Development and Validation of the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales-Residential Facility (HoNOS-RF).

The Health of the Nation Outcome Scale (HoNOS) (Lora et al. Epidemiol Psichiatr Soc 10(3):198-212, 2001) is widely used. However, clinicians have expressed concerns about its ability to describe severe mentally ill patients, as it does not consider some relevant clinical aspects.

Is structured group psychoeducation for bipolar patients effective in ordinary mental health services? A controlled trial in Italy.

Background: Recent reviews of evidence-based guidelines for the clinical management of Bipolar Disorders (BD) have recommended that "all patients with BD be offered group or individual psychoeducation" to prevent relapse, improve treatment adherence, quality of life, and functioning. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of psychoeducation in routine mental health services in reducing number of hospitalisations and number of days spent in hospital, at a 1-year follow-up.

Methods: A total of 102 outpatients were recruited from two Italian Departments of Mental Health.

Beliefs and attitudes among Italian high school students toward people with severe mental disorders.

The negative attitudes surrounding mental disorders and their treatment are a major obstacle to the correct identification and treatment of emerging psychopathologies. The purpose of this study was to investigate mental health literacy in a large and representative sample of high school students in Italy, via a booklet containing several questionnaires delivered to 1032 teenagers. The items in the questionnaires probed knowledge about mental health and illness, stigmatization, stereotypes, behaviors, opinions, and attitudes.

Schizophrenia susceptibility and NMDA-receptor mediated signalling: an association study involving 32 tagSNPs of DAO, DAOA, PPP3CC, and DTNBP1 genes.

Background: Recent studies supported associations between four NMDA-receptor-mediated signalling genes (D-amino acid oxidase, DAO; D-amino acid oxidase activator, DAOA; protein phosphatase 3 catalytic subunit gamma isoform, PPP3CC; dystrobrevin-binding protein 1, DTNBP1) and schizophrenia susceptibility, even though with contrasting results.

Methods: In an attempt to replicate these findings for the first time in an Italian population, a panel of 32 tagSNPs was analysed in a representative case-control sample involving 879 subjects.

Results: An association in the allele frequency was observed for the estimated PPP3CC CAG triplotype in the SNP window rs4872499 T/C-rs11780915 A/G-rs13271367 G/A (pcorrect = 0.

Development and validation of a self-reported questionnaire on users' opinions about schizophrenia: a participatory research.

Background: Although users' involvement in mental health research has repeatedly been acknowledged as having a positive influence on research quality, this rarely happens.

Aims: To develop and validate a Questionnaire on Users' Opinions (QOU) about schizophrenia, in close collaboration with 279 persons affected by this disorder.

Methods: A preliminary list of items concerning the opinions of users with schizophrenia regarding causes, treatments and psychosocial consequences of the disorder was developed by 38 users with schizophrenia and 40 professionals who attended a workshop.

What people with schizophrenia think about the causes of their disorder.

Aims: To describe what users with schizophrenia think about the causes of their disorder.

Methods: In each of the 10 participating Italian mental health centres, 25 users with schizophrenia were consecutively recruited and asked to complete the Users' Opinions Questionnaire (UOQ).

Results: 150 out of 198 respondents mentioned at least one social cause for their mental disorder, and 114 reported exclusively social causes.

[The acceptability of the NICE recommendations for schizophrenia in the Italian Departments of Mental Health. The SIEP-DIRECT'S Project on the discrepancy between routine practice and evidence].

Aims: This paper aims at presenting the most significant results emerging from the work carried out by the focus groups of the multi-centre Project SIEP-DIRECT'S. The Project is aimed at assessing the existing discrepancies between the evidence-based NICE guidelines for schizophrenia and the usual practices of care given by Italian mental health services. Each focus group was requested to give an evaluation on: (a) appropriateness of the English NICE guidelines in the context of the Italian mental health services; (b) clarity and usefulness of the 103 indicators developed on the basis of the NICE recommendations to measure their level of application within the services.

The stigma of schizophrenia from patients' and relatives' view: A pilot study in an Italian rehabilitation residential care unit.

Objective: To identify the constituent elements of the stigma from the perspective of those having first-hand experiences of it.

Methods: Subjective experiences of stigma were explored in six focus groups: three with people suffering from schizophrenia and three with patients' relatives. Focus group sessions were tape-recorded, transcribed and analyzed by means of an inductive method, forming categories from the texts, as a basis for coding.

The VADO approach in psychiatric rehabilitation: a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: This study investigated whether a specific structured planning and evaluation approach called VADO (in English, Skills Assessment and Definition of Goals) resulted in improved personal and social functioning among patients with chronic schizophrenia.

