Neuropsychology of sexuality in older adults: bridging gaps in literature and future directions in research.

Sexuality is a fundamental part of human existence and it encompasses thoughts, desires, behaviors, relationships, as well as neuropsychological and physiological components. However, sexuality in older adults is under-researched from the neuropsychological and psychophysiological perspectives and is often neglected by healthcare providers in the clinical practice. This article aims to explore the state of the art on the neuropsychology and psychophysiology of older adults' sexuality, proposing future research directions and emphasizing its significance.

Deep into Cognition: The Neuropsychological Identikit of Younger and Older Individuals after COVID-19 Infection.

The literature on COVID-19 continues to increase daily. Cognitive sequelae associated with COVID-19 infection still draw the attention of the scientific community given the lack of consensus about their existence, etiology, characterization and reversibility. The aim of this study is to provide a neuropsychological identikit for younger (<65 years) and older (≥65 years) individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 infection, at baseline and after 3 and 6 months.

Risk and Protective Factors of Psychological Distress in Patients Who Recovered From COVID-19: The Role of Cognitive Reserve.

Recent studies reported the development of psychological distress symptoms in patients who recovered from COVID-19. However, evidence is still scarce and new data are needed to define the exact risk and protective factors that can explain the variability in symptoms manifestation. In this study, we enrolled 257 patients who recovered from COVID-19 and we evaluated the levels of psychological distress through the Symptoms Checklist-90-R scale.

Cognitive and Psychological Sequelae of COVID-19: Age Differences in Facing the Pandemic.

Literature about the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) is currently focusing on the potential cognitive and neuropsychiatric sequelae observed in individuals receiving intensive care unit (ICU) treatments. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the differences in cognitive and psychological sequelae of COVID-19 between younger and older adults, regardless of being admitted to the ICU or not. The study involved 299 recovered individuals (from 18 to 90 years old), who underwent a comprehensive cognitive and psychological assessment.

Psychological Wellbeing of Parents with Infants Admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit during SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.

The current SARS-CoV-2 disease (COVID-19) pandemic is a sudden major stressor superimposed on pre-existing high distress in parents of infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). This study aimed to investigate the psychological wellbeing of NICU parents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Forty-four parents of 25 inpatients of the Padua University Hospital NICU were included from June 2020 to February 2021.

Antiphospholipid antibody syndrome and LVAD: What are the chances? A case report and literature review.

Left-ventricular-assist-device (LVAD) implantation in patients with antiphospholipid-syndrome (APS) is considered a high-risk procedure and its indication still represents an open challenge. Herein, we report a 63-year-old man with APS and end-stage heart failure, for whom a HeartMate3-LVAD and a continuous rheologic profile monitoring with a multiparametric assessment resulted the optimal therapeutic strategy.

Severe acute alcoholic hepatitis: can we offer early liver transplantation?

Alcohol-related liver disease is one of the most prevalent liver diseases worldwide and is the second most common indication for liver transplantation. Most transplant programs require 6 months of abstinence prior to transplantation; commonly referred to as the "six-month rule." According to this rule, the patients admitted for severe acute alcoholic hepatitis are not eligible for liver transplantation in most transplant centers.

The Psychosocial Assessment of Transplant Candidates: Inter-Rater Reliability and Predictive Value of the Italian Stanford Integrated Psychosocial Assessment for Transplantation (SIPAT).

Background: The Stanford Integrated Psychosocial Assessment for Transplantation (SIPAT) is a comprehensive instrument developed to accurately assess the main pretransplant psychosocial risk factors that may impact transplant outcomes.

Objective: As neither established assessment procedures nor standardized tools designed to perform pretransplant psychosocial evaluation are currently available in Italy, the present study was designed to develop and preliminarily validate the Italian version of the SIPAT.

Methods: First, our team developed the Italian version of the SIPAT, following standard forward-back translation procedures.

Psychosocial Support in Liver Transplantation: A Dyadic Study With Patients and Their Family Caregivers.

