Risultati di uno studio di prevalenza, incidenza e nuova insorgenza di depressione in epoca perinatale

Objective: Perinatal depression is a particular challenge to clinicians, and its prevalence estimates are difficult to compare across studies. Furthermore, to our knowledge, there are no studies that systematically assessed the incidence of perinatal depression. The aim of this study is to estimate the prevalence, incidence, recurrence, and new onset of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, minor and major depression (mMD) in an unselected population of women recruited at the third month of pregnancy and followed up until the 12th month postpartum. Method: The study was directed by the Perinatal Depression - Research and Screening Unit (PND-ReScU®). The PND-ReScU® is based on an ongoing collaboration between the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and the Department of Psychiatry, Neurobiology, Pharmacology, and Biotechnologies of the Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana (AOUP). One thousand sixty-six pregnant women were recruited. Minor and major depression was assessed in a naturalistic, longitudinal study. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Disorders were administered at different time points during pregnancy and in the postpartum period. Results: The period prevalence of mMD was 12.4% in pregnancy and 9.6% in the postpartum period. The cumulative incidence of mMD in pregnancy and in the postpartum period was 2.2% and 6.8%, respectively. Thirty-two (7.3%) women had their first episode in the perinatal period: 1.6% had a new onset of depression during pregnancy, 5.7% in the postpartum period. Conclusions: Our postpartum prevalence figures, which are lower than those reported in the literature, may reflect treatment during the study, suggesting that casting a multiprofessional network around women in need of support may be potentially useful for reducing the effects of this disorder on the mother and the newborn child. Furthermore, our results indicate that women with a history of depression have a 2-fold risk of developing mMD in the perinatal period. Scopo: Per i clinici, il tema della depressione in epoca perinatale rappresenta una sfida peculiare, essendo difficile confrontare tra i diversi studi in merito la prevalenza di tale patologia. In aggiunta, stando ai dati attualmente in nostro possesso, non esistono studi volti a determinare in modo sistematico l'incidenza di depressione in epoca perinatale. L'obiettivo della presente tesi è la determinazione della prevalenza, dell'incidenza, della ricorrenza e del “new onset” di depressione maggiore e minore (mMD), secondo i criteri diagnostici del Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, in una popolazione non selezionata di millesessantasei donne, arruolate al terzo mese di gravidanza e seguite fino al dodicesimo mese del post partum. Metodo: Lo studio è stato condotto dalla Perinatal Depression – Research and Screening Unit (PND-ReScU®), che nasce dalla collaborazione del Dipartimento di Ginecologia e Ostetricia e il Dipartimento di Psichiatria, Neurobiologia, Farmacologia e Biotecnologie dell'Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana (AOUP). Sono state arruolate millesessantasei donne. La presenza di depressione maggiore o minore è stata valutata in uno studio longitudinale naturalistico. Gli strumenti utilizzati sono stati la Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) e la Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic anda Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (SCID). La presenza di psicopatologia è stata indagata in momenti successivi e prefissati dallo studio sia durante la gravidanza che nel post partum. Risultati: La prevalenza periodica di mMD è stata del 12.4% in gravidanza e del 9.6% nel post partum. L'incidenza cumulativa di mMD in gravidanza e nel post partum è stata del 2.2% e 6.8% rispettivamente. Trentadue donne hanno manifestato il loro primo episodio depressivo nel periodo perinatale e, in particolare, l'1.6% durante la gravidanza e il 5.7% nel post partum. Conclusioni: I tassi di prevalenza riportati nel nostro studio, che risultano essere inferiori a quelli riportati dalla letteratura, potrebbero riflettere gli effetti del trattamento ricevuto nel corso della ricerca. Tali risultati suggeriscono come un'assistenza da parte di un team multiprofessionale alla donna in gravidanza, bisognosa di un supporto specialistico, possa configurarsi quale intervento preventivo, in grado di ridurre gli effetti deleteri della malattia sia sulla madre che sul nascituro

How Many Bodies Are There? Unexpected Discoveries About the Subtle Body and Psychic Body

