Quality of Life of Sardinian Immigrants in Buenos Aires and of People Living in Italy and Sardinia: Does the Kind of Care have a Role for People with Depression?

Background / Objectives: The aim of the study was to compare the Quality of Life (QoL) of Sardinian immigrants to Argentina with Sardinians residing in Sardinia. The hypothesis was that a different availability of effective treatments for mood disorders may impact the well being of persons with these disorders. Methods: One out of five families of Sardinian origin was randomly selected. An Italian study (including Sardinia) was adopted as the control. The Mood Disorder Questionnaire was used for screening mania/hypomania; the diagnosis of Current Major Depressive Disorder was conducted by means of the Patient Health Questionnaire in immigrants and by means of a clinical interview in the control study and in an immigrant subsample (to verify comparability); the Short-Form Health Survey-12 was applied to measure QoL. Results: The Sardinian immigrants showed a higher QoL than Italians in Italy (but not with Sardinians residing in Sardinia). On the contrary, the attributable burden worsening QoL due to lifetime manic/hypomanic episodes, as well as to current depressive episodes, was found higher among Sardinian immigrants with respect to both Sardinian residents in Sardinia and the total Italian sample. The use of effective treatment for mood disorder was higher in Italy. Conclusion: The study found that in a sample of Sardinian immigrants in Buenos Aires the impact of a mood disorder affects QoL more incisively than in Sardinians residing in Sardinia. The suggested hypothesis of a possible role of beliefs guiding the search for treatments will be verified in future studies

Depression in Sardinian immigrants in Argentina and residents in Sardinia at the time of the Argentinian default (2001) and the Great Recession in Italy (2015)

Background: The aim of this study is to measure in two samples of Sardinian immigrants in Buenos Aires and representatives of the population in Sardinia the prevalence of depressive symptoms at the time of an economic crisis in Sardinia and to compare these results with those collected at the time of a similar crisis in Argentina more than 10 years before. Methods: Observational study. The associations of Sardinian immigrants in Buenos Aires provided the lists of families of Sardinian origin. A random sample of one fifth of registered families was selected. The sample of a study carried out in Sardinia was used as the control. The results were compared with those of the previous study performed in 2001-2002. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ9) was used for the screening of depression. Results: The Sardinian immigrants show a lower rate of scoring positively on PHQ9 (i.e. less risk of being depressed) and reach statistical significance after standardization (8.7% vs. 13.1%, P = 0.046). Young women (≤40) are at higher risk. On the contrary, the risk of depression was higher in Sardinian immigrants in Argentina during the 2001-2002 crises. Conclusion: The study indicates a risk for depressive episodes linked to the fallout of the economic crisis (in Argentina in 2001-2002, in Sardinia in 2015) and specifically more in females than in males. Due to the associated socio-demographic risk factors, these results could be interpreted as due to an increase in non-bipolar depressio

An evolutionary approach to mania studying Sardinian immigrants to Argentina

Objective: To ascertain lifetime prevalence of positivity to a screening questionnaire for bipolar disorders (BD) in Sardinian immigrants to Argentina and residents of Sardinia and assess whether such positivity affects quality of life (QoL) in either group. Our hypothesis is that screen positivity for BD may be more frequent in immigrants. Methods: Observational study. Subjects were randomly selected from the membership lists of associations of Sardinian immigrants in Argentina. A study carried out in Sardinia using the same methodology was used for comparison. The Mood Disorder Questionnaire was used to screen for mania/hypomania and the Short-Form Health Survey-12 to measure QoL. Results: A higher prevalence of manic/hypomanic episodes was found in Sardinian immigrants to Argentina (p < 0.0001; odds ratio = 3.0, 95% confidence interval 1.87-4.77). Positivity at screening was associated with a lower QoL both in Sardinian immigrants to Argentina and in residents of Sardinia. Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to show a higher lifetime prevalence of manic/hypomanic episodes in a general-population sample of individuals who migrated to a foreign country. Our results are in agreement with the hypothesis that hyperactive/novelty-seeking features may represent an adaptive substrate in certain conditions of social change