Minerva Psichiatrica最新文献

In the last few years antidepressant activity or Rubidium chloride has risen new interest. The drugs develops his action on dopaminergic stimulation reducing the depressive pattern. Fifteen depressed inpatients were studied for three weeks treated with Rubidium chloride (540 mg/day) and periodically monitored after hospitalization. Speed therapeutic efficacy has been shown, with lack of side effects. The results are discussed.

In this work we aimed to verify the main hypotheses of the pyramidical model where the presence in schizophrenia of four distinct but no coexclusive syndromes (positive, negative, depressive, excited) is described. The test was done by applying the PANSS (the Positive and Negative Syndrome scale) on 30 patients with a schizophrenia diagnosis according to the DSMIIIR. The PANSS was administered to 12 women and 18 men aged between 20 and 42 years old. The statistical analysis of data was done using Kendall's test and Sperman's test. The first test we checked if the four syndromes were statically independent and mutually exclusive, or if there was probability of association between them. The result proves that the four syndromes are statistically independent but not coexclusive though. Though Sperman's test we wanted to find out if there was a complete independence between positive and negative syndromes and between the latter and the depressive syndrome or if there was a probability of association between them. The results point out that the positive syndrome is independent of the negative syndrome and the latter is independent of the depressive syndrome. However, there is a significant level of association between the depressive syndrome and the negative syndrome.

The aim of this study is to explore the effectiveness of a short-term psychodynamic oriented group therapy with a selected sample of obese patients. We selected, from the patients referred to the Eating Disorders Consultation Service, 7 obese patients. Selection criteria were as follows: 1) aged between 20 and 40; 2) absence of severe organic disorders, as determining factors for the onset of obesity; 3) absence of severe psychiatric symptomatology. In addiction the selected subjects had to be sufficiently motivated to take up a psychological treatment. Subject underwent a clinical semi-structured interview and two questionnaires (SCL90 and TFEQ) were administered. Patients were re-evaluated at the end of the treatment and a two-years follow-up has been carried out. The group was conducted by a psychiatric and a psychologist, supervised by a group therapist. The group therapy lasted 6 months with 75' minutes weekly sessions. When the therapy was over all subjects showed an improved clinical picture: two of them had a remarkable weight reduction and one subject reached his ideal weight. The weight loss and maintenance at follow-up compared favorably with the results reported for other psychological treatments for obesity. The group setting, for its homogeneity, allowed great cohesiveness and let the members achieve, an increased emotional awareness of their self-image. This experience seem to confirm the effectiveness of a short-term group therapy in an institutional setting.

In this paper the authors, starting from the illustration of three emblematic clinical cases, analyse the unconscious allegations of sex offences committed by subjects interned in Criminal Mental Hospital affected by Personality Disorders. The structural, clinical and prognostic difference are outlined in relation with social allegations and possibilities of relapses.

The authors report the case of a male 61-year-old patient with Cotard's syndrome. Onset occurred three years ago with depressive symptoms that did not show the specific features of the syndrome, but failed to respond fully to treatment with tricyclic antidepressants. A probable later recurrence was characterised by elements typical of Cotard's syndrome. Treatment with tricyclic and serotoninergic antidepressants was ineffective. Encephalic NMR showed multiple ischemic foci and signs of cortical atrophy. Three years after the onset of depressive symptoms Cotard's syndrome is virtually unchanged and shows ingravescent mental deterioration.

Objective: The "Questionario sull'Impatto della Malattia Cronica sulla Famiglia" (IMPAT) ("Impact-on-Family Scale", by Stein & Reissman) in its Italian version (by Casari & Fantino, modified) has been used to evaluate family burden in relatives of chronic patients with cancer, chronic patients with other internistic pathology and acute patients. The aims of the study were to evaluate validity and reliability of the Impat and to compare family burden and anxoius/depressive symptoms in the three groups of relatives.

Method: 35 relatives of cancer patients, 20 relatives of patients with chronic, non neoplastic illness and 20 relatives of acute patients were studied. 85% of relatives of cancer patients was assisted continuously by volunteers and psychiatrists with regard to their psychological problems. Impat questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were used for psychological evaluation.

Results: Validity of the Impat was confirmed. Mean scores from relatives of chronic patients were higher than scores from relatives of acute patients (ANOVA, f = 38.0; df = 2,72; p < 0.0001). Test-retest analysis was satisfactory (Person's test, N = 20 r = 0.77, p < 0.0001). Both groups of relatives of chronic patients showed higher level of anxious-depressive symptoms compared to relatives of acute subjects. No differences were found between relatives of neoplastic and non neoplastic chronic patients.

Conclusions: The italian version of Impat has been confirmed as a useful and simple means of evaluation of family burden in this context. Psychosocial support seems to reduce distress in relatives of cancer patients.

Sexual dysfunctions may represent a symptomatological aspect of epilepsy or it may be a consequence of the pharmacological therapy. This kind of trouble is frequently associated to primary generalized epilepsy and focal secondary epilepsy. In our investigation we considered a group of 30 males during treatment with drugs like phenobarbital, carbamazepine and valproate, at the "Center for the Study and the Treatment of Epilepsy", University of Turin, using a sexological and psychosomatic questionnaire. The purpose was the analysis of the sexuality in relation to a specific kind of epilepsy or to a particular drug.

The problem of pain is felt more and more by people at various levels of privacy and social life. It is important to examine the possibility of pain as "communicative metalanguage", or language of languages. This language is deeply analogic, metaphoric, symbolic, experienced. The authors, in this paper, try to consider the problem of pain from a psychopathologic point of view and outline some lines of phenomenological analysis, from depression to schizophrenia.

After having examined the main studies which suggest the existence of correlations between anxiety, depression and cephalagia, the authors report the results of a study performed in a sample population of some three hundred subjects. During the presentation and discussion of results they also comment on some of the main psychodynamic theories relating to the etiology of idiopathic cephalea. In particular, they examine the theories which relate the onset of cephalea to the inhibition of thought and those which instead connect the onset of cephalea to aggressiveness. The present study also comments on possible interpretative models along Individual-psychology lines concerning stress-related somatisation.

In this article the authors consider in a psychoanalytic way the theme of the reception inside a psychiatric territorial service. At the beginning, they underline some characteristics about the psychiatric demand and the setting in a public context, then they describe their experience. After examining how the initial time of the relation influences the subsequent evolution of the therapeutic relation, they conclude with the individuation in the style of relation showed by the patient the lived field, that can be changed into a mental and representative space from an acted and fragmentary space. The skill of the service in changing the field of treatment proposed by the patient, in a field which transforms the action into therapeutic trials, becomes essential at the beginning of the relationship.