: Liver transplantation provides an opportunity of survival for patients with liver failure; however, this procedure is known to be psychologically and physically fatiguing for patients and their informal caregivers. The aim of this study was to investigate how perceived social support and the distribution of dependency were associated with the psychological wellbeing of patients waiting for liver transplantation and their caregivers, as a dyad. : The present was a cross-sectional study.

A comparison of quality of life and psychological distress in heart transplantation patients at adult and pediatric ages.

Background: The aim of the current study was to evaluate and compare the quality of life (QOL) and psychological status of adult patients who underwent heart transplant (HTx) at pediatric or adult ages.

Methods: The population consisted of two groups: patients who received HTx after 18 years old and pediatrics who received HTx between the age of 1 and 18 years. At the time of the study, all patients were over 18 years old.

Thoughts modulate the expression of inflammatory genes and may improve the coronary blood flow in patients after a myocardial infarction.

Background: Mental stress is one of the main risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Meditation and music listening are two techniques that are able to counteract it through the activation of specific brain areas, eliciting the so-called Relaxing Response (RR). Epidemiological evidence reveals that the RR practice has a beneficial prognostic impact on patients after myocardial infarction.

Neuropsychological profile in a large group of heart transplant candidates.

Background: Recent studies have reported that patients with end-stage heart disease can have cognitive deficits ranging from mild to severe. Little is known, however, about the relationship between cognitive performance, neurophysiological characteristics and relevant clinical and instrumental indexes for an extensive evaluation of patients with heart failure, such as: left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and other haemodynamic measures, maximum oxygen uptake during cardiopulmonary exercise testing, comorbidities, major cardiovascular risk factors and disease duration. Our purpose was to outline the cognitive profiles of end-stage heart disease patients in order to identify the cognitive deficits that could compromise the quality of life and the therapeutic adherence in end-stage heart disease patients, and to identify the variables associated with an increased risk of cognitive deficits in these patients.

Mental stress and ischemic heart disease: evolving awareness of a complex association.

The connection between cardiovascular disease and psychosocial risk factors has been the subject of an ever-growing body of literature over the last 50 years. Studies on the role of negative emotions, personality traits, chronic stress and social determinants have brought to light their possible role in triggering acute coronary syndromes, although further studies are required to clarify controversial results regarding the association between cardiovascular risk and important psychological problems such as depression and anxiety. The recognition of the role of emotional events in acute coronary syndromes paved the way for provocation experiments, aimed at inducing mental stress in a controlled setting and then documenting reversible impairment of myocardial perfusion, depolarization anomalies and arrhythmias.

Adherence self report assessment in solid-organ pre and post transplant recipients.

Objective: There is strong evidence that many patients with chronic diseases have difficulties to adhere to the medical regimens. As to transplantation, nonadherence to the prescribed medical regimen has repeatedly been found to predict morbidity and mortality, both in adults and in children. Many instruments are available in order to assess nonadherence to immunosuppressive medication, whereas only few are available on behavioural components.

Posttraumatic stress disorder and depression in heart transplantation recipients: the relationship with outcome and adherence to medical treatment.

Objective: There is growing evidence of the importance of psychiatric risk factors for predicting the outcome of heart transplantation (HT) recipients. The aim of our study was to investigate the role of major depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the prediction of the outcome of HT in a consecutive sample of 107 recipients.

Method: All subjects of the study underwent a structured diagnostic interview for assessing the presence of pretransplant and posttransplant major depression and transplantation-related PTSD 1 to 5 years after HT.

[Psychological problems and cognitive impairments in the GUCH Community].

The increase of the GUCH Community requires a new definition of cardiac surgical success, which has to be considered either in terms of survival or quality of life and quality of health. Clinical and psychological problems are present in this population secondary to native cardiac disease, surgical correction, and social environment. Cognitive impairment after cardiac surgery is not rare, but an exhaustive evaluation of the psychological and neurodevelopmental outcome of patients operated on for total correction of congenital heart disease is complex and its clinical significance can be obtained by the integration of cardiological data, psychological status, and sociodemographic variables.