Clinical and psychopathological correlates of duration of untreated illness (DUI) in affective spectrum disorders.

Affective disorders represent psychopathological entities lying on a continuum, characterized by high prevalence and functional impairment. A delay in treatment initiation might increase the burden associated with affective spectrum disorders. The present study was aimed at analyzing the correlates of a long duration of untreated illness (DUI) in these conditions.

Sex Differences in Bipolar Disorders: Impact on Psychopathological Features and Treatment Response.

Introduction: Sex differences were demonstrated in bipolar disorders (BD) concerning epidemiological, clinical, and psychopathological characteristics, but consensus is lacking. Moreover, data concerning the influence of sex on treatment response in BD is contrasting. The present cross-sectional study aimed to analyze sex differences in a population of BD subjects, with specific focus on psychopathological features and treatment response.

Does Post-Traumatic Spectrum Comorbidity Influence Symptom Severity in Bipolar Disorders? A Cross-Sectional Study in a Real-World Setting.

Background: The present cross-sectional study investigates the relationship between post-traumatic spectrum comorbidity and the severity of symptoms in subjects diagnosed with Bipolar Disorders (BD).

Subjects And Methods: In- and outpatients diagnosed with BD according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5) were consecutively recruited. Sociodemographic and clinical data were collected.

Comorbidities, Depression Severity, and Circadian Rhythms Disturbances as Clinical Correlates of Duration of Untreated Illness in Affective Disorders.

: Affective disorders, namely bipolar (BDs) and depressive disorders (DDs) are characterized by high prevalence and functional impairment. From a dimensional point of view, BDs and DDs can be considered as psychopathological entities lying on a continuum. A delay in treatment initiation might increase the burden associated with affective disorders.

The Influence of the Urban Environment on Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Focus on Air Pollution and Migration-A Narrative Review.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused a crisis worldwide, due to both its public health impact and socio-economic consequences. Mental health was consistently affected by the pandemic, with the emergence of newly diagnosed psychiatric disorders and the exacerbation of pre-existing ones. Urban areas were particularly affected by the virus spread.

Air pollutants and daily number of admissions to psychiatric emergency services: evidence for detrimental mental health effects of ozone.

Aims: Aim of the current study is to investigate the associations between daily levels of air pollutants (particulate matter, ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide) and daily admissions for mental disorders to the emergency department of two general hospitals in Umbria region (Italy).

Methods: We collected data about daily admissions to psychiatric emergency services of two general hospitals, air pollutants' levels and meteorological data for the time period 1 January 2015 until 31 December 2016. We assessed the impact of an increase in air pollutants on the number of daily admissions using a time-series econometric framework.

Dysphoria as a psychiatric syndrome: a preliminary study for a new transnosographic dimensional approach.

Background: We currently define dysphoria as a complex and disorganized emotional state with proteiform phenomenology, characterized by a multitude of symptoms. Among them prevail irritability, discontent, interpersonal resentment and surrender. Dysphoria, in line with the most recent Interpersonal Dysphoria Model, could represent a "psychopathological organizer" of the Borderline Personality Disorder.

Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry-from theory to clinical practice: an observational study in a general hospital.

Background: To investigate significant association between various clinical and extra-clinical factors brought out the activities of Consultation-Liaison Service.

Methods: Data from all psychiatric consultations for patients admitted to the Perugia General Hospital and carried out over a 1-year period (from July the 1st 2009 to June the 30th 2010) were collected by a structured clinical report including: socio-demographic features, features of referrals, features of back-referrals. T-test, Mann-Whitney U-test, χ(2)-test and Fischer's were statistically used.

Resilience and depressive disorders.

Introduction: There is considerable variability in the response of individuals to adverse environmental conditions, while some develop psychiatric illnesses like depression, others seem very capable of dealing with it. It is in this observation that the concepts of vulnerability and resilience are rooted.

Methods: We conducted a review of the literature by inserting in PubMed the keywords resilience, vulnerability and depressive disorders.

Rationale and design of an independent randomised controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness of aripiprazole or haloperidol in combination with clozapine for treatment-resistant schizophrenia.

