Animal-Assisted Intervention (AAI) in a Recovery-Oriented Psychiatric Rehabilitation Program.

Introduction: Previous animal-assisted interventions (AAI) studies have documented that human-animal interaction can reduce anxiety levels and improve social skills and quality of life. In recent decades there was a growing evidence on the benefits achievable through human-animal relationship in different categories of people, such as children with autism spectrum disorder, elderly patients affected by dementia, patients with psychiatric disorders and alcohol/drug addiction.

Methods: In the present study ten patients from psychiatric residential facilities belonging to the EPASSS Foundation were approached to participated in this study.

Primary Psychosis, Geriatric Depression and Cognitive Reserve: Protective Factor and Therapeutic Trajectors.

Cognitive reserve (CR) is essential in reducing natural cognitive decline. Identified in neurodegenerative pathologies, it also increasingly plays a role in the development of the symptomatic processes of numerous psychiatric pathologies. CR could help identify subgroups of elderly patients affected by primary psychosis and mood disorders and evaluate their correlation with diagnostic and therapeutic trajectories.

Neurocognitive Disorders and Cognitive Reserve: a Study on a Psychiatric Rehabilitation Patients Sample.

Background: Research on neurocognitive disorders and cognitive reserve in psychiatric rehabilitation patients is crucial to understanding how cognitive function impacts rehabilitation outcomes. Cognitive reserve refers to the brain's resilience to neuropathological damage, and exploring its role in psychiatric patients can provide insights into their varying responses to treatment and recovery potential. Investigating whether there are differences in cognitive reserve and neurocognitive disorders between offenders and non-offenders within psychiatric rehabilitation can help tailor interventions and improve rehabilitation strategies.

The Emotional Impact on Mental Health Workers in the Care of Patients with Mental Disorders in the Pandemic and Post COVID-19 Pandemic: a Measure of "Burnout" and "Compassion Fatigue".

Background: Emotional pressure, fear, and uncertainties affected healthcare workers (HCWs) who played a significant role during the COVID-19 pandemic. After the pandemic crisis, the consequences on the health of mental HealhCare Workers are still significant. Our work aimed to evaluate burnout and compassion fatigue in HCWs.

Stress Work and Hopelessness in Mental Health Workers/Caregivers: an Observational Study in Pandemic and Post COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: WHO has decreed an end to the pandemic crisis from COVID-19. However, the consequences of stress, compassion fatigue, and healthcare workers' expectations are still evident. Also, the hope of ending the problems associated with the pandemic is still present, although the awareness of maintaining a high level of attention is current in the HCWs.

Specific Cognitive Deficits in Bipolar Disorder. Project of a Pilot Study on a Sample of Patients.

It is known in the literature that marked deficits in cognitive functions are associated with bipolar disorder (DB) and that such disorders can influence its course and predict its prognosis. Deficits in attention, response inhibition, executive functions, learning, information processing speed and verbal and visual working memory have been documented in both children and adults suffering from the disorder. These dysfunctions have been observed, albeit to varying degrees, also in patients in the phase of euthymia or good mood functioning, as well as in first degree relatives.

The Effect of the Pandemic on the Care of Patients with Mental Disorders: Measure of "Compassion Fatigue" and "Burn-Out" in the Operator.

Background: The Covid-19 Pandemic has had a significant impact on psychophysical well-being and the ability to work productively in contexts concerning people's physical and mental care. The helping professions involved have seen an increase in stress levels, a sense of helplessness, fear, pain and social isolation. They are anchored to the hope of being able to return to their normality.

The Emotional Impact of the Operator in the Care of Patients With Mental Disorders during the Pandemic: Measure of Interventions on Compassion Fatigue and Burn-Out.

Background: The continuation of the health emergency due to the management of COVID-19 is having a profound effect on all aspects of society, including mental health and physical health. This observational study examined practitioners of psychiatric rehabilitation and therapeutic communities, focusing on the emotional aspects of patient care, in particular the fatigue of compassion, empathy and lack of hope, aspects that could be directly linked to the burnout of health professionals, as found in other similar studies.

Method: In this study, self-administered scale data was collected in 87 healthcare professionals recruited from 3 different psychiatric rehabilitation communities.

A New Rating Scale (SAVE-9) to Demonstrate the Stress and Anxiety in the Healthcare Workers During the COVID-19 Viral Epidemic.

The COVID-19 epidemic has been a major global public health problem during past months in Italy and in several other Countries and on the date of publication of this article, is still a serious public health problem. The health staff, engaged in the care of the sick and in the prevention of the spread of the infection have been subjected to a further increase in psychological difficulties and work-related stress, related to the workload for the continuous influx of sick and intense and close working shifts for the viral emergency. The SAVE-9 (Stress and Anxiety to Viral Epidemics - 9 items) scale has been developed as a tool for assessing work anxiety and stress in response to the viral epidemic of health professionals working to prevent the spread of the virus and to treat infected people.

100 years of high GEM concentration in the Central Italian Herbarium and Tropical Herbarium Studies Centre (Florence, Italy).

Up to 1980s, the most used preservative for herbaria specimens was HgCl, sublimating at ambient air conditions; ionic Hg then reduces to Hg (gaseous elemental mercury, GEM) and diffuses throughout poor ventilated environments. High GEM levels may indeed persist for decades, representing a health hazard. In this study, we present new GEM data from the Central Italian Herbarium and Tropical Herbarium Studies Centre of the University of Florence (Italy).

Identification and evaluation of cognitive deficits in schizophrenia using "Machine learning".

Background: Schizophrenia can be interpreted as a pathology involving the neocortex whose cognitive dysfunctions represent a central and persistent characteristic of the disease, as well as one of the more important symptoms in relation to the impairment of psychosocial functioning and the resulting disabilities. Given the implication of cognitive functions in everyday life, they can better predict the degree of schizophrenia. The study proposes to use Machine Learning techniques to identify the specific cognitive deficits of schizophrenia that mostly characterize the disorder, as well as to develop a predictive system that can diagnose the presence of schizophrenia based on neurocognitive tests.

Mental Illness and Prejudices in Psychiatric Professionals. Data from the Social Stigma Questionnaire for Psychiatric Professionals: A Multicentre Study.

The prejudices about mental illness and the related social stigma are still present in the population. People suffer from both the disease and the marginalization behaviors implemented by the "so-called healthy" towards them and their relatives. Even psychiatric professionals can get sick and suffer for the same reason.