The representation of the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent lockdown in Italy: A psychosocial research by SPS, Studio di Psicosociologia of Rome

A fine febbraio 2020, in SPS4ci siamo chiesti quali fossero i vissuti evocati dalla pandemia Covid-19 in esordio, e quali fatti “derivassero” da tali vissuti. A tal fine abbiamo interpellato 419 persone, tra l’1 marzo e il 5 maggio 2020. Il corpus raccolto è stato analizzato con l’Analisi Emozionale del Testo (AET). Si ipotizzava che la pandemia avesse destrutturato le modalità abituali di rapporto, e pensavamo stessero emergendo dimensioni relazionali inedite. I nostri dati dicono che l’individualismo abituale, di avida competitività, è in crisi. In risposta alla destrutturazione dello schema relazionale amico/nemico, alla base della socialità, è emerso un nuovo individualismo. La rappresentazione del pericolo insito nel contagio pandemico ci ha reso, tutti, potenzialmente nemici gli uni degli altri. Tutti siamo vissuti come potenzialmente nemici di tutti, a meno di non essere dichiaratamente malati. I malati, di contro, non sono vissuti come nemici: sono un’alterità scissa, relegata in un altrove lontano da chi è “sano”. Le cure, nel lockdown, erano confinate nell’ospedale, caratterizzate dall’isolamento, dall’emergenza, dalla morte esperita nel peggiore dei modi. L’altrove è stato reificato in un ospedale diventato sintomatico del fallimento del sistema sanitario. Si è costituito un “noi” qui insieme, sani e maniacalmente felici, e un “loro”contagiati, dannati, isolati e “altrove”. Internet, consentendo vicinanza senza contatto, è diventata un nuovo contesto di socialità. Ha permesso di ridiventare umani, ovvero amici, a meno che non si dimostri il contrario. Ma la nuova amicalità è fondata sulla scissione dall’altro dannato: la coppia malato/curante, e tutti gli esclusi, per diverse motivazioni, dalla protezione del lockdown. Dalla nuova socialità è escluso anche il vissuto dello stare chiusi in casa con gli abituali conviventi, dove emerge la violenza delle relazioni familiari obbligate. Si evidenziano altri esclusi dal noi maniacalmente amicale: gli anziani che non usano internet e che più di tutti rischiano di morire. C’è poi una cultura che, entro il fallimento delle relazioni sociali abituali, sottolinea l’impotenza delle istituzioni (politiche, sanitarie, mediatiche etc.) nella contingenza pandemica. Infine, c’è una cultura pre-lockdown, fatta della paura che porterà a scegliere l’isolamento. Manca, nei dati, il mondo produttivo, che non ha ritrovato, per gli interpellati dalla ricerca –nel periodo di tempo da noi considerato –un codice emozionale condiviso che potesse raccogliersi in un cluster. La ricerca aveva anche un obiettivo di intervento: quello di creare un contesto in cui l’evento pandemia potesse essere interpretato, entro un setting di partecipazione. Oltre a effettuare una pubblicazione rapida dei dati, intendiamo promuovere gruppi di discussione su internet con i partecipanti. La creazione di un contesto di condivisione è anche un motivo dell’alto numero di Autori.At the end of February 2020, in SPS2we asked ourselves what were the experiences evoked by the Covid-19 pandemic in its debut, and what facts “derived”from these experiences. To this end, we interviewed 419 people, between 1 March and 5 May 2020. The collected corpus was analyzed through the Emotional Text Analysis (AET). It was assumed that the pandemic had deconstructed the usual ways of relating, and we thought that new relational dimensions were emerging. Our data show that habitual individualism, of greedy competitiveness, is in crisis. A new individualism has emerged in response to the deconstruction of the friend/foerelational schema, at the basis of sociality. The representation of the danger inherent in the pandemic contagion has made us all potentially enemies of each other. We have all lived as potentially enemies of all, unless we are admittedly sick. The sick, on the other hand, are not experienced as enemies: they are a split otherness, relegated to an elsewhere far from those who are “healthy”. Duringthe lockdown, treatments were confined to the hospital, characterized by isolation, emergency, death experienced in the worst way. The othernesswas reified in a hospital that became symptomatic of the failure of the health system. A “we”has formed here together, healthy and maniacally happy, and a “them”infected, damned, isolated and “elsewhere”. The Internet, by allowing contactless proximity, has become a new context of sociality. It has allowed us to become human again, or friends, unless proven otherwise. But the new friendship is based on the split from the damned other: the sick/caring couple, and all those excluded, for various reasons, from the protection of the lockdown. The experience of being closed at home with the usual cohabitants is also excluded from the new sociality, where the violence of forced family relationships emerges. There are others excluded from a maniacally friendlyus: the elderly who do not use the internet and who most of all risk dying. There is also a culture that, within the failure of habitual social relations, underlines the powerlessness of institutions (political, health, media, etc.) in the pandemic contingency. Finally, there is a pre-lockdown culture, made up of fear that will lead to chooseisolation. In the data, the productive world is missing, which for those interviewed by the research did not find -in the period of time we considered -a shared emotional code that could be gathered in a cluster. The research also had an intervention objective: to create a context in which the pandemicevent could be interpreted, within a setting of participation. In addition to publishing the data quickly, we intend to promote discussion groups onthe internet with participants. The creation of a sharing context is also areason for the high number of Author

Which elderly newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients can benefit from radiotherapy and temozolomide? A PERNO prospective study

The role of temozolomide concurrent with and adjuvant to radiotherapy (RT/TMZ) in elderly patients with glioblastoma (GBM) remains unclear. We evaluated the outcome of patients >70\ua0years in the context of the Project of Emilia-Romagna Region in Neuro-Oncology (PERNO), the first Italian prospective observational population-based study in neuro-oncology. For this analysis the criteria for selecting patients enrolled in the PERNO study were: age >70\ua0years; PS 0\u20133; histologically confirmed GBM; postoperative radiotherapy (RT) after surgery with or without concomitant temozolomide (TMZ) or postsurgical TMZ alone. Between January 2009 and December 2010, 76 GBM elderly patients were identified in the prospective PERNO study. Twenty-three patients did not receive any treatment after surgery, and 53 patients received postsurgical treatments (25 patients received RT alone and 28 patients RT/TMZ). Median survival was 11.1\ua0months (95\ua0% CI 8.8\u201313.5), adding temozolomide concomitant and adjuvant to radiotherapy it was 11.6\ua0months (95\ua0% CI 8.6\u201314.6), and 9.3\ua0months (95\ua0% CI 8.1\u201310.6) in patients treated with RT alone (P\ua0=\ua00.164). However, patients with MGMT methylated treated with RT/TMZ obtained a better survival (17.2\ua0months, 95\ua0% CI 11.5\u201322.9) (P\ua0=\ua00.042). No difference in terms of survival were observed if patients with MGMT unmethylated tumor received RT alone, or RT/TMZ or, in MGMT methylated tumor, if patients received radiotherapy alone. In elderly patients RT/TMZ represent a widely used approach but it is effective with methylated MGMT tumors only

Correction to: Which elderly newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients can benefit from radiotherapy and temozolomide? A PERNO prospective study (Journal of Neuro-Oncology, (2016), 128, 1, (157-162), 10.1007/s11060-016-2093-1)

The members of the PERNO Study Group were not individually captured in the metadata of the original publication. They are included in the metadata of this publication