1. Patrizio E. Tressoldi[1][1][⇑][2] 2. Luciano Pederzoli[2][3] 3. Patrizio Caini[2][3] 4. Alessandro Ferrini[2][3] 5. Simone Melloni[2][3] 6. Elena Prati[2][3] 7. Diana Richeldi[2][3] 8. Florentina Richeldi[2][3] 9. Alice Trabucco[2][3] 1. 1Universita di Padova, Italy 2. 2EvanLab, Firenze, Italy 1. Patrizio E. Tressoldi, Universita di Padova, via Venezia 8, Padova 35131, Italy. Email: patrizio.tressoldi{at}unipd.it The possibility to induce real out-of-body experiences (OBEs) using hypnotic inductions, with the opportunity to interview participants during their experience, permits to investigate in depth the characteristics of different aspects of this particular state of consciousness from a first-person point of view. In this article, six selected participants report the description of another "body" we named "subtle body," identified as an intermediate entity between the physical body (Pb) and their "Self" or "I-identity" that was named "psychic body," and their relationships and characteristics. The "subtle body" was described as a sort of white silvered cloud surrounding the Pb, with a particular enlargement of its hands and feet that could move quickly like flying from one place to another even if less easily than the "psychic body," and a vague sense of attrition was perceived when passing through walls. Similar to the "psychic body," the "subtle" one too could move forward and backward in time even if they did not seem perceiving the sense of time. The "subtle body" was referred to be connected with the physical one by a sort of white brilliant link sometimes described like a silvered string more or less visible, whereas no visible links were identified between the "subtle body" and the "psychic" one. These reports were compared with similar descriptions deriving from the Vedanta philosophy and Theosophical tradition. [1]: #aff-1 [2]: #corresp-1 [3]: #aff-

Linguistic profile automated characterisation in pluripotential clinical high-risk mental state (CHARMS) conditions: methodology of a multicentre observational study

Introduction: Language is usually considered the social vehicle of thought in intersubjective communications. However, the relationship between language and high- order cognition seems to evade this canonical and unidirectional description (ie, the notion of language as a simple means of thought communication). In recent years, clinical high at-risk mental state (CHARMS) criteria (evolved from the Ultra-High-Risk paradigm) and the introduction of the Clinical Staging system have been proposed to address the dynamicity of early psychopathology. At the same time, natural language processing (NLP) techniques have greatly evolved and have been successfully applied to investigate different neuropsychiatric conditions. The combination of at-risk mental state paradigm, clinical staging system and automated NLP methods, the latter applied on spoken language transcripts, could represent a useful and convenient approach to the problem of early psychopathological distress within a transdiagnostic risk paradigm. Methods and analysis: Help-seeking young people presenting psychological distress (CHARMS+/− and Clinical Stage 1a or 1b; target sample size for both groups n=90) will be assessed through several psychometric tools and multiple speech analyses during an observational period of 1-year, in the context of an Italian multicentric study. Subjects will be enrolled in different contexts: Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health (DINOGMI), Section of Psychiatry, University of Genoa—IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, Genoa, Italy; Mental Health Department—territorial mental services (ASL 3—Genoa), Genoa, Italy; and Mental Health Department—territorial mental services (AUSL—Piacenza), Piacenza, Italy. The conversion rate to full-blown psychopathology (CS 2) will be evaluated over 2 years of clinical observation, to further confirm the predictive and discriminative value of CHARMS criteria and to verify the possibility of enriching them with several linguistic features, derived from a fine-grained automated linguistic analysis of speech. Ethics and dissemination: The methodology described in this study adheres to ethical principles as formulated in the Declaration of Helsinki and is compatible with International Conference on Harmonization (ICH)-good clinical practice. The research protocol was reviewed and approved by two different ethics committees (CER Liguria approval code: 591/2020—id.10993; Comitato Etico dell’Area Vasta Emilia Nord approval code: 2022/0071963). Participants will provide their written informed consent prior to study enrolment and parental consent will be needed in the case of participants aged less than 18 years old. Experimental results will be carefully shared through publication in peer- reviewed journals, to ensure proper data reproducibility. Trial registration number DOI:10.17605/OSF.IO/BQZTN

Apparto di trasporto

Viene descritto un apparato di trasporto (1) su ruote utilizzata come ambulanza e comprendente un telaio (3) per supportare in modo amovibile una barella (4), in cui una prima ruota (5) è fissa e una seconda ruota (6) è mobile con la possibilità di assumere una posizione abbassata, in cui coopera con la prima ruota (5) per movimentare l’apparato a guisa di carriola, e una posizione sollevata, non operativa, per consentire di movimentare l’apparato collegato a lato di una bicicletta (2) a guisa di “side-car” sulla prima ruota (5)

Commentary on the study of Roy et al. Amygdala based altered mir-128-3p in conferring susceptibility to depression-like behavior via Wnt signaling

