Intermittent Theta Burst Stimulation Combined with Cognitive Training to Improve Negative Symptoms and Cognitive Impairment in Schizophrenia: A Pilot Study.

Schizophrenia is a chronic psychiatric disorder severely affecting patients' functioning and quality of life. Unlike positive symptoms, cognitive impairment and negative symptoms cannot be treated pharmacologically and represent consistent predictors of the illness's prognosis. Cognitive remediation (CR) interventions have been applied to target these symptoms.

Individualized strategies for depression: narrative review of clinical profiles responsive to vortioxetine.

Background: Depression is a highly heterogeneous disorder, often resulting in suboptimal response and remission rates. This underscores the need for more nuanced clinical characterization of patients to tailor individualized treatment plans. Emerging evidence highlights the critical role of cognitive and emotional dysfunction in major depression, prompting the exploration of novel therapeutic interventions that target these specific symptom domains.

Combining transcranial magnetic stimulation with training to improve social cognition impairment in schizophrenia: a pilot randomized controlled trial.

Schizophrenia is a severe, chronic mental disorder that profoundly impacts patients' everyday lives. The illness's core features include positive and negative symptoms and cognitive impairments. In particular, deficits in the social cognition domain showed a tighter connection to patients' everyday functioning than the other symptoms.

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic First Wave on Healthcare Workers: A New Perspective from Qualifying PTSD Criterion A to Assessing Post-Traumatic Growth.

Post-traumatic growth (PTG) and specific traumatic events have been poorly explored in the literature focusing on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among healthcare workers (HWs) tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. In a large sample of Italian HWs, we investigated the kinds of traumatic events and whether PTG affects the risk of PTSD, along with its prevalence and features, during the first COVID-19 wave. COVID-19-related stressful events, Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and PTG Inventory-Short Form (PTGI-SF) scores were collected through an online survey.

Rethinking Catatonia: New Insights from the Autism Spectrum.

Initially conceptualized as a subtype of schizophrenia, catatonia has progressively been recognized to occur in a wide variety of conditions as a kind of final common pathway for many severe mental disorders. There is a significant overlap between the fundamental symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and catatonia, and ASD can frequently complicate catatonic states. While provocative, the hypothesis that neuroatypicality may represent the submerged structural piece underlying catatonic states is intriguing.

PTSD and Depression in Healthcare Workers in the Italian Epicenter of the COVID-19 Outbreak.

Background: Increasing evidence highlights the susceptibility of Healthcare Workers to develop psychopathological sequelae, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and depression, in the current COronaVIrus Disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic, but little data have been reported in the acute phase of the pandemic.

Objective: To explore Healthcare Workers' mental health reactions in the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first European epicenter (Lodi/Codogno, Italy), with particular attention to post-traumatic stress and depressive symptoms and their interplay with other psychological outcomes.

Methods: 74 Healthcare Workers employed at the Azienda Socio Sanitaria Territoriale of Lodi (Lombardy, Italy) were recruited and assessed by means of the , the , the , the , the and the .

A case of catatonia in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic: does autism spectrum matter?

Background: There is growing concern about the psychopathological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The prolonged stress due to the spreading fear of the contagion and to the enforced containment measures are deemed to trigger recurrences of preexisting mental disorders as well as the onset of new ones. From such perspective, clinical cases may be of primary ground to identify individual features and pandemic-related factors predisposing to the development of serious psychiatric symptoms.

Cariprazine in Three Special Different Areas: A Real-World Experience.

Cariprazine is an antipsychotic medication which received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of schizophrenia in September 2015. Cariprazine is a dopamine D and D receptor partial agonist, with a preference for the D receptor. Furthermore, although to a more limited extent, cariprazine also exhibits partial agonism at the level of 5-HT receptors, thus exerting an antidepressant effect in addition to the antipsychotic effect.

The interplay between acute post-traumatic stress, depressive and anxiety symptoms on healthcare workers functioning during the COVID-19 emergency: A multicenter study comparing regions with increasing pandemic incidence.

Background: Healthcare workers (HCWs) deployed to the frontline during the COVID-19 pandemic are at risk for developing mental disorders, with a possible impact on their wellbeing and functioning. The present study aimed at investigating post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), anxiety and depressive symptoms and their relationships with impairment in the functioning impairment among frontline HCWs from three Italian regions differently exposed to the first wave of the COVID-19 emergency: Tuscany (low), Emilia-Romagna (medium) and Lombardy (high).

Methods: 514 frontline HCWs were consecutively enrolled in hospital units devoted to the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Gender Differences in Misdiagnosis and Delayed Diagnosis among Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder with No Language or Intellectual Disability.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is often unrecognized, especially in mild forms and in women. Studies evaluating features associated with missed/misdiagnosis in men and women with ASD are warranted. 61 subjects (22 females, 39 males, age 28.

