The intervention of the emergency psychologist: The sipem sos emilia romagna during the first lockdown from covid-19. A retrospective study

Background and purpose of this work: WHO 11 March 2020 declares that Sars-Cov-2 infection is not only a health emergency but must be considered a pandemic. Covid-19 required the urgency of a new psychological intervention model to better address the crisis and ensure a direct support response to the people involved in the pandemic. The present study aimed to detect the symptoms and reactions of the population with respect to the event. The survey was carried out by describing the clinical symptoms that emerged from the triage card used by SIPEM SoS Emilia Romagna (Italy), connoting the criteria of emergency psychology. Methods: A retrospective quantitative study was conducted on 288 psychological triage cards. Results: only 11% of users who ask for support say they are positive while 85% report not having contracted the virus. Of the total, 40.9% call for psychological support in the management of anxiety symptoms, a need also reported by 55% of the subsample who declared previous psychological problems. In reaction to the pandemic event, 51.1% of the total refers to coping resources and availability for help. Discussions: the need for support of the population to manage symptoms highlights the need for early interventions, also to facilitate that slice of the population that does not have effective individual coping strategies and resources available to help. Conclusions: it can be deduced that interventions during these types of emergencies must be timely and aimed not only at those affected but also at the general population. (www.actabiomedica.it)

Use of a comprehensive diagnostic algorithm for Anisakis allergy in a high seroprevalence Mediterranean setting

Background. Diagnosis of anisakis allergy (AA) is based on the skin prick test (SPT) and specific IgE (sIgE) determination. Anyway, false positivity cases are due to cross reactivity with numerous allergens. The aim of the study was to evaluate the reliability of a comprehensive diagnostic algorithm for the AA. Methods. An observational study was conducted on a sample of consecutive subjects accessing the allergology outpatient ambulatories of two hospitals located in Western Sicily. All the recruited outpatients were tested by Skin Prick Test performed using anisakis extracts by ALK-Abello (Madrid, Spain). Specific IgE dosage for anisakis extracts was then performed by using ImmunoCAP250 (Immunodiagnostics Uppsala, Sweden). Consequently, outpatients who tested positive to first line tests underwent sIgE testing for ascaris and tropomyosin. Lastly, outpatients positive to the first line were invited to be further tested by basophil activation test (BAT) by using Flow CAST kit and anisakis commercial extract (Buhlmann Laboratories AG, Schonenbuch, Switzerland), as confirmatory analysis. Results. One hundred and eleven outpatients with an anamnesis suggestive of sensitization to anisakis (AS) and 466 subjects with chronic urticaria (CU) were recruited in the study. Of these, 22 with AS and 41 with CU showed a sensitization to anisakis allergens. The diagnostic algorithm revealed that 8.8% of outpatients who tested positive to sIgE determination were affected by CU, while 82.5% of all the sIgE positivity was related to cross-reactivity. Overall, a genuine anisakis seroprevalence of 2.3% was documented. Within a sub-sample of 15 subjects with clinical symptoms related to AA, n. 8 showed a real positivity after BAT. A greater response to A. pegreffii allergens as compared to A. simplex was reported. Conclusions. Our preliminary findings support the high clinical specificity of BAT for AA diagnosis, suggesting implementing this method in a comprehensive diagnostic algorithm

Postmodernity: clinical and social reflections about new forms of psychopathology

This article proposes a reflection on the impact that some postmodern features can have on the sense of identity and on mental functioning to propose possible explanations for identity changes and new forms of psychopathology. After revisiting the most recent literature on the theme, this study proposes a clinical consideration for a possible link between new forms of psychopathology and mental suffering. It particularly suggests that the changes observed in affectivity (including increase in dysphoria, irritability, restlessness, boredom, feeling of empti-ness) and behaviour (reduction in impulse control ability, in interpersonal skills and reflective function, etc.) are important indices of a bigger change that involves the entire personality and indicates a shifting towards a borderline level of personality functioning. Finally, the article offers a possible explanation for this shift and advances therapeutic questions

Is Sensation Seeking Linked Only to Personality Traits? The Role of Quality of Attachment in the Development of Sensation Seeking among Italian Adolescents: A Longitudinal Perspective

