The influence of body image on psychological symptomatology in breast cancer women undergoing intervention: a pre-post study.

Introduction: Body image concerns related to breast cancer surgery may challenge patients' quality of life and their treatment outcomes, thus representing a key aspect to be assessed in the psycho-oncological settings. The present longitudinal study is aimed to (1) investigate the association between preoperative body image and postoperative psychological symptoms in breast cancer patients; (2) explore the impact of pre-/post-surgery variation in body image on psychological symptomatology.

Methods: = 72 women undergoing breast cancer surgery were preoperatively screened (T1) using the Body Uneasiness Test (BUT) and were assessed postoperatively (T2) using the Symptom Checklist-90 Revised (SCL-90-R) and re-administered the BUT.

Psychological assessment of patients on the heart transplant waiting list: A single center experience.

Objective: To analyze the data of the psychological assessment, focusing attention on the quality of life and the psychological status of patients who are listed for heart transplant.

Methods: All heart failure patients listed for heart transplant at the Cardiac Surgery Unit of Bari University, Italy, were evaluated from September to November 2023, by administering the Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R) and the Short Form Health Survey 36 (SF-36).

Results: Overall, 27 patients were studied.

Cognitive, Emotional, and Daily Functioning Domains Involved in Decision-Making among Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review.

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a transitional or prodromal stage of dementia in which autonomies are largely preserved (autonomies are not particularly affected). However, this condition may entail a depletion of decision-making (DM) abilities likely due to a gradual deterioration of the prefrontal cortex and subcortical brain areas underlying cognitive-emotional processing. Given the clinical implications of a decline in self-determination observed in some MCI sufferers, the present systematic review was aimed at investigating the literature addressing DM processes in patients with MCI, consistent with PRISMA guidelines.

Cognitive functioning and psychosomatic syndromes in a subjective tinnitus sample.

Introduction: Tinnitus is the perception of a sound in the absence of any corresponding external sound source. Current research suggests a relationship among emotional, cognitive, and psychosomatic symptoms and the occurrence or maintenance of chronic tinnitus. This study aimed to detect the prevalence and role of psychosomatic conditions, as defined by the Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research (DCPR), and cognitive functioning in a group of patients with tinnitus.

The indirect effect of cognitive reserve on the relationship between age and cognition in pathological ageing: A cross-sectional retrospective study in an unselected and consecutively enrolled sample.

Cognitive reserve (CR) allows individuals to maintain cognitive functionality even in the presence of pathologies. The compensation hypothesis suggests that CR plays an indirect role between age and cognitive decline, contrasting the negative effect of ageing on cognition. We test this hypothesis in an unselected and consecutively enrolled sample of memory clinic attendees (n = 134) who completed the CR Index questionnaire and three neuropsychological tests assessing global cognition (MMSE, FAB, CDT).

The COVID-19 Stress Perceived on Social Distance and Gender-Based Implications.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented event entailing long-term consequences on population health and welfare. Those who contracted the coronavirus may have suffered from both physical and mental health issues that unfold the need for tailored intervention strategies. Hence, our study aims to investigate the psychological and social consequences of COVID-19 on a sample of 86 participants, encompassing 43 patients (clinical group; 25 women; mean age = 50.

An Ensemble of Psychological and Physical Health Indices Discriminates Between Individuals with Chronic Pain and Healthy Controls with High Reliability: A Machine Learning Study.

Introduction: Chronic pain (CP) is a complex multidimensional experience severely affecting individuals' quality of life. Multiple cognitive, affective, emotional, and interpersonal factors play a major role in CP. Furthermore, the psychological, social, and physical circumstances leading to CP show high inter-individual variability, thus making it difficult to identify core syndrome characteristics.

Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy, intellectual disability and epilepsy presenting with variable penetrance associated to the m.3460G >A mutation and a heteroplasmic expansion of the microsatellite in MTRNR1 gene - case report.

Background: Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) associated with mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) typically manifests only optic nerve involvement but in some patients may develop additional neurological complications. The cause of this association is not clear.

Case Presentation: We present a case of a 24-year-old male with a history of subacute, painless, and rapidly progressive bilateral vision loss.

Neuro-Psychological Pattern in Patients Suffering from Primitive Dilated Cardiomyopathy with Impairment in Executive Function.

According to the American Heart Association (AHA), primitive dilated cardiomyopathy (PDCM) is a "progressive dilation of the left or both ventricles and a depressed contractility in the absence of abnormal load conditions". It evolves in progressive heart-failure. The term "cardiogenic dementia" expresses the intimate connection between heart diseases and cognitive functions.

The Role of Metacognition in Pathological Gambling: A Mediation Model.

Pathological gambling involves multitudinous costs related to financial, legal, and public health care aspects, as well as to specific psychological disorders. Despite the overall evidence suggesting that comorbid disorders represent a risk factor for pathological gambling, there is scant evidence on the appropriate treatments for gamblers with such disorders. In this context, metacognitive therapy is an interesting approach because it considers psychological disorders as a result of the activation of perseverative cognitive processes and attentional strategies in response to inner events.

The cumulative semantic interference effect in normal and pathological ageing.

People affected by mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a precursor of Alzheimer's Disease, present with impairments in picture naming, a lexical/semantic task which rests on the activation of perceptual, semantic, and phonological representations. The poor performance of MCI individuals in picture naming has been accounted for in terms of deficits of either the perceptual, semantic, or phonological stages. To disentangle the source of this deficit we compared the cumulative semantic interference effect (Howard et al.

Transient involuntary mirror writing triggered by anxiety.

Mirror writing (MW) has mainly been observed in left-hemisphere-damaged patients writing with the left hand. This study evaluated the presence of MW in 24 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We found that MW is not a typical feature of MCI.

Impaired cognitive executive dysfunction in adult treated hypertensives with a confirmed diagnosis of poorly controlled blood pressure.

Background: High blood pressure (BP) poses a major risk for cognitive decline. Aim of the study was to highlight the relationship between cognitive assessment scores and an effective therapeutic BP control.

Methods: By medical visit and ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM), we studied 302 treated hypertensives, subdivided according to office/daytime BP values into 120 with good (GC) and 98 poor (PC) BP control, 40 with "white coat hypertension" (WCH) and 44 a "masked-hypertension" phenomenon (MH).

Persons with mild or moderate Alzheimer's disease use a basic orientation technology to travel to different rooms within a day center.

This study assessed whether three patients with Alzheimer's disease could learn to use a basic orientation technology to reach different rooms within a day center. At each travel instance, the technology provided verbal messages (cues) from the room to reach. For the first two patients, the messages were presented at intervals of about 15s.

Influence of Interferon beta treatment on quality of life in multiple sclerosis patients.

Background: Interferon-beta (IFN-beta) shows beneficial effect on the course of multiple sclerosis (MS), nevertheless its route and frequency of administration and side effects might impact negatively the quality of life (QoL) of MS patients. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of IFN-beta on QoL in MS patients.

Methods: Seventy-seven disease modifying treatment (DMT) free and 41 IFN-beta treated MS patients were evaluated.

Benign multiple sclerosis: cognitive, psychological and social aspects in a clinical cohort.

Objectives: A study of cognitive, psychological and social aspects in benign multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods One hundred and sixty three patients with benign MS (defined as disease duration > or = 15 years and Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score < or = 3.0 ) underwent neuropsychological testing on the Rao's Brief Repeatable Battery (BRB) and the Stroop test, evaluation of depression on the Montgomery and Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), of fatigue on the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) and of handicap on the Environmental Status Scale (ESS).

Efficacy of levetiracetam in Huntington disease.

Objective: Levetiracetam (LEV) is a novel antiepileptic drug characterized by a wide spectrum of action; no pharmacologic interaction and poor adverse events are reported. In animal models, effects of LEV are observed in basal ganglia. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of LEV in reducing involuntary movements in subjects affected by Huntington disease (HD).