Autism spectrum in patients with schizophrenia: correlations with real-life functioning, resilience, and coping styles.

Background: Previous researches highlighted among patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) a significant presence of autistic traits, which seem to influence clinical and functional outcomes. The aim of this study was to further deepen the investigation, evaluating how patients with SSD with or without autistic traits may differ with respect to levels of functioning, self-esteem, resilience, and coping profiles.

Methods: As part of the add-on autism spectrum study of the Italian Network for Research on Psychoses, 164 outpatients with schizophrenia (SCZ) were recruited at eight Italian University psychiatric clinics.

Defining the Optimal Threshold Scores for Adult Autism Subthreshold Spectrum (AdAS Spectrum) in Clinical and General Population.

Background: The Adult Autism Subthreshold Spectrum (AdAS Spectrum) is a recently developed instrument tailored to assess the broad range of full-threshold as well as sub-threshold manifestations related to the autism spectrum. Although it has proved to be a valuable instrument for quantitative assessment of autistic symptoms, the AdAS Spectrum still lacks validated diagnostic thresholds.

Objective: The aim of this study was to define the best cut-off scores of the AdAS Spectrum for determining the presence of subthreshold autistic traits as well as a clinically significant autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Sleep quality among adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or autism spectrum disorder: which is the role of gender and chronotype?

Both Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) present increased prevalence rates of sleep difficulties, which persist into adulthood. However, it is still unclear whether in adults these disorders show specific sleep patterns and which role is played by comorbidities, circadian preferences and gender. This study aimed to describe and compare subjective measures of sleep in adults with ADHD and high-functioning ASD, in relation to the levels of anxiety and depression, chronotype and gender.

Subthreshold Autism Spectrum in a Patient with Anorexia Nervosa and Behçet's Syndrome.

Recently, increasing research stressed the presence of subthreshold autistic traits in patients with other psychiatric conditions. In this framework, a significant relationship between anorexia nervosa (AN) and the autism spectrum has been frequently reported, in particular among female samples, to the point that AN has been hypothesized to be a female phenotype of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). On the other hand, among subjects with ASD has been reported a higher prevalence of immune diseases and altered immune functions.

Complicated Grief: What to Expect After the Coronavirus Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the worst public health crises in a century, with an expected amount of deaths of several million worldwide and an even bigger number of bereaved people left behind. Although the consequences of this crisis are still unknown, a significant number of bereaved people will arguably develop Complicated Grief (CG) in the aftermath of this emergency. If the current pandemic is unprecedented, the grief following the coronavirus outbreak is likely to share features with grief related to natural disasters and after Intensive Care Unit (ICU) treatment.

Esperienze di switch a cariprazina in pazienti affetti da schizofrenia con risposta parziale.

Tra gli antipsicotici cosiddetti "di terza generazione", dotati di agonismo parziale sui recettori D 2 , cariprazina è in particolare contraddistinta da agonismo parziale D 3 /D 2 con affinità particolarmente elevata per i recettori D 3 , oltre che da un'azione di antagonismo 5HT2B e 5TH2A e agonismo parziale 5TH1A. L'insieme di queste attività recettoriali conferisce a cariprazina un profilo di azione sia sui sintomi positivi sia su quelli negativi, offrendo nuove opportunità di trattamento per disturbi dello spettro schizofrenico. In particolare, cariprazina potrebbe rappresentare una valida alternativa per pazienti che presentano sintomi negativi e cognitivi prominenti e che presentano una risposta sub-ottimale ad altre molecole antipsicotiche.

Sex Differences in the Relationship between PTSD Spectrum Symptoms and Autistic Traits in a Sample of University Students.

Background: While growing literature is stressing the link between Autistic Traits (AT) and trauma-/stress-related disorders, in both conditions significant differences have been separately reported.

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the relationship between AT and trauma-/stress-related symptoms with respect to sex.

Methods: 178 university students were assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5, the Trauma and Loss Spectrum (TALS) and the Adult Autism Subthreshold Spectrum (AdAS).

The broad autism phenotype in real-life: clinical and functional correlates of autism spectrum symptoms and rumination among parents of patients with autism spectrum disorder.

Objective: Increasing literature reported higher rates of psychiatric disorders in parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), as well as of autistic-like features in social and cognitive functioning. However, little attention has been paid to the association between autistic traits (AT) and global functioning in this population. The aim of the present work was to investigate clinical and functional correlates of AT among parents of ASD children, with a specific focus on ruminative thinking.