Latent classes of emotional and behavioural problems in epidemiological and referred samples and their relations to DSM-IV diagnoses.

Researchers' interest have recently moved toward the identification of recurrent psychopathological profiles characterized by concurrent elevations on different behavioural and emotional traits. This new strategy turned to be useful in terms of diagnosis and outcome prediction. We used a person-centred statistical approach to examine whether different groups could be identified in a referred sample and in a general-population sample of children and adolescents, and we investigated their relation to DSM-IV diagnoses.

Normative data of the Magical Ideation Scale from childhood to adulthood in an Italian cohort.

The assessment of schizotypy allows to identify people at risk to develop psychosis. For this purpose, psychometric tools have been developed, such as the Magical Ideation Scale (MIS). This scale investigates attenuated forms of thought transmission experiences, thought withdrawal and aberrant beliefs, related to positive schizotypy.

Normative data and effects of age and gender on temperament and character dimensions across the lifespan in an Italian population: A cross-sectional validation study.

Background: The short version of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI-125) has been employed for the study of personality traits in both clinical and normal populations. However, to the best of our knowledge, no studies explored the psychometric properties of this instrument in healthy individuals across the lifespan. We here provide the Italian normative data and present the personality features according to age and gender in a sample of healthy individuals.

Reliability and normative data of the Perceptual Aberration Scale in an Italian juvenile general population sample.

Psychometric tools, such as the Perceptual Aberration Scale (PAS), have been developed to identify people at risk to develop psychosis. This paper aims at providing an Italian version of the Perceptual Aberration Scale and its normative data for the general juvenile Italian population. The Italian version of the PAS was produced using three independent translators.

Psychopathological and personality traits underlie decision making in recent onset medication naïve anorexia nervosa: a pilot study.

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) analyzes the ability of participants to sacrifice immediate rewards in view of a long term gain. Anorexia Nervosa (AN) in addition to weight loss and body image disturbances is also characterized by the tendency to make decisions that may result in long-term negative outcomes. Studies that analyzed IGT performance in patients with AN were not consistent with each other.

Impaired configural body processing in anorexia nervosa: evidence from the body inversion effect.

Patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) suffer from severe disturbances of body perception. It is unclear, however, whether such disturbances are linked to specific alterations in the processing of body configurations with respect to the local processing of body part details. Here, we compared a consecutive sample of 12 AN patients with a group of 12 age-, gender- and education-matched controls using an inversion effect paradigm requiring the visual discrimination of upright and inverted pictures of whole bodies, faces and objects.

Investigating the development of temperament and character in school-aged children using a self-report measure.

Background: Developmental studies of temperament and character dimensions are crucial for a better understanding of how genetic and environmental factors interact in shaping individual personality. However, although several studies have been conducted in adults, a few studies have addressed the evaluation of temperament and character in children. Here, we tested the suitability of self-report evaluation and the developmental trend of temperament and character dimensions among school-aged children using an Italian version of the junior Temperament and Character Inventory (jTCI).

Visual body perception in anorexia nervosa.

Objective: Disturbance of body perception is a central aspect of anorexia nervosa (AN) and several neuroimaging studies have documented structural and functional alterations of occipito-temporal cortices involved in visual body processing. However, it is unclear whether these perceptual deficits involve more basic aspects of others' body perception.

Method: A consecutive sample of 15 adolescent patients with AN were compared with a group of 15 age- and gender-matched controls in delayed matching to sample tasks requiring the visual discrimination of the form or of the action of others' body.

Body schema and self-representation in patients with bulimia nervosa.

Objective: Neuroimaging evidences in eating disorder (ED) patients document dysfunctional neural activity of the posterior parietal cortex, which is engaged in the representation of body schema. Yet a full neuropsychological investigation of body schema representation in ED patients is lacking. We examined mental imagery and body schema representation in patients with bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorder (BED).