Methods: A total of 85 patients with chronic schizophrenia who were under a stable medication regimen were randomly allocated to the VADO-based intervention or to routine care; 78 completed the program. Interventions were carried out in nine Italian day treatment or residential rehabilitation facilities.

Outcome assessment of the VADO approach in psychiatric rehabilitation: a partially randomised multicentric trial.

Background: Recent studies on representative samples of psychiatric services have shown that low proportions of cases received effective rehabilitation interventions. The following are likely to be the most important causes: the scarcity of mental health workers trained in social and work skills strategies and the absence of a structured framework to formulate rehabilitation practices. The aim of this study was to assess if a specific structured planning and evaluation manual, called VADO (Valutazione delle Abilità e Definizione degli Obiettivi--in english: Skills Assessment and Definition of Goals), is more effective than routine interventions in reducing disability in patients with schizophrenia.

[Community attitudes towards mental illness and socio-demographic characteristics: an Italian study].

Aim: To assess the association between socio-demographic characteristics and community attitudes towards mentally ill people.

Method: We assessed a sample of 280 subjects, stratified for sex and age, which has identified using the electoral registers of Brescia. A letter was sent to everyone in order to introduce the future potential study participant to the topics of the public attitudes towards mental illness and it included an invitation to take part in the study.

[Correlation between subjective well-being and pharmacological therapy in patients with psychotic disorders].

Aims: The present study aims to investigate whether exists a meaningful relation between quality of life and subjective well being with regard to the pharmacological treatment (antipsychotic typical versus atypical) in a sample of people with psychotic disorders integrated in a Community Residential Rehabilitation Centre; to examine whether the different antipsychotic treatment is correlated to a different answer to the psychosocial rehabilitation intervention in terms of significant improvement in the positive and negative symptomatology, subjective well-being and quality of life.

Method: All patients, who suffer from schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder according to DSM-IV criteria, treated with antipsychotic and stabilized from at least one month, were enrolled in the study.

Results: 32 patients have participated in the study: 22 patients treated with atypical drugs and 10 with typical.

[Mental illness and media].

Many knowledges on the mental disease that the community possesses are turning out of information disclosed from the media. It's common in the press to connect actions of violence and murders to the mental diseases. For this reason, the reader is induced to infer that murders and other violent actions are more frequent in people who have suffered from mentally ill, than in the general population.

[Psychopharmacological treatment: patients' knowledge about their medication].

Aims: To identify knowledge about medication in a sample of patients admitted in a residential psychiatric rehabilitation unit.

Methods: All consecutive patients admitted in a psychiatric rehabilitation unit during January 2000-April 2001 were interviewed about the medications prescribed; in particular they were asked about names, daily dose, therapeutic and side effects of the psychotropic drugs they took.

Results: 74 patients were surveyed about their knowledge of the psychopharmacological treatment they took.

[Efficacy of the "VADO" approach in psychiatric rehabilitation: a controlled study].

Aims: Assessment of the efficacy of the rehabilitation approach that is recommended by the manual VADO (AAOS in English: Abilities Assessment and Objectives Setting) in schizophrenic syndromes.

Methods: Controlled trial, partly with individual randomisation. Centres were invited to recruit 10 patients who in most centres were randomly allocated either to the VADO approach or to usual rehabilitation practice.

[Clinical practice in mental health and educational needs in general practice].

Aim: To obtain information regarding general practitioners' perception of their practice in mental health care, opinions, difficulties and educational needs.

Methods: All general practitioners attending the last annual session of continuing medical education (October-December 2000) were asked to complete the questionnaire regarding: 1) perception of current practice in mental health care and difficulties in managing mental health problems; 2) opinions regarding their practice; 3) educational needs and perception of benefit from strategies to improve mental health care.

Results: 254 general practitioners completed the questionnaire (response rate 70%).

Increased serum interleukin-8 and interleukin-10 in schizophrenic patients resistant to treatment with neuroleptics and the stimulatory effects of clozapine on serum leukemia inhibitory factor receptor.

There is now evidence that schizophrenia may be accompanied by an activation of the monocytic and T-helper-2 (Th-2) arms of cell-mediated immunity (CMI) and by various alterations in the Th-1 arm of CMI. There is also evidence that repeated administration of typical and atypical antipsychotics may result in negative immunomodulatory effects. This study was carried out to examine (1) the serum concentrations of interleukin-8 (IL-8), IL-10, the soluble CD8 (sCD8) and the leukemia inhibitory factor receptor (LIF-R) in nonresponders to treatment with typical neuroleptics as compared with normal volunteers and responders to treatment; and (2) the effects of atypical antipsychotics on the above immune variables.