Considering sensation seeking as a personality trait has led to the driving of a series of studies on the biological and temperamental characteristics of sensation seekers. Conversely, from a bio-psychosocial perspective, personality factors are believed to account for about half of the likelihood that an individual will engage in disadaptive and dangerous actions, whereas environmental factors, such as primary relationships, interact with the person’s biology and affect the extent to which genetic factors exert their influence. On the light of these considerations, the present study explored the unique and common contributions of temperament and quality of attachment measured from 15 years old through the propensity of sensation seeking at 17 years old. The research involved 320 participant, from 14 to 16 years of age at wave 1, and 282 (16 to 18 years, 88% of the total sample) at wave 2. Data showed that negative affect at T1 emerged as a significant positive predictor of sensation seeking at T2. Moreover, dismissing attachment at T1 was positively related to thrill seeking at T2. Finally, dismissing attachment at T1 played a mediating role in the relationships between negative affect and lack of control and thrill seeking two years later. Starting from the results of the present study, treatment of adolescent in which sensation seeking may be seen as predictive of problematic behaviors may be based on the reorganization of the personal model of attachment

Vitamin D and the nervous system

Objective: to summarise the activities that Vitamin D (VD) carries out in the brain and to clarify the potential role of VD in neurological diseases. Methods: a literature research has been performed in Pubmed using the following keywords: ‘Vitamin D’, ‘nervous system’, ‘brain’. Results: the studies reviewed show that VD contributes to cerebral activity in both embryonic and adult brain, helping the connectivity of neural circuits responsible for locomotor, emotional and reward-dependent behavior. Low VD serum levels have been found in patients affected by Alzheimer Disease, Parkinson Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Sleep Disorders and Schizophrenia. Discussion: findings are controversial and should be interpreted with caution, since most of the studies performed have observational study set and few interventional studies are available, producing conflicting results. Overall, it can be stated that the potential role of Vitamin D in neurological diseases is mostly unclear and further randomised controlled trials are needed to understand better whether Vitamin D supplementation treatment can be useful in brain disorders

The influence of parenting on maladaptive cognitive schema: a cross-sectional research on a group of adults

Monica Pellerone,1 Calogero Iacolino,1 Giuseppe Mannino,2 Ivan Formica,3 Simona Maria Zabbara1 1Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, “Kore” University of Enna, Enna, Sicily, Italy; 2Department of Jurisprudence, “LUMSA” University, Rome, Italy; 3Department of Cognitive, Psychological, Pedagogical Sciences and Cultural Studies, University of Study of Messina, Messina, Sicily, Italy Background: The literature emphasizes the role of early interpersonal experiences in the development of cognitive vulnerability; in particular, interruptions in early family relationships, parental unavailability and dysfunctional parenting are potential evolutionary precursors to negative cognitive style and emotional disorders.Materials and methods: This study measured the relationship of retrospective ratings on parental bonding with cognitive patterns in a group of Italian adults. The objectives of this study were as follows: to analyze the influence of age and education level on cognitive domains; to verify whether being parents and living at home with parents affect both parenting style and cognitive domains; to investigate how the type of the maternal and paternal parenting independently affects cognitive styles; to measure the predictive variables for the use of cognitive dysfunctional patterns and to investigate age as a moderating variable of the relation between parenting styles and cognitive domains in a group of adult men and women. The research involved 209 adults (118 males and 91 females) living in Sicily (Italy) aged between 20 and 60 years (M = 37.52; SD = 11.42). The research lasted for 1 year. The instruments used were the Parental Bonding Instrument to measure the perception of parenting during childhood and the Young Schema Questionnaire-3 to investigate cognitive patterns.Results: Data show that being a younger adult male with mother’s parenting style characterized by a lower level of nurturance is predictive of the disconnection and rejection domain, whereas, being a younger adult woman, with a higher level of maternal control is predictive of the impaired limits domain.Conclusion: This study underlines that because mothers and fathers establish different bonds with their children, care and control by both parents might impact different domains of development. Keywords: parenting, maladaptive cognitive domains, behavioral strategies, emotional response

Standardized measurement of circulating vitamin D [25(OH)D] and its putative role as a serum biomarker in Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease

The current review provides an overview on the development of 25(OH)D measurement standardization tools over the last three decades and clarifies whether there is a role as a serum biomarker for vitamin D in neurological diseases. In the past, a lack of internationally recognized 25(OH)D reference measurement procedures and reference standard materials led to unstandardized serum total 25(OH)D results among research and clinical care laboratories. The vitamin D Standardization Program (VDSP) has been introduced in 2010 to address this problem, however, vitamin D External Quality Assessment Scheme (DEQAS) reports still show substantial sample- to- sample variability. Further, immunoassays, which are mainly used in clinical care laboratories, display analytical issues, including matrix-effects interferences, which cannot be overcome by the standardization process. Hence, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS-MS) methods should be used to measure 25(OH)D. Low vitamin D serum levels have been found in patients affected by Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, suggesting a role for vitamin D as a serum biomarker in these diseases. However, few studies reported 25(OH)D standardized results, thus, no clear evidence on the potential role of 25(OH)D serum levels in these diseases exists