Clinical, developmental and serotonemia phenotyping of a sample of 70 Italian patients with Phelan-McDermid Syndrome.

Background: Phelan-McDermid syndrome (PMS) is caused by monoallelic loss or inactivation at the SHANK3 gene, located in human chr 22q13.33, and is often associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Objectives: To assess the clinical and developmental phenotype in a novel sample of PMS patients, including for the first time auxometric trajectories and serotonin blood levels.

Parental stress mediates the effects of parental risk factors on dysfunctional parenting in first-time parents: A dyadic longitudinal study.

Both parental psychological well-being (e.g., depressive symptoms) and parental relationship functioning (e.

A Family Systems Perspective on Attachment Security and Dependency to Mother and Father in Preschool: Differential and Reciprocal Effects on Children's Emotional and Behavioral Problems.

Attachment security and dependency play a decisive role for children's mental health. From a family systems perspective, reciprocal effects of dyadic attachment to each parent within the same family on child symptomatology may well offer additional insights in developmental processes as parents and children influence each other consistently. This study examined the influence of child-mother as well as child-father attachment security and dependency on maternal, paternal, and observed ratings of children's emotional and behavioral problems.

Dyadic coping trajectories across the transition to parenthood: Associations with child mental health problems.

How parents cope with stress as a couple (i.e., dyadic coping [DC]) is related to mental health problems in children.

Effectiveness of crisis resolution home treatment for the management of acute psychiatric crises in Southern Switzerland: a natural experiment based on geography.

Background: Crisis Resolution Home Treatment (CRHT) is an alternative to inpatient treatment for acute psychiatric crises management. However, evidence on CRHT effectiveness is still limited. In the Canton of Ticino (Southern Switzerland), in 2016 the regional public psychiatric hospital replaced one acute ward with a CRHT.

Strucutural brain imaging at the onset of schizophrenia:What have we learned and what have we missed.

Over the past 50 years, the application of structural neuroimaging techniques to schizophrenia research has added relevant information about the pathophysiology of the disorder. Several lines of investigation gave strong evidence that schizophrenia is associated with multiple subtle brain abnormalities that involve both cerebral grey and white matter volumes and structure. The time of onset and longitudinal course of brain morphological abnormalities support the notion that brain pathology of schizophrenia has a neurodevelopmental component and a progressive course, although several confounders of brain changes should be carefully taken into account.

Are Schizophrenic disorders with or without early cannabis use neurobiologically distinct disease entities? A meta-analysis of magnetic resonance imaging studies.

Cannabis use is considered an important risk factor for the development of psychotic illness and is associated with worse outcomes of the disorder. This study aimed to determine through a meta-analytic approach whether patients at the onset of schizophrenia with comorbid cannabis use (SCH CU+) show a different pattern of brain abnormalities as compared to patients with no comorbid cannabis use (SCH CU-). Ten Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) studies were identified as suitable for analysis leading to the inclusion of n= 465 patients with schizophrenia (n= 227 SCH CU+ and n= 238 SCH CU-) and n= 366 healthy controls.

Variation in brain structure volumes in schizophrenia: A commentary.

Recently, Kuo and Pogue-Geile (2019) quantitatively reviewed Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) findings in patients with schizophrenia demonstrating, besides altered volume of several brain structures significantly greater structural variability in patients relative to controls as for intracranial, lateral and third ventricles volumes. We believe that additional points could be usefully included in the discussion of the conceptual meaning of these findings. In this commentary, first we highlight the role of potential confounding factors such as antipsychotic medication intake and duration of illness when interpreting MRI data in schizophrenia.

Have antipsychotics a different speed of action in the acute treatment of mania? A single-blind comparative study.

Available antipsychotics show different efficacy on manic symptoms of bipolar patients, but few studies have investigated the speed of action of the various compounds. For this reason, purpose of the present paper was to compare antipsychotic mono-therapies in terms of speed of action in a sample of manic bipolar patients. In total, 155 bipolar patients, treated with antipsychotic mono-therapy and followed-up in Inpatient Psychiatry Clinic of University of Milan, were included in this single-blind comparative study.

Subacute encephalopathy with epileptic seizures in alcoholism (SESA): case report.

The case of a 66-year-old patient is reported in view of the rarity of his condition: a case of subacute encephalopathy with seizures in alcoholics (SESA syndrome), described first in 1981 by Niedermeyer, et al. Wernicke-type aphasia, epileptic seizures (generalized tonic-clonic) and PLEDs EEG pattern dominated the neurological picture, in addition to hepatomegaly and rhabdomyolysis. This condition differs from all other known CNS complications in chronic alcoholism and is withdrawal-independent.