Central sensitization symptoms in vulvodynia: exploring the role of temperament, personality traits, childhood adverse events, defense mechanisms, and mental pain on quality of life.

Background: Vulvodynia is a chronic pain syndrome characterized by persistent vulvar pain, occurring without clinically identifiable disorders. Central sensitization (CS) is suggested to play a role in the pathophysiology of vulvodynia, as for other nociplastic pain conditions.

Aim: This study delves into the complex interplay between psychosocial factors and CS burden in women with vulvodynia, aiming to identify potential predictors (temperament, personality traits, childhood adverse events, defense mechanisms, and mental pain) and understand their impact on quality of life (QoL).

Role of sexuality in women with chronic pain: Results from an Italian cross-sectional study on chronic headache, fibromyalgia, and vulvodynia.

Background/objectives: To compare sexual functioning, genital pain, and satisfaction among women diagnosed with various Chronic pain (CP) conditions. Additionally, it seeks to explore the role of sexual factors in predicting levels of central sensitization (indicative of CP-related mental and physical distress), physical, and mental quality of life (QoL) for each condition individually.

Methods: From April 2023 to January 2024, 1006 women categorized into five groups (Chronic Headache - CH; Fibromyalgia - FM, Vulvodynia - VU, Comorbidity group - CO, and Healthy Controls - HC) completed an online protocol.

The cultural representations and symbolizations emerging from Italian psychologists working in multidisciplinary assisted reproduction teams: A linguistic analysis with the emotional text mining.

This study aims to explore the perspectives of Italian psychologists who work in assisted reproductive treatment (ART) centres regarding their roles within multidisciplinary teams. Twenty-eight psychologists were interviewed, recorded and their transcribed text was analysed using emotional text mining. The analysis revealed four clusters representing the psychologists' cultural symbolizations of their works: 'Clinical Practice with the patient', 'Placing Psychology within the Treatment', 'Psychologist's Loneliness' and; 'Collusion with Medicine'.

Central sensitivity in fibromyalgia: testing a model to explain the role of psychological factors on functioning and quality of life.

Objectives: Central sensitivity (CS) is defined as an increased responsiveness of nociceptive neurons in the central nervous system to normal or subthreshold inputs. CS has recently been linked to the psychological burden associated with chronic pain, such as fibromyalgia (FM). The primary objective of this study is to investigate the impact of specific psychological constructs on CS in patients with FM.

How Does Trauma Make You Sick? The Role of Attachment in Explaining Somatic Symptoms of Survivors of Childhood Trauma.

Exposure to traumatic events during childhood is common, and the consequences for physical and mental health can be severe. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect appear to contribute to the onset and severity of a variety of somatic inflictions, including obesity, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. The aim of this scoping review was to try to gain insight into how this might occur.

Women's Narratives on Infertility as a Traumatic Event: An Exploration of Emotional Processing through the Referential Activity Linguistic Program.

Background: the diagnosis of infertility and its related treatment can be traumatic, leading to profound psychological distress and a variety of psychopathological symptoms. The primary objective of this study is to contrast the linguistic features of narratives from women undergoing Assisted Reproductive Treatment with those of women not undergoing any fertility treatment. This study examines the speech of both groups of individuals as an indicator of their capacity to cope with current and past distressing experiences.

Personality in Chronic Headache: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis.

Background: Chronic headache (CH) is a condition that includes different subtypes of headaches and that can impair different life domains. Personality traits can play a relevant role both in the development and in coping with this medical condition. The first aim of the present study is to realize a systematic review of the personality traits associated with CH compared to healthy controls; the second objective is to carry out a quantitative meta-analysis with the studies using the same instrument to assess personality traits.

Childhood traumatic events, alexithymia and perceived stress in patients with rheumatoid arthritis during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease, causing joint-swelling and pain. International literature highlights that patients with RA are more likely to report high levels of alexithymia, adverse childhood events (ACEs) and stress, but studies investigating the association between these dimensions are lacking. The general aim of the present study is to investigate the association between alexithymia, ACEs, and stress in RA patients and to highlight possible predictors of greater perceived stress.

Assisted Reproductive Treatments, Quality of Life, and Alexithymia in Couples.

Infertility and related treatments can negatively affect a couple's wellbeing. The aim of this study was to evaluate couples starting assisted reproductive treatment, differences in alexithymia and quality of life levels between partners, and the association of these psychological dimensions within the couple's members. Data was collected in two fertility centres in Rome; 47 couples completed the Fertility Quality of Life (FertiQoL), the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), and a socio-demographic questionnaire.

Can alexithymia be assessed through an interview in adolescents? The Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia: Reliability, concurrent validity, discriminant validity, and relationships with emotional-behavioral symptoms.

Alexithymia is connected to adolescents' psychopathology, but the current methods of assessment present limitations. The Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia (TSIA) was developed to overcome the limits of the main used self-rating scale in adults, but no studies investigated its feasibility with adolescents. This study involved 95 community adolescents aged 12-19 years.

Toward a Personalized Psychological Counseling Service in Assisted Reproductive Technology Centers: A Qualitative Analysis of Couples' Needs.

Infertility may have a very strong emotional impact on individuals, requiring adequate support, but few studies on patients' demands toward psychological support have been conducted. This study aims to explore the emotions related to the infertility and to the Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) procedure for which patients consider useful a psychological support. A total of 324 women completed a sociodemographic and clinical questionnaire and an open-ended questionnaire on emotional needs for psychological support.

Somatic, Emotional and Behavioral Symptomatology in Children during COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Children's and Parents' Alexithymia.

The COVID-19 pandemic has deeply affected the psychophysical wellbeing of children worldwide. Alexithymia, a personality trait involving difficulties in identifying and expressing feelings represents a vulnerability factor for stress-related disorders. Under pandemic stress exposure, we aimed to investigate the role of parents' and children's alexithymia in the psychophysical symptomatology shown by children and to evaluate possible differences according to age, gender and history of COVID-19 infections.

The Relationship between Physiotherapist and Patient: A Qualitative Study on Physiotherapists' Representations on This Theme.

The physiotherapist represents a resource for the psychophysical well-being of an individual. Specific characteristics of the physiotherapist-patient relationship can influence the outcome of rehabilitation. This study aimed to explore physiotherapists' representations on how they perceive their relationship with their patients, in order to highlight helpful elements in promoting the outcome of the intervention.

Burnout in Italian anesthesiologists and intensivists during the COVID-19 pandemic: a national survey.

Background: COVID-19 pandemic added additional burden upon healthcare systems and anesthesiology and intensive care physicians (AI) who possessed crucial expertise for dealing with the pandemic. Aim of the study was to uncover specific burnout patterns among Italian AI, exploring the hypothesis that burnout has a multicluster structure. Differences in social and professional characteristics between burnout patterns were explored.

Responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency: The usefulness of an online brief psychological intervention with Italian university students.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about new stressors on university students, with a negative impact on their mental health and well-being. The purpose of this study was to examine the usefulness of a brief psychodynamically oriented intervention on general functioning by investigating changes in symptoms of depression, anxiety, hopelessness, and burnout. The sample was comprised of 67 university students (22.

COVID-19 pandemic burnout in an Italian sample of anaesthesiologists: coping strategies, resilience and the capability of tolerating the uncertainty as preventing factors.

The present study aims to explore the prevalence of burnout characteristics and their association with resilience, coping strategies, and the intolerance of uncertainty dimensions. It also aims to explore the predictive effect of these variables on burnout dimensions, separately. Through the SurveyMonkey platform, 1,009 anaesthesiologists completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), Resilience Scale, Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale Short Form (IU), and the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS).

Presenting Patterns of Genetically Determined Developmental Encephalopathies With Epilepsy and Movement Disorders: A Single Tertiary Center Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: This paper aimed to evaluate the frequency of observation of genetically determined developmental encephalopathies with epilepsy and movement disorders in a specialistic center, the distribution of etiologies and presenting clinical hallmarks, and the mean times for the achievement of molecular genetic diagnosis.

Patients And Methods: Retrospective data about clinical phenotypes, etiology, and diagnostic pathways were collected in all the genetically confirmed patients with developmental encephalopathies with epilepsy and movement disorders referred to our institution between 2010 and 2020. The cohort was divided into two groups according to the predominant movement disorder type: 1) Group A: patients with hyperkinetic movement disorders; 2) Group B: patients with hypokinetic movement disorders.

Psychological care for infertile couples undergoing assisted reproductive technology: a national study on the characteristics of counselling services.

Introduction: Infertility has an impact on the psychophysical health of individuals and couples, and its treatment through an assisted reproductive technology (ART) is a very exacting experience. The aim of this study was to explore the characteristics of psychological counselling services in Italian ART centres through a specially designed questionnaire administered to the physicians in charge of the centres.

Methods: The questionnaire online was sent to 306 ART authorized centres.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Primary Emotional Systems and Emotional Regulation.

(1) Background: The COronaVIrus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic poses a unique challenge as a severe global crisis affecting physical and psychological health. The main purpose of this work is to study the impact of a traumatic event while also observing the human ability to adapt. One of the first theories to study the adaptive importance of the evolutionary lineage of the affective systems is referred to as BrainMind (Panksepp, 2010).

The Impact of Coping Strategies and Perceived Family Support on Depressive and Anxious Symptomatology During the Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) Lockdown.

The coronavirus pandemic represents a severe global crisis, affecting physical, and psychological health. Lockdown rules imposed to counteract the rapid growth of COVID-19, mainly social restrictions, have represented a risk factor for developing depressive and anxious symptoms. The research aims are to explore the effect of coping strategies and perceived social support on depressive and anxious symptomatology during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Success of assisted reproductive technology treatment and couple relationship: A pilot study on the role of romantic attachment.

Infertility is a deeply distressing experience, which can threaten important personal and martial goals, frequently affecting the psychophysical health. A supportive relationship and a secure romantic attachment appear to reduce infertility stress, as well as play a relevant role in the success of assisted reproductive technology treatments. The principal aim of the study is to investigate the predictive effect of romantic attachment, couple characteristics, quality of life and age on assisted reproductive technology outcome.

Alexithymia, infertility-related stress and quality of life in women undergoing an assisted reproductive treatment.

The investigation of the association between alexithymia and quality of life in infertility is a relatively neglected area of research. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between alexithymia and infertility-related quality of life in women during Assisted Reproductive Treatment. Data were collected in a clinic in Rome, 93 infertile women completed the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Fertility Quality of Life (FertiQoL) questionnaire and a socio-demographic questionnaire.