Publications by authors named "Francesca Pacitti"

Article Synopsis
  • * Understanding how social behavior theories influence compliance with health guidelines is crucial for addressing these challenges, particularly through research on social cognition and its effects on mental well-being.
  • * A review of 14 studies revealed that pandemic-related restrictions caused shifts in social cognition, especially among vulnerable groups such as those with autism, older adults, and frontline workers, suggesting that tailored intervention strategies could enhance adherence to preventive measures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

COVID-19 is associated with neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as anosmia, anxiety, depression, stress-related reactions, and psychoses. The illness can cause persistent cognitive impairment and "brain fog", suggesting chronic brain involvement. Clinical entities of ongoing symptomatic COVID-19 and Post COVID Syndrome (PCS) mainly present neuropsychiatric symptoms such as dysgeusia, headache, fatigue, anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study analyzed psychiatric hospitalization trends at San Salvatore Hospital during two significant crises: the 2009 earthquake and the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, comparing data from two periods (2008-2011 and 2019-2022).
  • Researchers looked at weekly admissions for various mental health disorders, using statistical models to assess the impact of these events on hospitalization rates.
  • Findings revealed a notable decrease in hospitalizations immediately following the earthquake, with lower rates persisting for several months, while the COVID-19 lockdown initially saw stable admission rates, followed by a substantial long-term increase in hospitalizations in early 2022 across all diagnosed categories.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Since discovering the glymphatic system, there has been a looming interest in exploring its relationship with psychiatric disorders. Recently, increasing evidence suggests an involvement of the glymphatic system in the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders. However, clear data are still lacking.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study examines how affective temperaments influence the risk of developing seasonal affective disorder (SAD) among young adults without prior clinical diagnoses.
  • Participants included 846 university students who completed questionnaires to evaluate their seasonal mood issues and temperament types.
  • Results showed that individuals with cyclothymic and anxious temperaments are more vulnerable to SAD, while those with hyperthymic temperament are less affected, suggesting that understanding these temperaments can improve assessment and predictions for SAD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: PER3 is a circadian gene that contains a variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) which codifies for three genotypes: 4/4; 4/5; and 5/5 and is involved in non-visual response to light, a critical process associated with bipolar disorder onset. Benedetti et al. (Neurosci Lett 445(2):184-7) related this VNTR with bipolar disorder age of onset and linked genotype 5/5 with an earlier onset.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background & Aim: Traumatic experiences (TEs) are a risk factor for behavioral and substance addictions (SBAs). However, the role of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD (cPTSD) deserves further elucidation. The present study assesses the association between different types of TEs on cannabis, alcohol, gambling, and problematic internet use in late adolescents.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We hereby report a case of a young Ukrainian woman refugee who immigrated in Italy after the war outbreak in February 2022. The researcher arrived in Italy in March 2022, thanks to a scholarship of the University of L'Aquila. Shortly after settling in L'Aquila, she started to manifest depressive symptoms, which eventually led her to seek psychological and pharmacological help in the local psychiatric unit.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: A large body of evidence has established a tight relation between traumatic experiences (TEs) and psychotic-like experiences (PLEs). Nevertheless, more comprehensive models involving multiple interactions of serial or parallel mediations and moderations still need to be elucidated. Among the many potential mediators or moderators, insecure attachment and resilience play a key role in the association of stress with PLEs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Attachment styles represent a personality pattern critical to psychological health, with insecure attachment being a central factor in developing psychopathological characteristics of psychosis. However, its downstream psychopathological pathways remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the putative psychopathological mediators in the relationship between insecure attachment and psychotic features in a non-clinical sample of university students.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD (cPTSD) are two sibling stress-related disorders. Evidence suggests a worse clinical picture associated with cPTSD in terms of comorbidities and outcomes. However, little is known about the association between cPTSD and psychotic-like experiences (PLEs).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The emotional regulation process plays a pivotal role in daily-life functioning, modulating goal-directed and adaptive behavior. Conversely, altering this cognitive function can disrupt self-regulation and bring emotional dysregulation. Emotional instability could represent a core characteristic of BPD, also modulating the BPD symptom's onset.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the relation between perpetration and victimization of violence with gender and age at onset of mental disorders in patients with severe mental disorders.

Methods: 216 patients were recruited and evaluated with the Italian version of the Karolinska Interpersonal Violence Scale.

Results: We found higher levels of victimization of violence in women than men and more violence in patients with lower age at onset.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: Neurological Soft Signs (NSS) represent minor neurological signs related to non-specific cerebral alterations. They have been documented in many psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia (SCZ) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Aim of this study was to determine and compare the incidence and severity of NSS in patients with SCZ, in patients with OCD, and healthy control subjects (HCs).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Adjustment disorder (AjD) is a is a maladaptive emotional or behavioural reaction to a stressful event or change in a person's life. Compared to other previously validated tools, the International Adjustment Disorder Questionnaire (IADQ) stands out as one of the most reliable and handy one for AjD. Since no homologous instrument exists now, in this study, we aimed to validate an Italian version of the IADQ.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a subtype of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) with a seasonal pattern. Although it is a pathological condition limited to specific seasons of the year, during the symptomatic period, patients may experience a significant impairment of well-being and daily quality of life as a result of the depressed mood, associated with other symptoms defined as atypical of MDD. While extensive evidence of memory deficits has been found in MDD, explicit memory impairments in SAD are insufficiently studied.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study investigated obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS) in the Italian general population during the initial stage of the pandemic and the impact of COVID-19 related potential risk factors. A web-based survey was spread throughout the internet between March 27th and April 9th 2020. Twenty thousand two hundred forty-one individuals completed the questionnaire, 80.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases has endorsed substantial changes in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and has introduced Complex PTSD (cPTSD). The objective of this study was to assess the symptom and network structure of PTSD and cPTSD using the International Trauma Questionnaire- Italian version (ITQ) and the prevalence of PTSD and cPTSD in a community sample of late adolescents enriched with exposure to a destructive earthquake. A 1,010 high school students participated to the study.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Not only did the ongoing CoronaVIrus Disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic cause a massive number of casualties, but also there is growing concern that the burden of its psychological aftermaths will only show up years down the road. This systematic review summarises the existing literature reporting the impact of COVID-19 on personality disorders (PDs)-related violence. MEDLINE and APA PsycINFO were independently searched for relevant studies by two authors.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

: Recent evidence showed adverse mental health outcomes associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, including trauma-related symptoms. The Global Psychotrauma Screen (GPS) is a brief instrument designed to assess a broad range of trauma-related symptoms with no available validation in the Italian population. : This study aimed to examine the factor structure of the Italian version of the GPS in a general population sample exposed to the COVID-19 pandemic and to evaluate trauma-related symptoms in the context of COVID-19 related risk factors associated with lockdown measures.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We aimed at investigating the gender and/or ultradian pattern of serum levels of the Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) and Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF). Blood samples were collected at the 8.00, 13.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: The Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA) is a self-administered 7-point Likert scale of 33 items, structured in 6 factors measuring personal and interpersonal resources. We aimed to develop and validate a brief form of the RSA, in order to produce a short, fast and handy tool for assessing resilience.

Materials And Methods: A non-clinical sample of 500 university students was recruited using a research website.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF