STRESSFUL LIFE EVENTS AND PSYCHOSOMATIC SYMPTOMS IN FIBROMYALGIA: A CASE-CONTROL STUDY

3nonemixedValentina Tesio; Ada Ghiggia; Sara LariceTesio, Valentina; Ghiggia, Ada; Larice, Sar

Cognitive, behavioral, and psychological manifestations of COVID-19 in post-acute rehabilitation setting: preliminary data of an observational study

Psychological, emotional, and behavioral domains could be altered in COVID-19 patients and measurement of variables within these domains seems to be mandatory. Neuropsychological assessment could detect possible cognitive impairment caused by COVID-19 and the choice of appropriate tools is an important question. Aim of this exploratory study was to verify the effectiveness of an assessment model for patients with COVID-19. Twelve patients were enrolled and tested with Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Anxiety and Depression Short Scale (AD-R), and the Neuropsychiatry Inventory (NPI), at the time of their entrance (T0) and discharge (T1) from a rehabilitative unit. Moreover, a follow-up evaluation after 3 months (T2) has been conducted on eight patients. Results showed that at baseline (T0), 58.3% of the patients reported a score below cut-off at MMSE and 50% at MoCA. Although a significant amelioration was found only in NPI scores, a qualitative improvement has been detected at all tests, except for MoCA scores, in the T0-T1 trend analysis. A one-way repeated measures analysis of variance showed a significant variation in AD-R depression score, considering the three-assessment time (T0, T1, and T2). The evaluation and tracking over time of the impact of COVID-19 on cognitive, psychological, and behavioral domains has relevant implications for rehabilitation and long-term assistance needs planning. The choice of assessment tools should consider patients vulnerability and match the best compromise among briefness, sensitivity, and specificity

Emotional competencies and psychological distress: Is loneliness a mediating factor?

Emotional competencies, such as emotion regulation and empathy, are essential for social interaction. Impairment of these skills has been associated with increased rates of anxiety/depressive symptoms and loneliness, which has been defined as the discrepancy between the desired and actual quality and quantity of social relationships a person maintains. The aim of the present study was to shed light on the associations between these constructs and to examine the possible mediating role of loneliness in the relationship between emotional competencies and anxiety/depressive symptoms in a sample of non-clinical individuals. A total of 298 participants were recruited for this study and were asked to complete a series of measures assessing difficulties in emotion regulation, empathy, loneliness, and anxiety/depressive symptoms. Regression and mediation models were tested to analyze the associations between these variables. Results showed that reduced emotional competencies in emotion regulation and empathy were both directly and indirectly associated with increased anxiety/depressive symptoms and emotional loneliness, which in turn was related to higher levels of psychological distress (with a partial mediation of loneliness). Overall, the present findings seem to indicate that emotional competencies play a key role in the experience of loneliness and psychological distress. Therefore, individuals reporting high levels of loneliness in combination with anxious/depressive symptoms should receive appropriate assessment and treatment of emotion regulation and empathic skills

Self-Transcendence: Association with Spirituality in an Italian Sample of Terminal Cancer Patients

Terminally ill cancer patients often experience demoralization and loss of dignity, which undermines their spiritual wellbeing, which could, however, be supported by the presence of other factors such as self-transcendence and religious coping strategies. To assess self-transcendence and religious coping strategies and how they influence spirituality, we studied 141 end-stage cancer patients (64.3% male; mean age 68.6 & PLUSMN; 14.6) with a Karnofsky Performance Status & LE; 50 and a life expectancy & LE; 4 months using the Self-Transcendence Scale, the Demoralization Scale, the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Wellbeing (FACIT-Sp-12), the Brief Religious COPE, and the Patient Dignity Inventory. To understand the effects of these variables on spirituality, hierarchical multiple regression was performed on FACIT-Sp-12. The final model predicted 67% of the variance in spiritual wellbeing. Demoralization was the strongest influencing factor (& beta; = -0.727, p < 0.001), followed by self-transcendence (& beta; = 0.256, p < 0.001), and positive religious coping (& beta; = 0.148, p < 0.05). This study suggests that self-transcendence and positive religious coping may be protective factors for spirituality in terminal cancer patients. These factors should be considered in treatment to promote spiritual wellbeing and improve patients' quality of life at the end of life

The Fear of Pain Questionnaire: Factor structure, validity and reliability of the Italian translation

<div><p>Background</p><p>The Fear of Pain Questionnaire-III (FPQ-III) is a self-report instrument developed to assess fear of different stimuli usually causing pain. The present study aimed to construct an Italian version of the FPQ-III and examine its psychometric properties in a heterogeneous sample of Italian healthy individuals.</p><p>Methods</p><p>The questionnaire was translated following the forward-backward method and completed by 511 Italian adults who met the inclusion criteria. Within 2 months of the first assessment, a subgroup of participants (<b><i>n</i></b> = 164) was re-tested. The factorial structure of the FPQ-III was assessed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). To better comprehend the FPQ-III’s factorial structure, a CFA was also performed for each of the two reduced versions of the FPQ-III, namely the FPQ-Short Form and the FPQ-9. Divergent validity, test-retest reliability, and gender/age measurement invariance were also evaluated.</p><p>Results</p><p>The results of the CFA revealed that the original three-factor model poorly fitted the data, but it became satisfactory after allowing correlated error terms. Concerning divergent validity, correlations between FPQ-III scores and pain intensity, depression, and anxiety were found to be positive but weak in magnitude (< .20). FPQ-III subscales and total scores showed good internal consistency and time reliability. Finally, scalar invariance was only partially obtained, whereas all the other types of invariance were fully respected both for gender and age.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>The current findings indicate that the Italian version of the FPQ-III provides valid and reliable scores for the assessment of fear of pain in the Italian population.</p></div

Post-traumatic growth, distress and attachment style among women with breast cancer

6Identifying factors fostering post-traumatic growth (PTG) is very important to promote PTG itself through specific psychological interventions. To this end, we investigated PTG and its relationship with clinical and psychological variables in a sample of 108 female breast cancer survivors. Results showed that women with higher depressive symptoms presented lower levels of PTG than women without. Moreover, women who had undergone combined treatment presented higher levels of PTG than women who had not. The results highlighted the resulting importance of psychological intervention focusing on depressive symptoms, which negatively interfere with the patients’ psychological growth.nonemixedROMEO, ANNUNZIATA; GHIGGIA, ADA; TESIO, VALENTINA; DI TELLA, MARIALAURA; TORTA, Riccardo; CASTELLI, LorysRomeo, Annunziata; Ghiggia, Ada; Tesio, Valentina; DI TELLA, Marialaura; Torta, Riccardo; Castelli, Lory