The Role of Basic Symptoms and Aberrant Salience in Borderline Personality Disorder

Background: The prevalence of pre-psychotic symptoms and aberrant salience in BPD has not been systematically studied. The present study aims to investigate the intensity, frequency and correlation between basic symptoms, aberrant salience and borderline personality traits, in subjects that have not yet developed a frank psychotic episode.  Methods: Twenty-eight subjects, 8 males and 20 females, aged between 24 and 55 years (M = 41.36 ± 9.9) has been individually tested throughout the Frankfurt Complaint Questionnaire (FBF), the Aberrant Salience Inventory (ASI) and the Personality Inventory for the DSM-5- Adult (PID-5).  Results: Findings showed that 85.7% of the sample (n = 24) reported significant scores of the aberrant salience traits, which in turn were correlated to basic symptoms. Furthermore, emerged several correlations between pre-psychotic symptoms and PID-5 personality dimensions not only with Negative Affectivity and Detachment but also with Psychoticism. Conclusions: This study highlights the phenomenological continuity between the borderline personality traits and the attenuated manifestation of the psychotic disease

Conversation Analysis in the differential diagnosis of Italian patients with epileptic or psychogenic non-epileptic seizures: a blind prospective study

The differential diagnosis of epileptic seizures (ES) and psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) is often difficult. The diagnostic gold standard is video-EEG, but this procedure is limited because of its high cost and is not always available. Research groups from Germany and Britain have used conversation analysis (CA) of patients' descriptions of their seizures as a means of differentiating the type of seizure. The aim of this study was to verify the value of their considerations in relation to the Italian language. Ten subjects (five with ES and five with PNES) diagnosed by means of the video-EEG recording of one seizure were studied under blind conditions by a linguist. The patients with ES described their seizures in as much detail as possi- ble and tried to reconstruct the experience as fully as they can, making an effort to describe their subjective symptoms, quantify the duration of the phases preceding and following the seizure, and use the image of an external entity overcoming them. On the contrary, the patients with PNES repeated their extraneousness to the events that occur, refused to reply, expressed amnesia, reconstructed the happening by referring to de- scriptions provided by witnesses, and often describe their seizures using the image of an internal entity of which they were victims. The linguist correctly identified nine cases out of ten using CA

Statistical Analysis of Mineral Concentration for the Geographic Identification of Garlic Samples from Sicily (Italy), Tunisia and Spain

We performed a statistical analysis of the concentration of mineral elements, by means of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), in different varieties of garlic from Spain, Tunisia, and Italy. Nubia Red Garlic (Sicily) is one of the most known Italian varieties that belongs to traditional Italian food products (P.A.T.) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry. The obtained results suggest that the concentrations of the considered elements may serve as geographical indicators for the discrimination of the origin of the different samples. In particular, we found a relatively high content of Selenium in the garlic variety known as Nubia red garlic, and, indeed, it could be used as an anticarcinogenic agent

Statistical Analysis of Mineral Concentration for the Geographic Identification of Garlic Samples from Sicily (Italy), Tunisia and Spain

We performed a statistical analysis of the concentration of mineral elements, by means of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), in different varieties of garlic from Spain, Tunisia, and Italy. Nubia Red Garlic (Sicily) is one of the most known Italian varieties that belongs to traditional Italian food products (P.A.T.) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry. The obtained results suggest that the concentrations of the considered elements may serve as geographical indicators for the discrimination of the origin of the different samples. In particular, we found a relatively high content of Selenium in the garlic variety known as Nubia red garlic, and, indeed, it could be used as an anticarcinogenic agent

Breaking the Weight Stigma: A Psychosocial Education Program for Psychology Students

The study project aims to explore strategies to improve stigma awareness and reduce stigma among health professions student

Study on psychoeducation enhancing results of adherence in patients with schizophrenia (SPERA-S): Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Poor adherence to pharmacotherapy negatively affects the course and the outcome of schizophreniaspectrum psychoses, enhancing the risk of relapse. Falloon and coworkers developed a Psychoeducation Program aimed at improving communication and problem-solving abilities in patients and their families. This study set out to evaluate changes in adherence to pharmacotherapy in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia-spectrum psychoses, by comparing one group exposed to the Falloon Psychoeducation Program (FPP) with another group exposed to family supportive therapy with generic information on the disorders.Methods: 340 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and related disorders according to standardized criteria from 10 participating units distributed throughout the Italian National Health System (NHS), will be enrolled with 1:1 allocation by the method of blocks of randomized permutations. Patients will be reassessed at 6, 12 and 18 months after start of treatment (duration: 6 months). The primary objective is to evaluate changes in adherence to pharmacotherapy after psychoeducation. Adherence will be assessed at three-month intervals by measuring blood levels of the primary prescribed drug using high pressure liquid chromatography, and via the Medication Adherence Questionnaire and a modified version of the Adherence Interview. Secondary objectives are changes in the frequency of relapse and readmission, as the main indicator of the course of the disorder. Enrolled patients will be allocated to the FPP (yes/no) randomly, 1:1, in a procedure controlled by the coordinating unit; codes will be masked until the conclusion of the protocol (or the occurrence of a severe negative event). The raters will be blind to treatment allocation and will be tested for blinding after treatment completion. Intention-to-treat will be applied in considering the primary and secondary outcomes. Multiple imputations will be applied to integrate the missing data. The study started recruitment in February 2013; the total duration of the study is 27 months.Discussion: If the psychoeducation program proves effective in improving adherence to pharmacotherapy and in reducing relapse and readmissions, its application could be proposed as a standard adjunctive psychosocial treatment within the Italian NHS. Trial registration: Protocol Registration System of ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01433094; registered on 20 August 2011; first patient was randomized on 12 February 2013. © 2013 Petretto et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd