Serial killer and necrophilia: Report of twenty-five years of treatment and management in a rare case.

The authors report a case of a sexual serial killer responsible for four homicides (one homosexual and three prostitutes) over a 12-year period. The perpetrator was diagnosed with a severe personality disorder and necrophilia at the time of the crimes and was declared partially mentally impaired and dangerous to societal security by the Court of Jurisdiction for these crimes. The offender served 22 years in prison, including half of the detention in an OPG (High Security Forensic Psychiatry Hospital) receiving psychiatric treatment.

Which support is provided in which country? Patterns among older adults in Europe.

This paper proposes comparative research on support provided outside the household by older adults in Europe. In studying social support, the network perspective is widely used, investigating, in particular, the ego-centered support networks of individuals. The analysis is based on data from Wave 7 of the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE).

RISK aversion in Italian forensic and non-forensic patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Background: Goal-directed decision-making is a central component of the broader reward and motivation system, and requires the ability to dynamically integrate both positive and negative feedback from the environment in order to maximize rewards and minimize losses over time. Altered decision-making processes, in which individuals fail to consider the negative consequences of their decisions on both themselves and others, may play a role in driving antisocial behaviour.

Aim: The main study aim was to investigate possible differences in loss and risk aversion across matched patients, all with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD), but who varied according to whether they had a history of serious interpersonal violence or not, and a sample of healthy controls with no history of violence.

Difference between forensic patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders in Italy and other European countries: Results of the EU-VIORMED project.

Background: There has been a substantial change in the law on the provision of secure health services for offender-patients in Italy, a country currently with the lowest general psychiatry bed availability per head of the population in Europe, raising questions about possible differences in offender-patient admissions between European countries.

Aims: In this multicentre case-control study, our aim was to compare the socio-demographic, clinical and criminological characteristics of a sample of Italian forensic in-patients with schizophrenia or similar psychosis with patients in a similar diagnostic range in specialist in-patient services elsewhere in Europe.

Methods: Secure hospital unit in-patients with psychosis were recruited across five European countries (Italy, Austria, Germany, Poland and England).

Protection of Prisoners with Mental Health Disorders in Italy: Lights and Shadows after the Abolition of Judicial Psychiatric Hospitals.

In Italy, a person suffering from a mental disorder who commits a crime will be given a custodial security order and serve the period of admission at a (Residence for the Execution of Security Measures, hereinafter "REMS"). These institutions have been established recently and though equipped with the necessary safety measures, the focus is on psychiatric therapy. Despite being present on a national scale, access is very limited in terms of capacity.