COVID-19 detection and spread control: what initiatives in Italy for the homeless population?

In Italy COVID-19 pandemic had a severe impact. The homeless live in situations aggravating their poor health conditions and comorbidities. Although homeless people are a fragile category, no dedicated measures by public health departments seem to be applied infrequently to this population.

Exploratory evaluation of an obese population seeking bariatric surgery in an Italian public service.

Obesity is a difficult to treat multi-problematic disease. Bariatric surgery (BS) has been regarded as the most effective therapeutic option, however the outcomes strongly depend on baseline conditions and further behavioural modifications. Our aim was to assess the characteristics of severely obese patients seeking BS in a Public Health Service in Italy.

Preliminary evaluation of the DDS-PC inventory: a new tool to assess impulsive-compulsive behaviours associated to dopamine replacement therapy in Parkinson's disease.

Dopaminergic medications could increase the occurrence of a set of dysregulated behaviours in Parkinson's disease (PD), including reward-seeking behaviours (pathological gambling, hypersexuality, compulsive shopping, binge eating, reckless driving), punding and compulsive medication use. We report a preliminary evaluation of a questionnaire to assess the presence of these impulsive-compulsive behaviours associated to dopamine replacement therapy in PD. We screened 38 patients and their caregivers, comparing dopamine dysregulation syndrome (DDS) patients and non-DDS patients.

Treatment dropout in drug-addicted women: are eating disorders implicated?

A high prevalence of eating disorders among drug-addicted female patients has been noted, and it could be associated to psychopathological underlying factors. Our aim was to assess eating disorder traits in women approaching a residential program for drug addiction. We hypothesized that these traits would correlate to more general psychopathological factors, and would influence treatment relapse.

The thrill of reckless driving in patients with Parkinson's disease: an additional behavioural phenomenon in dopamine dysregulation syndrome?

We report two male patients with Parkinson's disease who developed compulsive risk-seeking driving behaviour as a result of self-administering high doses of L-dopa despite an adequate therapeutic response at lower doses. When L-dopa reduction was feasible, it resulted in cessation of unsafe driving. We believe that this impairment in driving performance, due to deliberate overuse of dopaminergic medication, should be included as a new behavioural phenomenon in dopamine dysregulation syndrome.