Substance use disorders in hospitalized psychiatric patients: the experience of one psychiatric emergency service in Turin.

In the present study we sought: 1) to estimate the frequency of substance use disorders (SUD), and 2) to investigate whether there is a mere association between diagnosis and SUD in a large cohort of patients with severe psychiatric disorders representative of the usual setting and modality of care of a psychiatric emergency service in a geographically well-defined catchment area in Italy, independent of sociodemographic features, anamnestic data and clinical status. The study was conducted between January 2007 and December 2008. The following rating scales were performed: the Clinical Global Impression-Severity (CGI-S), the Global Assessment of Functioning scale (GAF) and the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS).

Insight in stable schizophrenia: relations with psychopathology and cognition.

Objective: This study evaluated the relationship among insight, sociodemographic and clinical variables, symptoms and cognitive functions in a population of outpatients with stable schizophrenia, in order to identify possible contributing factors to awareness.

Method: Two-hundred and seventy-six consecutive outpatients with stable schizophrenia were enrolled in a cross-sectional study. All subjects were assessed by psychiatric scales and interview, and a wide neuropsychological battery.

Cognitive function and competitive employment in schizophrenia: relative contribution of insight and psychopathology.

Purpose: This study investigated the relationships among insight, psychopathology, cognitive function, and competitive employment in order to determine whether insight and/or psychopathology carried the influence of cognitive function to competitive employment.

Methods: We recruited 253 outpatients with stable schizophrenia and we further divided our sample into two groups of patients (unemployed and competitive employment subjects). Clinical and neuropsychological assessments were performed.

Predictors of compulsory admission in schizophrenia-spectrum patients: excitement, insight, emotion perception.

Purpose: We explored socio-demographic and clinical variables associated with compulsory admissions (CA) compared with voluntary admissions in schizophrenia-spectrum patients; moreover, we investigated the ability of excitement, emotion perception, and lack of insight to predict CA.

Methods: 119 consecutive schizophrenia-spectrum patients admitted to the Servizio Psichiatrico di Diagnosi e Cura (SPDC = PES = psychiatric emergency service) of the Department of Neuroscience and Mental Health-San Giovanni Battista Hospital of Turin in the period between December 2007 and December 2009 were enrolled in the study. A backward stepwise logistic regression was used to test factors contributing to CA.

Relative contribution of antipsychotics, negative symptoms and executive functions to social functioning in stable schizophrenia.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relative contributions of antipsychotic medication, negative symptoms and executive functions to impairment in social functioning in a sample of outpatients with stable schizophrenia. One-hundred and sixty-eight consecutive outpatients with stable schizophrenia were enrolled in a cross-sectional study. We performed a path analysis using multiple regression technique in order to assess the specific effect of antipsychotic type (first-generation antipsychotics versus second-generation antipsychotics) on social functioning and the possible mediating role of executive functions and negative symptoms.