Commentary: Preliminary evaluation of an analog procedure to assess acceptability of intimate partner violence against women: The partner violence acceptability Movie Task

Preliminary evaluation of an analog procedure to assess acceptability of intimate partner violence against women: the Partner Violence Acceptability Movie Task

What Works with Individuals in a Clinical Setting?

A commentary on Empirically supported treatments in psychotherapy: towards an evidence-based or evidence-biased psychology? by Castelnuovo, G. (2010). Front. Psychology 1:27. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00027 Castelnuovo’s review of research on psychotherapeutical effectiveness (Castelnuovo, 2010), gathers together and summarizes a large body of literature. It explains the background of methods used in psychotherapeutic outcome research, while examining the premises behind the empirically supported treatment (EST) movement, clearly demonstrating the trut

The Clinical Assessment in the Legal Field: An Empirical Study of Bias and Limitations in Forensic Expertise

According to the literature, psychological assessment in forensic contexts is one of the most controversial application areas for clinical psychology. This paper presents a review of systematic judgment errors in the forensic field. Forty-six psychological reports written by psychologists, court consultants, have been analyzed with content analysis to identify typical judgment errors related to the following areas: (a) distortions in the attribution of causality, (b) inferential errors, and (c) epistemological inconsistencies. Results indicated that systematic errors of judgment, usually referred also as "the man in the street," are widely present in the forensic evaluations of specialist consultants. Clinical and practical implications are taken into account. This article could lead to significant benefits for clinical psychologists who want to deal with this sensitive issue and are interested in improving the quality of their contribution to the justice system

What works for promoting health at school: Improving programs against the substance abuse

The school is one of the most important contexts for carrying out health promotion programs related to the abuse of substances. Over the years, methods and intervention models have changed a great deal, both in relation to the evolution of health goals and to the role played by experts, students, parents, and teachers. We would like to offer a different perspective on health promotion at school by discussing the weaknesses and strengths of the most used methods, in order to identify the appropriate methodology, based on recent evidence research findings. We used Scopus as database for reviewing existing literature. The evolution in the methodology of health promotion programs can be synthesized through a sequence of three phases, from the 1960s to the present day

Getting better acquainted with Auditory Voice Hallucinations (AVHs): A need for clinical and social change

The phenomenon of hearing voices (AVHs) is very much a subject of current scientific interest, both clinically1 and socially. For a long time, auditory hallucinations—perceiving sounds without external stimuli (David, 2004)—were considered an obvious sign of schizophrenic or psychotic psychopathology (Goodwin et al., 1971; Larøi et al., 2012), but these days such an association is no longer taken for granted. Various recent studies in the areas of psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience have brought a renewal of interest in AVHs. First of all, the move beyond Kraepelinian logic (van Os, 2009; Fusar-Poli et al., 2014) has led us to see AVHs as a phenomenon in their own right, and not just a characteristic of schizophrenia (Fernyhough, 2004). Furthermore, a number of studies in imaging techniques have allowed us to study the phenomenon live, as it occurs, collecting various new data (Shergill et al., 2000). On the other hand, psychological studies with attempts at modeling, have boosted the idea that AVHs are linked to the linguistic and verbal qualities of the subject, thus reducing the association between voice hallucinations and signs of pathology (Johns and van Os, 2001; Pearson et al., 2001; Stanghellini and Cutting, 2003). Other researchers have theorized that hearing voices is a different manifestation of self-awareness (Salvini and Bottini, 2011; Salvini and Quarato, 2011). Even DSM-5 has modified the importance it attaches to hallucinations, in fact although the 4th edition diagnosed “schizophrenia” simply on the basis of the symptom “hallucinations,” in the new edition hallucinations on their own are not considered a sufficient symptom to diagnose the specter of schizophrenia” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Many of those suffering from this condition are not under treatment and are not diagnosable in psychopathological terms, which asks ever more questions of health professionals (Iudici, 2015), and which brings with it the risk that the phenomenon of hearing voices may be considered pathological because of a lack of understanding of the problem. One direct implication of this risk concerns non-psychotic and non-schizophrenic hearers of voices who are afraid of being considered mad or disturbed, who very often live in fear for years without talking about it with anyone, although realizing that hearing voices causes no general maladjustment in their lives (Andrew et al., 2008). In the long term this can lead to feelings of alarm in some of them, and when such situations result in a visit to a clinic or a psychiatrist, there are often “suffering and conflicted confessions” about such experiences, especially by people who have never had psychiatric experience (Iudici and Gagliardo Corsi, 2017). These people consequently do not have appropriate information to help them understand their experiences (Faccio et al., 2013). This fact raises further doubts about the direct juxtaposition of auditory hallucinations and diagnoses of mental disturbance, and consequently our interest is in sensitizing clinicians to a broader interpretation of the phenomenon than the traditional view, highlighting the importance of considering more perspectives

New drugs and polydrug use: implications for clinical psychology

New drugs and polydrug use: implications for clinical psycholog

Health Professionals Working with Persons with Alzheimer's. Reflections for New Training Courses

AbstractHealth professionals working with a person suffering from Alzheimer's disease have to face with considerable communicational and relational difficulties. Therefore, training programs focused on the cognitive or medical aspects of the disease may not be sufficient to deal with the complexity of this condition. Starting from the contributions of Kitwood (1997) and the approach of Bender (2003), this study aims to discuss an alternative paradigm to dementia-care, providing suggestions about the daily care work of health professionals. Some expressive and narrative activities are presented in order to facilitate an effective relationship between operators and patients

When Therapists Do Not Know What to Do: Informal Types of Eclecticism in Psychotherapy

Eclecticism usually arises from the perception of one's own theoretical model as being inadequate, which may be the case in situations of therapeutic stalemate. In need of new strategies, therapists criticize their own approach and take eclectic knowledge onboard. The goal of this qualitative study is to explore basic elements of this informal knowledge, with reference to the theory of social representations and points of view. Episodic interviews were conducted with 40 therapists. Results confirmed that clinical knowledge often turns eclectic, showing different styles of reorganization; a so-cial co-evolution model will be pointed out to explain this personalization of one's own approach. The results achieved might contribute to the amelioration of the therapeutic awareness of one's own knowledge structure and the use of eclecticism in carrying out therapies, leading to significant benefit in treatment effectiveness

Illness Experiences and Attitudes towards Medication in Online Communities for People with Fibromyalgia

Abstract: Fibromyalgia is a chronic disabling syndrome, and the legitimacy of its diagnosis is still debated. Internet and online communities may become a relevant resource for affected people. This present study aims to understand the role of online communities relating to fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) patients’ illness experiences and their attitudes towards medication. A qualitative content analysis based on the grounded theory approach was conducted on 19 conversations from an online forum, and 14 online interviews. Illness experience, lack of reference points, online communities, personal role and attitude towards medication were the five categories identified, with the search for recognition as the core category. The study highlighted that online communities represent a resource that allows users to express and share their needs, especially in terms of legitimacy and recognition