Interpersonal sensitivity and persistent attenuated psychotic symptoms in adolescence.

Interpersonal sensitivity defines feelings of inner-fragility in the presence of others due to the expectation of criticism or rejection. Interpersonal sensitivity was found to be related to attenuated positive psychotic symptom during the prodromal phase of psychosis. The aims of this study were to examine if high level of interpersonal sensitivity at baseline are associated with the persistence of attenuated positive psychotic symptoms and general psychopathology at 18-month follow-up.

Interpersonal sensitivity, bullying victimization and paranoid ideation among help-seeking adolescents and young adults.

Aim: The effects of a negative interpersonal experience, such as bullying victimization in childhood and adolescence, can be strong and long lasting. Bullying victimization is associated with paranoid ideation and suspiciousness. Few studies have focused on personality traits of victims of bullying.

Secondary school teachers and mental health competence: Italy-United Kingdom comparison.

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the differences between teachers' knowledge about early psychosis among three different Italian cities and a UK sample.

Methods: The sample consisted of 556 secondary school teachers from three different cities in Italy (Milan, Rome and Lamezia Terme) and London (UK). The research was based on the Knowledge and Experience of Social Emotional Difficulties Among Young People Questionnaire.

Youth mental health services in Italy: An achievable dream?

Aim: "Liberiamo il futuro" (LIF) project was designed to assess psychological problems of adolescents and young adults and to identify individuals at high-risk for developing a psychosis through a collaboration between a University team, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and Adult Mental Health Services. This paper presents the baseline demographic and clinical characteristics of the cohort, particularly the nature and severity of psychopathology.

Method: All help-seeking young people aged 12-35 years residing in the health district involved in LIF were invited to participate in the study and completed a battery of self- report and interviewer-administered measures of psychopathology and functioning at baseline.

Depersonalization: An exploratory factor analysis of the Italian version of the Cambridge Depersonalization Scale.

Background: "Depersonalization" (DP) is a common symptom in the general population and psychiatric patients (Michal et al., 2011 [1]). DP is characterized by an alteration in the experience of the self, so that one feels detached from his or her own mental processes or body (or from the world), feeling as being an outside observer of his or her own self, and loosing the experience of unity and identity (American Psychiatric Association, 2013 [2]).

Interpersonal sensitivity and functioning impairment in youth at ultra-high risk for psychosis.

A personality trait that often elicits poor and uneasy interpersonal relationships is interpersonal sensitivity. The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between interpersonal sensitivity and psychosocial functioning in individuals at ultra-high risk for psychosis as compared to help-seeking individuals who screened negative for an ultra-high risk of psychosis. A total sample of 147 adolescents and young adult who were help seeking for emerging mental health problems participated in the study.

Evaluation of secondary school teachers' knowledge about psychosis: a contribution to early detection.

Aims: We sought to evaluate secondary school teachers' knowledge about psychosis and their level of interest in this topic given the key role they may be able to play in the early detection of psychosis.

Methods: A questionnaire survey of 268 secondary school teachers from eight secondary schools within the Azienda Sanitaria Locale Rome/E and Rome/A catchment areas (two of the five city health districts) in Rome. Teachers were asked to complete the Italian version Esperienza e Conoscenza delle Difficoltò Sociali ed Emotive dei Giovani of the Knowledge and Experience of Social Emotional Difficulties among Young people self-report questionnaire that investigates the diagnosis, age of onset, aetiology, prognosis and treatment of psychosis.

Unmet treatment needs in schizophrenia patients: is asenapine a potential therapeutic option?

Adverse metabolic events, such as increased adiposity, hyperglycemia, diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia, have been associated with treatment using atypical antipsychotic medications. However, the complexity of some of the reports on this problem and marketing efforts in this area may make it difficult for psychiatrists to remain fully and accurately informed about the metabolic complications of atypical antipsychotic therapy. Little is currently known about how psychiatrists view what they have read or heard, how they perceive the available information and how this affects their management of patients with schizophrenia.

The role of asenapine in the treatment of manic or mixed states associated with bipolar I disorder.

Background: Bipolar disorders (BD) are of particular public health significance as they are prevalent, severe and disabling, and often associated with elevated risks of premature mortality. The aim of this concise overview is to investigate the role of asenapine in the treatment of manic and mixed states associated with BD type 1 disorder.

Method: MedLine, Excerpta Medica and PsycINFO searches were performed to identify papers in English published over the past 7 years.

Patient outcome in migraine prophylaxis: the role of psychopharmacological agents.

Introduction: Migraine is a serious illness that needs correct treatment for acute attacks and, in addition, a treatment prophylaxis, since patients with migraine suffer during acute attacks and also between attacks.

Methods: A systematic review of the most relevant clinical trials of migraine headache and its epidemiology, pathophysiology, comorbidity, and prophylactic treatment (medical and nonmedical) was carried out using "Medline" and "PsychINFO" from 1973 to 2009. Approximately 110 trials met our inclusion criteria and were included in the current review.