Effects of dietary fat quality on metabolic endotoxaemia: a systematic review.

In this systematic review, we critically evaluated human clinical trials that assessed the effects of dietary fat quality on metabolic endotoxaemia. The studies were selected from three databases (PubMed, Scopus and Cochrane Library), and the keywords were defined according to the Medical Subject Headings indexing terminology. Two authors searched independently, according to the pre-defined selection criteria.

Apis mellifera pollination improves agronomic productivity of anemophilous castor bean (Ricinus communis).

Castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) is cultivated mainly for biodiesel production because of its oil-rich seeds; it is assumed to be an anemophylous species. But pollination deficit can lead to low productivity often attributed to other reasons.

Psychological distress in patients with tinnitus.

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the psychological distress in patients with tinnitus that is often correlated with sleeping disorders, difficulties in concentration, and compromized social relations.

Methods: Eighty-four patients were studied using preliminary clinical and audiologic evaluations, and successive psychological tests.

Results: The cluster analysis indicated two essential groups composed of 45 patients (CLST-1) and 38 patients (CLST-2), respectively.

Illness behaviour, personality traits, anxiety, and depression in patients with Menière's disease.

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate illness behaviour, personality traits, anxiety and depression in patients with Menière's disease.

Design: A prospective study of patients and review of the literature is presented.

Methods: Fifty patients presenting to the ENT department of the Padua University were studied using the Illness Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ), Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI), State Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale.

Illness behaviour and anxiety in dental patients.

The Authors evaluate the influence of illness behaviour (measured by IBQ) on patients' delay in seeking dental treatment for caries or periodontal pathology, and the relationship with anxiety (measured by STAI) and with social--demographic and clinical data. One hundred patients were studied. Delay in coming for a dental visit is influenced by family habit, level of education and fear experienced.

Personality and psychological distress in legal abortion, threatened miscarriage and normal pregnancy.

A sample of 208 pregnant women (78 before the voluntary termination of pregnancy, 63 admitted to hospital because of a threatened miscarriage, 67 at the outpatient clinic for a routine antenatal visit) performed a personality test (EPI) and two tests to evaluate psychological distress (SCL-90 and GHQ). The women who were about to abort exhibited a higher level of psychological distress which was also related to an underlying personality structure with neurotic traits. The group with a threatened miscarriage exhibited an intermediate level of psychological distress but a structure of personality similar to the antenatal group.

[Social adjustment and psychiatric re-admission: a study using a self-rating scale].

The paper describes the results of a study on the relationship between the degree of social adjustment and re-admission of discharged psychiatric patients using the Italian version of the SAG (Self Assessment Guide). The validity of such a scale has been described in previous works. In this study, the test-retest assessment has proved the reliability of the scale.

Variations in anxiety levels during pregnancy and psychosocial factors in relation to obstetric complications.

Patterns of variation of state and trait anxiety during pregnancy and after delivery were studied prospectively in relation to some obstetrical and neonatal disturbances. Specific pregnancy anxiety, social support, and coping style were also evaluated. State anxiety in the 3rd month was significantly higher among women with obstetric complications and oscillated during the course of pregnancy, with significantly higher levels in the 3rd and 9th months.

Psychosocial outcome one year after heart surgery. A prospective study.

Ninety-nine of 118 patients receiving cardiac valve replacements (n = 55) or coronary artery bypass grafts (n = 44) were studied before surgery and again one year after surgery. Psychological, social, and physical variables were assessed. For the 19 subjects not returning for follow-up, medical data collected by their general practitioner were available.

Personality profiles of patients with duodenal ulcer.

Cluster analysis of personality profiles determined by the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire separated 79 patients with duodenal ulcer into three homogeneous subgroups: 32 dependent and anxious patients, 31 neurotic and anxious patients, and 16 patients with a balanced personality. No significant differences among these three groups emerged for the variables of age, sex, duration of illness, fasting total serum pepsinogen, fasting serum pepsinogen group I, and number of cigarettes smoked per day, although there was a nonsignificant trend for both pepsinogen values to be higher in the patients with a balanced personality than in the other two groups. These results support the concept of heterogeneity of peptic ulcer disease.

The general practitioner and the psychiatric health service in Italy after the reform: opinions and experiences in an urban district.

This paper presents an analysis of the impact of the psychiatric reform in Italy on health care delivery by the general practitioner. In an urban district of the Veneto region a survey was made on the opinions and assessments of the general practitioner about the new status of psychiatric care, on the psychiatric cases identified, and the correspondence between these opinions and assessments and the real delivery of psychiatric care. The pessimism about the psychiatric reform that emerges among some general practitioners seems to have more to do with the slow progress in creating intermediary facilities between hospital and region rather than an a priori opposition to the reform.

Psychosocial stress and obstetrical complications. The need for a comprehensive model.

The relationship between life events, anxiety, social support, coping style and obstetrical complications was studied in a series of 319 pregnant women; they were interviewed during the sixth month of pregnancy. To allow a prospective study, only obstetrical complications occurring after the interview were considered. 142 of the women proved to be complicated and the remaining 177 uncomplicated.

[Psychiatric problems and therapeutic measures in the office of the general practitioner].

The results of a survey of mental disorders identified from General Practitioners in their offices, in a quarter of Padua are presented. The findings emphasize the role of the General Practitioner in psychiatric care delivery (12% of the patients have been judged "psychiatric case" and these patients obtain treatment from General Practitioner in 70% of the cases). About half of "psychiatric patients" present a depressive illness.

Gastric emptying and anxiety in chronic duodenal ulcer.

The authors have evaluated in a group of patients afflicted with duodenal ulcer whether anxiety might be in some way linked to gastric emptying. The 23 patients studied were subdivided into two groups: "fast" emptiers (n = 12; t 1/2 less than 90 min) and "normal" emptiers (n = 11; t 1/2 greater than 90 min). There were no significant differences between the two groups for the following parameters: sex, age, marital status, educational level, social class, number of cigarettes smoked per day, type of treatment undergone for the duodenal ulcer and maximal acid output.

Personality and psychological factors in chronic duodenal ulcer. Their interaction with biological parameters.

Forty patients with chronic duodenal ulcer were studied to determine whether some particular personality and psychological factors are associated with this disease. To this purpose the Cattell's PF 16 personality Test was utilized. Duodenal ulcer population presented a typical personality profile characterized by: high anxiety, dependence and introversion.

Life events and myocardial infarction.

Life events reported to have occurred twelve months before the onset of the illness were compared in 55 in-patients who had a first episode of myocardial infarction and 55 control in-patients matched for age, sex, marital status and social class and afflicted with acute abdomen, trauma and multiple trauma. The Paykel interview for Recent Life Events was used. Myocardial infarction patients reported significantly more previous events than the control group (p less than 0.