Violent behavior of patients living in psychiatric residential facilities: A comparison of male patients with different violence histories

People with severe mental disorders and a history of violence are often seen as a difficult-to-manage segment of the population. In addition, this group is usually characterized by a high risk of crime recidivism, and poor compliance with community and aftercare programs. To investigate a sample of male patients living in Residential Facilities (RFs) with a history of violent behavior against people and to compare their characteristics with those of never-violent residents; to analyze the associations between aggressive behaviors in the last two years and a history of previous violence; and, to assess the predictors of aggressive behaviors. This study is part of a prospective observational cohort study which involved 23 RFs in Northern Italy. A comprehensive set of sociodemographic, clinical, and treatment-related information was gathered, and standardized assessments were administered to each participant. Also a detailed assessment of aggressive behaviors in the past two years was carried out. The study involved 268 males: 81 violent and 187 never-violent. Compared to never-violent patients, violent patients were younger, with a higher proportion of personality disorders, and have displayed an increased number of aggressive behaviors in the last two years. The presence of a history of violent behavior in the past significantly increases the probability of committing aggressive acts in the future

The effect of service satisfaction and spiritual well-being on the quality of life of patients with schizophrenia.

Quality of life (QOL) has been considered an important outcome measure in psychiatric research and determinants of QOL have been widely investigated. We aimed at detecting predictors of QOL at baseline and at testing the longitudinal interrelations of the baseline predictors with QOL scores at a 1-year follow-up in a sample of patients living in Residential Facilities (RFs). Logistic regression models were adopted to evaluate the association between WHOQoL-Bref scores and potential determinants of QOL. In addition, all variables significantly associated with QOL domains in the final logistic regression model were included by using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). We included 139 patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia spectrum. In the final logistic regression model level of activity, social support, age, service satisfaction, spiritual well-being and symptoms' severity were identified as predictors of QOL scores at baseline. Longitudinal analyses carried out by SEM showed that 40% of QOL follow-up variability was explained by QOL at baseline, and significant indirect effects toward QOL at follow-up were found for satisfaction with services and for social support. Rehabilitation plans for people with schizophrenia living in RFs should also consider mediators of change in subjective QOL such as satisfaction with mental health services

Uma pesquisa socioclínica na França: notas sobre a análise institucional

Esse texto tem por objetivo apresentar e discutir o processo de produção de uma pesquisa socioclínica sobre a parentalidade, desenvolvida na França, em Gennevilliers, durante 2011 e 2012. Baseou-se no referencial teórico da análise institucional, linha socioclinica. Os dispositivos para a produção dos dados da pesquisa foram observação participante, grupos de discussão com profissionais e pais, entrevista em domicílio, entrevistas informais e sessões de restituição. O processo de montagem e desenvolvimento desse tipo de pesquisa indica uma permanente tensão a ser explorada entre a intencionalidade dos demandantes e dos pesquisadores, o que faz a análise de implicação indispensável

Uma pesquisa-ação-intervenção em Saúde Bucal Coletiva: contribuindo para a produção de novas análises

Este artigo tem como objetivo apresentar a estratégia metodológica produzida e exercitada durante o desenvolvimento de uma pesquisa de doutorado que tomou como quadro teórico-metodológico a abordagem da Análise Institucional na Saúde Coletiva. Pretende, também, contribuir para o debate sobre as abordagens metodológicas que colocam em pauta a relação entre o pesquisador e o ato de pesquisar. Ao longo da investigação, a pesquisa-ação foi se configurando e se (entre)cruzando com a pesquisa-intervenção, num percurso que estamos denominando pesquisa-ação-intervenção. Desse modo, a pesquisadora, os momentos da pesquisa e da produção teórico-metodológica foram construídos/constituídos ao mesmo tempo, num processo mediatizado pelos saberes e pelos não-saberes dos sujeitos implicados com esta investigação. Podemos dizer que houve dois processos articulados de ação-intervenção: um da pesquisadora no e com o grupo, e, outro, dos participantes do grupo, profissionais do Sistema Único de Saúde do município de Campinas em seu cotidiano, na produção do cuidado em Saúde Bucal.This article describes the methodological strategy created during the research carried out for a doctoral degree, with Institutional Analysis in Collective Health being used as the theoretical and methodological framework. The article is thus meant as a contribution to the debate on methodological approaches to the relationships between researchers and their act of researching. During the investigation, action-research operated as a crossroad between intervention and research, along a path we refer to as intervention-research-action. The research stages and the theoretical-methodological production were constructed concurrently, in a process mediated by the knowledge and questions of the subjects related to this investigation. Knowledge production in the area of oral health care was made through two articulated processes of intervention-action: one of the researcher in and within the group, other of the participants in the group, namely professionals in public health in their everyday life work in oral health care

Comparing perceptual category learning across modalities in the same individuals

This is a pre-print of the manuscript published in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review: Roark, C. L., Paulon, G., Sarkar, A., & Chandrasekaran, B. (2021). Comparing perceptual category learning across modalities in the same individuals. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-021-01878-0. Category learning is a fundamental process in human cognition that spans the senses. However, much still remains unknown about the mechanisms supporting learning in different modalities. In the current study, we directly compared auditory and visual category learning in the same individuals. Thirty participants (22 F; 18-32 years old) completed two unidimensional rule-based category learning tasks in a single day—one with auditory stimuli and another with visual stimuli. We replicated the results in a second experiment with a larger online sample (N = 99, 45 F, 18-35 years old). The categories were identically structured in the two modalities to facilitate comparison. We compared categorization accuracy, decision processes as assessed through drift-diffusion models, and the generalizability of resulting category representation through a generalization test. We found that individuals learned auditory and visual categories to similar extents and that accuracies were highly correlated across the two tasks. Participants had similar evidence accumulation rates in later learning, but early on had slower rates for visual than auditory learning. Participants also demonstrated differences in the decision thresholds across modalities. Participants had more categorical generalizable representations for visual than auditory categories. These results suggest that some modality-general cognitive processes support category learning but also suggest that the modality of the stimuli may also affect category learning behavior and outcomes