Publications by authors named "B Demartini"
Introduction: Functional Motor Disorder (FMD) is characterized by motor neurological symptoms that cannot be explained by typical neurological diseases or other medical conditions. The role of psychological factors in the development, severity, and persistence of FMD remains unclear. We investigated the Attachment State of Mind (SoM) in FMD patients using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and retrospectively examined the quality of their traumatic experiences, if any.
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- - The study explores the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) traits in young adults (ages 18-24) who are seeking help at a mental health clinic, highlighting that diagnosing ASD is evolving and affecting population estimates.
- - Researchers had 259 patients complete two self-report questionnaires to assess ASD traits, revealing that 16.2% had scores above the standard cut-off on both tools; this figure dropped to 13.13% with stricter criteria on one scale.
- - The authors recommend that mental health professionals include screenings for autistic traits when evaluating young adults with mental health issues, advocating for further diagnostic evaluations if positive results are found on the screening tests.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigated the link between autistic traits and eating disorders in adult women, focusing on how these traits and sensory sensitivity affect eating behaviors.
- Out of 75 participants, 12% showed significant autistic traits, while 68% had elevated scores in a specific autism assessment.
- Findings suggest that higher sensory sensitivity correlates with more autistic traits, which are tied to dysfunctional eating behaviors in individuals with various eating disorders, indicating the need for more research in this area.
Background: Nearly two-thirds of individuals with a mental disorder start experiencing symptoms during adolescence or early adulthood, and the onset of a mental disorder during this critical life stage strongly predicts adverse socioeconomic and health outcomes. Subthreshold manifestations of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), also called autistic traits (ATs), are known to be associated with a higher vulnerability to the development of other psychiatric disorders. This study aimed to assess the presence of ATs in a population of young adults seeking specialist assistance and to evaluate the study population across various psychopathological domains in order to determine their links with ATs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatients with anorexia nervosa (AN) typically hold altered beliefs about their body that they struggle to update, including global, prospective beliefs about their ability to know and regulate their body and particularly their interoceptive states. While clinical questionnaire studies have provided ample evidence on the role of such beliefs in the onset, maintenance, and treatment of AN, psychophysical studies have typically focused on perceptual and 'local' beliefs. Across two experiments, we examined how women at the acute AN (N = 86) and post-acute AN state (N = 87), compared to matched healthy controls (N = 180) formed and updated their self-efficacy beliefs retrospectively (Experiment 1) and prospectively (Experiment 2) about their heartbeat counting abilities in an adapted heartbeat counting task.
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