Could an Innovative Training Program Including Contact Sports and Counseling Help Young People With Traits of Psychopathy and A History of School Dropout?

Background: The aim was to assess the effects of a training program inclusive of contact sports and counseling on school dropout, quality of life (QoL) and psychopathologic symptoms in the youth with a history of school dropout and psychopathic personality traits.

Methods: The Experimental Group (EG) consisted of 32 subjects (male 90.6%; age 19.

Patients with carotid atherosclerosis who underwent or did not undergo carotid endarterectomy: outcome on mood, cognition and quality of life.

Background: To compare the six-month outcome on mood, cognition and quality of life (QoL) in patients with severe carotid atherosclerosis (CA) who underwent carotid endarterectomy (CEA) with subjects who refused treatment.

Methods: Cohort study on consecutive inpatients with CA (stenosis ≥ 50 %) (N = 46; age 72.56 ± 7.

Quality of life and urban / rural living: preliminary results of a community survey in Italy.

Background: The purpose of this population-based study is to examine the association between subjective quality of life and rural/urban residence in six Italian regions, including age and gender into the analysis.

Study Design: community survey.

Study Population: Samples stratified according to sex and age, drawn from municipal records.

Outcomes of discharged females versus those waiting for discharge from Vlore Psychiatric Hospital (Albania).

Background: This study examines the psychosocial outcomes of women discharged from the Vlore Psychiatric Hospital in Albania.

Methods: The study was designed as a controlled, not randomized, follow-up study. It included 16 women diagnosed with psychosis who were discharged from a psychiatric hospital to live in group homes in the community.

Decreases in depression over 20 years in a mining area of Sardinia: due to selective migration?

Background: The objective of the study was to determine if community surveys, conducted 3 times over a period of 20 years in a small district of Sardinia (Italy), confirm the increase in depressive disorders reported in the recent literature.

Methods: Three community surveys were carried out on randomized samples of the same Sardinian mining area in 1988, 1998 and 2008. The surveys were conducted using the interview "Present State Examination" in 1988 (depression diagnosed with ICD-IX) and the CIDI-S in 1998 and 2008 (major depression diagnosed with ICD-X).

The lifetime prevalence of bipolar disorders and the use of antidepressant drugs in bipolar depression in Italy.

Background: The prevalence of bipolar spectrum disorders in the community is under debate and the prescription of antidepressant drugs (ADs) in bipolar depression appears to be an underestimated problem.

Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence of bipolar disorders by means of a screening instrument in seven communities within six regions of Italy and evaluate the appropriateness and number of prescriptions for ADs in bipolar depression.

Study Design: community survey.

Benefits of exercise with mini tennis in intellectual disabilities: effects on body image and psychopathology.

The present study is aimed at evaluating the efficacy of an introductory mini tennis programme as a therapeutic aid in the psychosocial rehabilitation of participants affected by mild/moderate intellectual disability in semi-residential care.Two groups (N=12) of participants diagnosed with intellectual disability, one of which followed the mini tennis rehabilitation programme, were compared at time t0, t1 (after 2 months) and t2 (after 6 months).Psychopathological status was assessed by means of the Italian version of the Assessment and Information Rating Profile (AIRP).

Sub-threshold depression and antidepressants use in a community sample: searching anxiety and finding bipolar disorder.

Background: To determine the use of antidepressants (ADs) in people with sub-threshold depression (SD); the lifetime prevalence of mania and hypomania in SD and the link between ADs use, bipolarity and anxiety disorders in SD.

Study Design: community survey.

Study Population: samples randomly drawn, after stratification from the adult population of municipal records.

The use of antidepressant drugs and the lifetime prevalence of major depressive disorders in Italy.

Background: The increased use of antidepressant drugs (ADs) improved the response to the needs of care although some community surveys have shown that subjects without lifetime psychiatric diagnosis (anxiety/depression) used ADs.

Objectives: To evaluate the appropriateness and amount of prescription of psychotropic drugs in people with lifetime diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) by means of community survey with a semi-structured interview as a diagnostic instrument, administered by clinicians.

Study Design: community survey.