Background: One third to two thirds of people with schizophrenia have persistent psychotic symptoms despite clozapine treatment. Under real-world circumstances, the need to provide effective therapeutic interventions to patients who do not have an optimal response to clozapine has been cited as the most common reason for simultaneously prescribing a second antipsychotic drug in combination treatment strategies. In a clinical area where the pressing need of providing therapeutic answers has progressively increased the occurrence of antipsychotic polypharmacy, despite the lack of robust evidence of its efficacy, we sought to implement a pre-planned protocol where two alternative therapeutic answers are systematically provided and evaluated within the context of a pragmatic, multicentre, independent randomised study.

Axonal injury within language network in primary progressive aphasia.

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is characterized by an isolated progressive impairment of word use and comprehension reflecting the distribution of pathological processes within the left hemisphere. We used proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) to study in vivo the integrity of axonal fibers connecting perisylvian language areas in 11 patients with PPA, 11 subjects with Alzheimer's disease, and 22 controls. Brain metabolites (N-acetylaspartate, myoinositol, choline, creatine) were measured bilaterally within a volume of interest located in the central portion of the superior longitudinal fasciculus, a long associative bundle connecting Broca's area with Wernicke's area, and other language regions of the temporal lobe.

Modularity of music: evidence from a case of pure amusia.

A case of pure amusia in a 20 year old left handed non-professional musician is reported. The patient showed an impairment of music abilities in the presence of normal processing of speech and environmental sounds. Furthermore, whereas recognition and production of melodic sequences were grossly disturbed, both the recognition and production of rhythm patterns were preserved.

Selective bilateral lesion of the globus pallidus: ten-year follow-up of memory impairment and frontal symptomatology.

A case of loss of psychic self-activation (LPSA) and serious amnesia, followed for a period of ten years, is reported. MRI examination documents a selective bilateral lesion of the globus pallidus. This clinical picture, which evokes a cognitive and behavioral deficit of frontal lobe lesions, is attributed to a dysfunction of the frontal cortical area as a result of the breakdown of the frontostriatal circuits.

Attention problems in epilepsy: possible significance of the epileptogenic focus.

Investigation of the relation between epilepsy and cognition presents serious methodologic problems because several factors may contribute to impair neuropsychological performances in epileptic persons. Benign epilepsy of childhood with rolandic paroxysmal discharges (EPR) may be a very useful model of investigation in relation to opportunity to examine subjects without brain damage, therapy, and negative environmental influences. Thus, neuropsychological dysfunction in patients with EPR may support the hypothesis that epilepsy itself plays a specific role in the genesis of cognitive disturbances.

Cerebral organization for language in Down's syndrome patients.

Language lateralization was assessed with a dual task procedure in 10 male right-handed patients with Down's Syndrome and relatively preserved linguistic skills. Their performance was compared with that of two control groups, with and without mental retardation, matched with Down's Syndrome individuals for sex, handedness and I.Q.

[The verbal fluency test for the diagnosis of dementia].

Two forms of verbal fluency test, phonological (FF) and semantic (FS) sets, have been administered to four groups of demented patients: 11 with Alzheimer-type dementia (DAT), 13 with multi-infarct dementia (MID), 8 with Parkinson-Dementia (P-D) and 11 with adult chronic hydrocephalus (ICA). Patients were matched for age, educational level and neuropsychological impairment pattern. Further, ten neurologically healty subjects were selected as control group.

Neuropsychological features of benign partial epilepsy in children.

Rolandic paroxysmal epilepsy (RPE) is a useful model for investigating the complex links between epilepsy and cognitive dysfunction. 44 children with RPE who met the following (among other) criteria: negative CT scan, freedom from drug treatment, and IQ greater than or equal to 80, were assigned to three subgroups by side of EEG focus: left, right and bilateral. A neuropsychological battery elicited small differences in cognitive performance between the whole group and the controls and among the subgroups, only partially correlated with EEG side.

Negative evidence of difference between right- and left-handers in interhemispheric transfer of information.

The present study has been designed to investigate the relationship between handedness and callosal function. Based on the previous finding of a greater anatomical connection between the hemispheres in left-handers than in right-handers and in order to test the possibility of greater functional communication, the efficiency of interhemispheric transfer of information has been measured using a finger localization task. Comparison of two groups of male right-handed and left-handed subjects shows no difference in the efficiency of interhemispheric transfer of information.