Does Mood Disorder Questionnaire identify sub-threshold bipolarity? Evidence studying worsening of quality of life.

Objective: It is debated whether the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) can generate false positives by screening other disorders as bipolar, or identify sub-threshold bipolarity. The aim is to verify if Quality of Life (QoL) impairment in MQD positives in the community is due to MDQ positivity itself, or to psychiatric diagnosis associated with MDQ positivity (supporting the former hypothesis). Method: Community survey. Sample randomized after stratification of the adult population in the records of seven Italian regions.Tools: MDQ; ShortFormHealthSurvey(SF-12); semi-structured clinical interview carried out by clinicians. Results: Positives at MDQ show worsening QoL with an attributable burden of 2.8 SD 1.8 lower than in MDD (5.6 SD 3.6, p<0.001) or Eating Disorders(4.4 SD 6.6, p<0.03) and similar to Panic Disorder (2.9 SD 0.9, p=0.44). The burden is lower in the middle-aged (25–59 years) than in the young (18–24) (4.6 SD 4.5 vs 2.58 SD 2.0, p=0.007) or in the elderly (>60) (4.12 SD 3.2; p=0.024). In the elderly the burden is independent from comorbid psychiatric disorders. Limitations: This is a preliminary study based on one survey not designed to test this specific hypothesis, thus its results have a heuristic value only. Conclusions: The worsening of QoL due to positivity at MDQ is largely independent from comorbid conditions, supporting the hypothesis that MDQ positivity identifies aspecific area of suffering that is “subthreshold“ to the psychiatric diagnosis, and relevant for public health

Quality of life and urban / rural living: preliminary results of a community survey in Italy.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this population-based study is to examine the association between subjective quality of life and rural/urban residence in six Italian regions, including age and gender into the analysis. METHODS: STUDY DESIGN: community survey. STUDY POPULATION: Samples stratified according to sex and age, drawn from municipal records. Sample size: 4999 people 18 years and older, from seven communities within six regions of Italy. TOOLS: Ad-hoc form to assess basic demographic data; SF-12. Interviewers were trained psychologists or medical doctors. RESULTS: 3398 subjects were interviewed (68% of recruited sample). The mean score of SF-12 in the overall sample was 38.4±6.1, SF-12 was higher in men than in in women (38.4±6.1 vs 37.5±5.9 F=99.18, df 1, 3396, 3397, p<0.0001); SF-12 score decreased from the youngest to the oldest age group, with significant differences between all ages groups; men showed higher scores in all age groups. The urban/rural difference of mean scores of SF-12 did not achieve statistical significance in women. Young men with urban residence had higher SF-12 scores than their counterparts with rural residence. Maen aged 65 years and older with rural residence showed, by contrast, higher scores than men from the same age group with urban residence. CONCLUSIONS: Men show a higher subjective quality of life than women. Subjective quality of life decreases with age in both genders.Men are more sensitive to urban/rural residence than women.Young men live better in cities, elderly men better in rural areas

The use of antidepressant drugs and the lifetime prevalence of major depressive disorders in Italy

BACKGROUND: The increased use of antidepressant drugs (ADs) improved the response to the needs of care although some community surveys have shown that subjects without lifetime psychiatric diagnosis (anxiety/depression) used ADs. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the appropriateness and amount of prescription of psychotropic drugs in people with lifetime diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) by means of community survey with a semi-structured interview as a diagnostic instrument, administered by clinicians. METHODS: STUDY DESIGN: community survey. STUDY POPULATION: samples randomly drawn, after stratification from the adult population of municipal records. Sample size: 4.999 people were drawn in 7 centres of 6 Italian regions. TOOLS: questionnaire on psychotropic drug consumption, prescription, health services utilization; Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV modified (ANTAS); Training: interviewers were trained psychologists or medical doctors. RESULTS: 3.398 subjects were interviewed (68% of the recruited sample). The lifetime prevalence of DSM-IV MDD was 4.3% in males and 11.5% in females; antidepressant drugs were taken by 4.7% of subjects, 2.9% male and 5.9% female. 38% of males and 57% of females with lifetime diagnosis of MDD were taking ADs. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with studies using lay interviewers and structured tools the prevalence of the MDD was quite lower; ADs use was higher and tallied well with the data regarding antidepressant sales in Italy; the correspondence between lifetime diagnosis of MDD and ADs use was closer