The study of Roy and colleagues, recently accepted for publication on Int J Neuropsychopharmacol is a very interesting report investigating the role of specific microRNAs (miRNAs) in vulnerability or resistance to major depressive disorder (MDD) in a specific brain region (e.g., amygdala). MiRNAs may act as a mega controller of gene expression being involved in the pathogenesis of major neuropsychiatric conditions. Interestingly, some of the altered miRNAs (e.g., hsa-miR-425-3p, miR-425, miR-674-3p, and miR-873-3p) identified in this study were found to be dysregulated even in existing studies but several methodological issues may hamper the translation of basic research findings in clinical studies. MiRNAs are proposed as possible biomarkers of disease and treatment response to disentangle the biological complexity underlying major affective disorders. The main implications regarding the present findings are discussed

COVID-19 pandemic impact on the therapeutic setting in Mental Health Services

Background: The new 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak forced mental health providers to overcome their general reluctance about telematic assistance, shifting from a face-to-face approach to online therapy to promote continuity of care for psychiatric patients. Methods: An ad-hoc web-based survey questionnaire assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on therapeutic setting in Mental Health Services was sent via email from March 15, 2021 to June 15, 2021 to mental health providers in Genova, Italy. The survey was anonymous and a free Google Forms® software was used. Results: Two hundred nineteen mental health providers completed the survey, and the overall response rate (ORR) was 65%. During the COVID-19 pandemic period, the continuity of care was mainly guaranteed using electronic devices. Psychologists reported a higher availability of video call assistance service to guarantee continuity of care for psychiatric patients compared to psychiatrists and psychotherapists (p&lt;0,001). Psychiatrists reported the lowest degree of satisfaction about this new telematic approach (p&lt;0,01), while psychologists and to a lesser extent psychotherapists speculated to use it even in non-pandemic times (p=0,02). Conclusions: COVID-19 pandemic creates an opportunity to overcome normative, technological and cultural barriers to the use of online psychotherapy, showing the importance of adapting the therapeutic setting to both collective and individual needs. Despite initial concerns about its effectiveness and efficacy, a general degree of satisfaction was expressed by the majority of the mental health providers. Further efforts will be needed to enhance this new way of working and to train therapists with particular regard to those employed in the public health system.</p

The potential of microRNAs as putative biomarkers in major depressive disorder and suicidal behavior

Major affective disorder are common and disabling conditions linked to significant psychosocial impairment as well as negative outcome (e.g., suicidal behaviors) . According to a molecular perspective, major depressive disorder and suicidal behavior have been associated with structural and synaptic plasticity disturbances. Small non-coding RNAs, such as microRNAs (miRNAs), may play a significant role in the translational regulation of the synapse. This comprehensive overview is aimed to carefully review the preclinical and clinical literature results regarding the involvement of miRNAs in the pathophysiology and pharmacotherapy of major psychiatric conditions . MiRNAs may act as gene expression regulators critically affecting brain development. The alteration of some intracellular mechanisms together with impaired assembly, localization, and translational regulation of specific RNA binding proteins may affect important functions such as learning and memory contributing to the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder and suicidal behavior. Based on the main findings, most of the miRNAs which have been identified to date are expressed in human brain, where they regulate prominent neurobiological processes, such as neurogenesis and neuroplasticity. The main implications of the present findings are critically discussed

Sensation seeking correlates with increased white matter integrity of structures associated with visuospatial processing in healthy adults

Introduction: The ability to process sensory information is an essential adaptive function, and hyper- or hypo-sensitive maladaptive profiles of responses to environmental stimuli generate sensory processing disorders linked to cognitive, affective, and behavioral alterations. Consequently, assessing sensory processing profiles might help research the vulnerability and resilience to mental disorders. The research on neuroradiological correlates of the sensory processing profiles is mainly limited to the young-age population or neurodevelopmental disorders. So, this study aims to examine the structural MRI correlates of sensory profiles in a sample of typically developed adults. Methods: We investigated structural cortical thickness (CT) and white matter integrity, through Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), correlates of Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile (AASP) questionnaire subscales in 57 typical developing subjects (34F; mean age: 32.7 ± 9.3). Results: We found significant results only for the sensation seeking (STS) subscale. Positive and negative correlations emerged with fractional anisotropy (FA) and radial diffusivity (RD) in anterior thalamic radiation, optic radiation, superior longitudinal fasciculus, corpus callosum, and the cingulum bundle. No correlation between sensation seeking and whole brain cortical thickness was found. Discussion: Overall, our results suggest a positive correlation between sensation seeking and higher white matter structural integrity in those tracts mainly involved in visuospatial processing but no correlation with gray matter structure. The enhanced structural integrity associated with sensation seeking may reflect a neurobiological substrate linked to active research of sensory stimuli and resilience to major psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression