Gli operatori dei centri vaccinali. Gli occhi

Una delle attività più significative per contrastare la diffusione del virus SARS-CoV-2, che provoca la malattia COVID-19, è rappresentata dalla campagna vaccinale. Gli operatori dei centri vaccinali provengono da realtà/reparti diversi. Per buona parte non si conoscevano prima, ma la condivisione dell’obiettivo di prevenzione ha fatto sì che si sia creato un clima di grande collaborazione e reciproco rispetto, indipendentemente dalla professione e dal ruolo gerarchico. La cosa che ha colpito di più gli autori del presente testo è il fatto che la maggior parte di queste persone non conoscano il volto di chi gli sta vicino e che si sia creata una nuova “gerarchia di identificazione”, basata sui gesti, sull’accento della voce, sull’acconciatura dei capelli (in alcuni casi sulla mancanza di qualsivoglia possibile acconciatura) e, elemento principale: gli occhi. La prima cosa che si cerca in una persona è il viso, ma in questa situazione è impossibile, e quando capita di vedere per la prima volta un operatore del Centro senza mascherina, talvolta si resta completamente spiazzati, quasi come si fosse di fronte ad una persona sconosciuta, completamente diversa da quella che ci eravamo mentalmente raffigurati, come i bimbi che non riconoscono più il padre che si è tagliato la barba. Quando questa lotta al virus sarà finita la maggior parte di noi si cercherà guardandosi negli occhi, cercando di isolare dalla propria percezione la parte restante del volto. E proprio dagli occhi siamo partiti per creare un momento che ci identificasse, che ci unisse nel riconoscerci mentre indossiamo con fatica, per tutta la giornata le mascherine filtranti. Questi occhi trasmettono determinazione, gioia, malinconia, stanchezza e, perché no, tristezza per il tempo passato. Il tutto come percezione soggettiva ovviamente, ma si è creata quasi una modalità di lettura, come se in quegli occhi fosse scritta una storia che noi ora, osservandoli, abbiamo imparato a leggere

Alcohol and cancer: no threshold exists

Abstract non disponibil

Life events, coping styles, and psychological well-being in children living with parents who harmfully consume alcohol

Introduction Children living with parents who harmfully consume alcohol might experience more life events, in particular negative, than children living with parents who do not harmfully consume alcohol. They also primarily use less adaptive coping styles and often demonstrate lower resilience. No studies evaluated whether coping styles or psychological well-being might influence the risk of life events occurrence in children living with parents who harmfully consume alcohol. Methods Forty-five children living with parents who harmfully consume alcohol and 45 children living with parents who do not harmfully consume alcohol, matched for sex and age, were assessed via the Appendix Life Events of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent, the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, and the Psychological Well-Being scales. Results Children living with parents who harmfully consume alcohol had more life events in the 6-month period before the assessment, mostly negative and neutral, and lower levels of psychological well-being than children living with parents who do not harmfully consume alcohol. The risk of having experienced at least one negative or neutral life event was higher in children living with parents who harmfully consume alcohol than in their peers and in those with lower psychological well-being. The risk of having had a positive life event was not related to parents' consumption of alcohol but to avoidant coping and low self-acceptance behaviours. Conclusions Children living with parents who harmfully consume alcohol need interventions aimed at improving psychological well-being to protect them from life events, especially from negative ones

Alcohol use disorders, self-help groups as a supplement to pharmacological and psychological therapy? A retrospective study in a population with alcohol related liver disease

Background: According to the new criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th Edition (DSM-V), the prevalence of alcohol use disorders (AUDs) is 20-30% in men and 10-15% in women worldwide(2,3)The anticraving therapy/ psychotherapy combination is currently used routinely in clinical practice.However, the results after one year are unsatisfactory. Meta-analytic studies found failure rates of 57 to 75%. These percentages vary in relation to the intensity and length of the treatment. In addition, the abstinence rates gradually decrease over time.In this study, the clinical outcome of alcohol related liver disease (ALD) patients who spontaneously attended self-help groups (SHGs) (club of alcoholics in treatment -multi-family community/ alcoholics anonymous) regularly versus those who did not want to start the path or did not complete it was evaluated. Method: 1337 alcohol use disorder patients affected by compensated alcohol related liver disease followed prospectively from January 2005 to December 2010, were retrospectively assessed. 231 patients were enrolled: 74 attended self-help groups assiduously, 27 attended sporadically and 130 refused participation in SHGs. Results: constant attendance at SHGs compared to non-attendance allows for a significant increase (<0.0001) in the period of sobriety found in the median of distribution. Frequent attendance at SHGs is effectively "preventive", reducing the fraction of relapses by about 30%. The percentage of cases of cirrhosis is significantly different (p = 0.0007) between those who have regularly attended SHG meetings (about 1% of patients) and those who have never attended or only occasionally (various percentages between 21 and 31% of patients); in both groups the incidence of new cases would seem to be 0.014 cases/ year. Similar difference in percentages regarding the onset of hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs), although with a lower level of significance (p = 0.017) among those who attended regularly, 4% of patients with an incidence of 0.006 cases/ year, compared to those who have never attended or only occasionally: over 14% of patients with an incidence of 0.022 cases/ year. Conclusion: this study suggests the importance of attending SHGs not only for the long-term achievement of alcoholic abstention, but also in positively influencing the course of alcohol-related diseases