The ARGO-YBJ experiment in Tibet

The ARCO-YBJ experiment, (Astrophysical Radiation Ground-based Observatory at YaugBaJing) is under construction in Tibet, 90 kill to the north of Lhasa. The full coverage approach and the high altitude location allow the study of many physics items in the field of low energy cosmic rays, namely gamma-ray astronomy, diffuse gamma-rays, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), proton/antiproton ratio, primary proton spectrum and heliosphere physics, In this paper the expected sensitivities of ARGO-YBJ for gamma astronomy and GRB physics are presented and compared with the present experimental techniques and results. The performance of a test-module of similar to 50 m(2) operated on-site is, also discussed

The ARGO-YBJ experiment in Tibet

The ARCO-YBJ experiment, (Astrophysical Radiation Ground-based Observatory at YaugBaJing) is under construction in Tibet, 90 kill to the north of Lhasa. The full coverage approach and the high altitude location allow the study of many physics items in the field of low energy cosmic rays, namely gamma-ray astronomy, diffuse gamma-rays, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), proton/antiproton ratio, primary proton spectrum and heliosphere physics, In this paper the expected sensitivities of ARGO-YBJ for gamma astronomy and GRB physics are presented and compared with the present experimental techniques and results. The performance of a test-module of similar to 50 m(2) operated on-site is, also discussed

LONG-TERM MONITORING OF THE TeV EMISSION FROM Mrk 421 WITH THE ARGO-YBJ EXPERIMENT

ARGO-YBJ is an air shower detector array with a fully covered layer of resistive plate chambers. It is operated with a high duty cycle and a large field of view. It continuously monitors the northern sky at energies above 0.3 TeV. In this paper, we report a long-term monitoring of Mrk 421 over the period from 2007 November to 2010 February. This source was observed by the satellite-borne experiments Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer and Swift in the X-ray band. Mrk 421 was especially active in the first half of 2008. Many flares are observed in both X-ray and gamma-ray bands simultaneously. The gamma-ray flux observed by ARGO-YBJ has a clear correlation with the X-ray flux. No lag between the X-ray and gamma-ray photons longer than 1 day is found. The evolution of the spectral energy distribution is investigated by measuring spectral indices at four different flux levels. Hardening of the spectra is observed in both X-ray and gamma-ray bands. The gamma-ray flux increases quadratically with the simultaneously measured X-ray flux. All these observational results strongly favor the synchrotron self-Compton process as the underlying radiative mechanism

Early warning for VHE gamma-ray flares with the ARGO-YBJ detector

Detecting and monitoring emissions from flaring gamma-ray sources in the very-high-energy (VHE, > 100 GeV) band is a very important topic in gamma-ray astronomy. The ARGO-YBJ detector is characterized by a high duty cycle and a wide field of view. Therefore, it is particularly capable of detecting flares from extragalactic objects. Based on fast reconstruction and analysis, real-time monitoring of 33 selected VHE extragalactic sources is implemented. Flares exceeding a specific threshold are reported timely, hence enabling the follow-up observation of these objects using more sensitive detectors, such as Cherenkov telescopes. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Software timing calibration of the ARGO-YBJ detector

The ARGO-YBJ experiment is mainly devoted to search for astronomical gamma sources. The arrival direction of air showers is reconstructed thanks to the times measured by the pixels of the detector. Therefore, the timing calibration of the detector pixels is crucial in order to get the best angular resolution and pointing accuracy. Because of the large number of pixels a hardware timing calibration is practically impossible. Therefore an off-line software calibration has been adopted. Here, the details of the procedure and the results are presented. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Light-component spectrum of the primary cosmic rays in the multi-TeV region measured by the ARGO-YBJ experiment

The ARGO-YBJ experiment detects extensive air showers in a wide energy range by means of a full-coverage detector which is in stable data taking in its full configuration since November 2007 at the YBJ International Cosmic Ray Observatory (4300 m a.s.l., Tibet, People's Republic of China). In this paper the measurement of the light-component spectrum of primary cosmic rays in the energy region (5 divided by 200) TeV is reported. The method exploited to analyze the experimental data is based on a Bayesian procedure. The measured intensities of the light component are consistent with the recent CREAM results and higher than that obtained adding the proton and helium spectra reported by the RUNJOB experiment

Early warning for VHE gamma-ray flares with the ARGO-YBJ detector

Detecting and monitoring emissions from flaring gamma-ray sources in the very-high-energy (VHE, > 100 GeV) band is a very important topic in gamma-ray astronomy. The ARGO-YBJ detector is characterized by a high duty cycle and a wide field of view. Therefore, it is particularly capable of detecting flares from extragalactic objects. Based on fast reconstruction and analysis, real-time monitoring of 33 selected VHE extragalactic sources is implemented. Flares exceeding a specific threshold are reported timely, hence enabling the follow-up observation of these objects using more sensitive detectors, such as Cherenkov telescopes. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved