamental in the prevention and promotion of health and wellbeing.
The results show a significant improvement in the aforementioned dimensions and in the reduction of the students' levels of anxiety and depression. Moreover, they confirm the need for a psychological support service for students and suggest the implementation of further activities aimed at improving the level of psychological wellbeing, and at reducing mental distress and university dropouts
L’educazione inclusiva in Università. Un’indagine su atteggiamenti ed efficacia dei docenti
No full textLinking childhood emotional neglect to adolescents' parent-related loneliness: Self-other differentiation and emotional detachment from parents as mediators
Full text linkBackground: The detrimental role of childhood emotional neglect (CEN) on long-term affective and social development has received increasing attention in the literature. Individuals who were emotionally neglected during their childhood are more prone to feeling isolated and excluded by their parent during adolescence. However, little is known about the mediating processes underlying this association. Objective: This study investigated whether self–other differentiation (SOD) and emotional detachment from parents mediate the link between CEN and parent-related loneliness. Method and participants: A sample of 535 high school students aged 13–18 years (63.6% female; Mage = 16.21; SD = 1.40) completed questionnaires regarding demographics, CEN, SOD, emotional detachment, and parent-related loneliness. Results: After controlling for demographic covariates, structural equation modeling (SEM) showed that (a) CEN was positively associated with parent-related loneliness (β = 0.64, p < .001), (b) SOD did not mediate the relationship between CEN and parent-related loneliness (β = −0.01, p = .142), (c) emotional detachment partially mediated the relationship between CEN and parent-related loneliness (β = 0.16, p < .001), and (d) SOD and emotional detachment partially and sequentially mediated the link between CEN and parent-related loneliness, albeit with a small effect size (β = 0.02, p = .027). Conclusions: The findings underscore the significance of the link between CEN and parent-related loneliness in adolescence. Moreover, our results suggest that some adolescents with a history of CEN have difficulties in establishing clear boundaries between “self” and “other” and tend to engage in emotionally detached relationships with their parents, which may lead them to feel more parent-related loneliness. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed
Traumatic Experiences and Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms: The Mediating Role of Dissociation
No full textAccumulating evidence suggests that obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCSs) are positively associated with exposure to traumatic experiences and dissociative symptoms in both clinical and community samples. The current study was aimed at investigating the relationships between traumatic experiences, dissociation, and OCSs. A sample of 333 community adults (56.8% females) aged from 18 to 56 years (mean [SD], 25.64 [6.70] years) completed measures on traumatic experiences, dissociative symptoms, and OCSs. A structural equation modeling (SEM) framework was used to test if dissociative symptoms mediated the relationship between traumatic experiences and OCSs. SEM analyses showed that dissociation fully mediated the predictive association between traumatic experiences of emotional neglect and abuse and OCSs in the sample. Accordingly, some individuals suffering from OCSs might benefit from clinical interventions aimed at processing and integrating traumatic experiences
Inflammation and reactive oxygen species in status epilepticus: Biomarkers and implications for therapy.
No full textreclinical studies in immature and adult rodents and clinical observations show that neuroinflammation and oxidative stress are rapid onset phenomena occurring in the brain during status epilepticus and persisting thereafter. Notably, both neuroinflammation and oxidative stress contribute to the acute and long-term sequelae of status epilepticus thus representing potential druggable targets. Antiinflammatory drugs that interfere with the IL-1β pathway, such as anakinra, can control benzodiazepine-refractory status epilepticus in animals, and there is recent proof-of-concept evidence for therapeutic effects in children with Febrile infection related epilepsy syndrome (FIRES). Inhibitors of monoacylglycerol lipase and P2X7 receptor antagonists are also promising antiinflammatory drug candidates for rapidly aborting de novo status epilepticus and provide neuroprotection. Antiinflammatory and antioxidant drugs administered to rodents during status epilepticus and transiently thereafter, prevent long-term sequelae such as cognitive deficits and seizure progression in animals developing epilepsy. Some drugs are already in medical use and are well-tolerated, therefore, they may be considered for treating status epilepticus and its neurological consequences. Finally, markers of neuroinflammation and oxidative stress are measureable in peripheral blood and by neuroimaging, which offers an opportunity for developing prognostic and predictive mechanistic biomarkers in people exposed to status epilepticus. This article is part of the Special Issue "Proceedings of the 7th London-Innsbruck Colloquium on Status Epilepticus and Acute Seizures
Inflammation and reactive oxygen species as disease modifiers in epilepsy.
No full textNeuroinflammation and reactive oxygen and nitrogen species are rapidly induced in the brain after acute cerebral injuries that are associated with an enhanced risk for epilepsy in humans and related animal models. These phenomena reinforce each others and persist during epileptogenesis as well as during chronic spontaneous seizures. Anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant drugs transiently administered either before, or shortly after the clinical onset of symptomatic epilepsy, similarly block the progression of spontaneous seizures, and may delay their onset. Moreover, neuroprotection and rescue of cognitive deficits are also observed in the treated animals. Therefore, although these treatments do not prevent epilepsy development, they offer clinically relevant disease-modification effects. These therapeutic effects are mediated by targeting molecular signaling pathways such as the IL-1β-IL-1 receptor type 1 and TLR4, P2X7 receptors, the transcriptional anti-oxidant factor Nrf2, while the therapeutic impact of COX-2 inhibition for reducing spontaneous seizures remains controversial. Some anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant drugs that are endowed of disease modification effects in preclinical models are already in medical use and have a safety profile, therefore, they provide potential re-purposed treatments for improving the disease course and for reducing seizure burden. Markers of neuroinflammation and oxidative stress can be measured in blood or by neuroimaging, therefore they represent testable prognostic and predictive biomarkers for selecting the patient's population at high risk for developing epilepsy therefore eligible for novel treatment
Le competenze emotive nella seconda infanzia: il contributo della relazione d'attaccamento con la madre
No full textMentalizing skills of adolescent adoptees: a preliminary study
No full textIntroduction. A wide literature has highlighted the link between attachment difficulties, deficit in mentalization’s skills, and some psychopathological disorders in adolescence and adulthood. Much less is known with respect to the mentalizing abilities of adopted adolescents who had been late-placed children. However, this group could represent a population bearer of particular vulnerability in mentalization skills because of their early attachment relationships were seriously compromised.
Objectives. This work aimed at examining how both descriptive variables (age, gender, number of siblings), and adoption-related variables (age at the time of placement, country of origin, duration adoption) may impact on mentalizing skills – operationalized in terms of reflective functioning (FR)- of late-adopted adolescents.
Methods. Study group consisted of 36 adolescents (from 12 to 16 years old) free from severe physical and psychiatric disorders and/or mental retardation. They all were more than 4 years old at the time of adoption placement. The RF was assessed by the Friend and Family Interview (FFI), a semi-structured interview, which comprises three dimensions of mentalization: the Evolutionary Perspective (EP), the Theory of Mind (ToM) and the Diversity of Feelings (DS).
Results. The adoption-related variables were not associated to the RF’scores, except for a correlation between the length of placement and DS referred to best friend. Among descriptive variables, age was positively correlated with both ToM (referred to mother, brother, friend, teacher), and DS (referred to mother, brother, friend). Moreover girls showed higher scores in EP (Mann Whitney U=84,000, p<.05) and DS (friend, Mann Whitney U=69,000, p<.01) than males. No significant differences in FR compared to the number of siblings.
Discussion. These results pointed out that among adolescent adoptees, as shown in studies with non-clinical samples, being older in age and belonging to the female gender represent factors which contribute to a better expression of mentalizing abilities
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