Official Journal of the Italian Society of Psychopathology, Sep 9, 2011
ABSTRACT Objectives This study, funded by the Italian Ministry of Health and coordinated by the D... more ABSTRACT Objectives This study, funded by the Italian Ministry of Health and coordinated by the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Naples SUN, aims to: 1) promote the use of a structured family psychoeducational intervention in patients with bipolar I disorder and their families in Italian mental health centres; 2) assess its implementation in routine care; c) evaluate its effects on psychopathological status and social functioning of patients and their relatives. Methods This study included the following phases: 1) random selection of 11 Italian mental health centres; 2) development of informative materials and of assessment instruments; 3) training of 2 mental health workers per centre; 4) selection of 8 families of patients with bipolar I disorder for each centre and administration of family psychoeducational intervention. The difficulties and benefits encountered by professionals in implementing the intervention were registered on the Family Intervention Schedule (FIS), a 46-item self-report instrument collecting information on: 1) number of families to whom the intervention was proposed; 2) clinical and organisational difficulties experienced by the staff in the provision of the intervention; 3) advantages reported by the staff. Results The intervention has been proposed to 79 patients and their relatives. Six of them did not accept it, further 9 families left the study after receiving the informative packages. Mental health workers reported several advantages in the conduction of the intervention, in particular, improvement of their professional skills and job satisfaction, which tend to increase over time. The most frequent difficulties in implementing the intervention are the integration of family work with other responsibilities and the allowance of time to perform the intervention. These difficulties are already high at the end of the training course and tend to be stable over time. Conclusions The results of this study suggest that family psychoeducational interventions are feasible in routine settings of Italian mental health centres for the treatment of bipolar I disorder. However, in order to facilitate the dissemination of this intervention on a large scale, organisational changes are needed.
While the efficacy of family psychoeducational interventions in the treatment of schizophrenia is... more While the efficacy of family psychoeducational interventions in the treatment of schizophrenia is now well documented, few data are available on its efficacy in major depression. This study aimed to verify the effectiveness of a family psychoeducational intervention according to the Falloon model on patients’ clinical status, social functioning and lifestyle and on relatives’ burden and social network.The study was coordinated by the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Naples SUN and carried out in 7 Italian mental health centres. In each centre, 8 patients with major depression and their relatives were recruited if they fulfilled the following criteria: a) diagnosis of unipolar major depression according to the DSM-IV; b) aged between 18 and 65 years; c) in charge to the local mental health centre for at least 6 months; d) at least one depressive episode in the last two years; e) living with at least one relative aged between 18 and 70 years.Recruited families have been randomly allocated to the experimental group, which received the psychoducational intervention for 6 months, or to the control group, which received the treatment as usual plus an informative brief intervention.22 families have been treated with the experimental intervention and 22 with the control one. At the end of the intervention, patients’ clinical status and life-style significantly improved in the treated group, as well as family objective burden and social contacts.Family psychoeducational intervention are useful in reducing personal and family difficulties caused by depression and in improving patients’ lifestyles.
Background Symptoms of depression are transdiagnostic heterogenous features frequently assessed i... more Background Symptoms of depression are transdiagnostic heterogenous features frequently assessed in psychiatric disorders, that impact the response to first-line treatment and are associated with higher suicide risk. This study assessed whether severe mental pain could characterize a specific phenotype of severely depressed high-risk psychiatric patients. We also aimed to analyze differences in treatments administered. Methods 2,297 adult patients (1,404 females and 893 males; mean age = 43.25 years, SD = 15.15) treated in several Italian psychiatric departments. Patients were assessed for psychiatric diagnoses, mental pain, symptoms of depression, hopelessness, and suicide risk. Results More than 23% of the patients reported high depression symptomatology and high mental pain (HI DEP/HI PAIN). Compared to patients with lower symptoms of depression, HI DEP/HI PAIN is more frequent among females admitted to an inpatient department and is associated with higher hopelessness and suicide...
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the mental and physical health of the general population at an... more The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the mental and physical health of the general population at any age, but it is expected to have a protracted and severe consequences for younger populations. The pandemic has had several consequences on mental health including anger and irritability, depressive symptoms and somatic complaints, insomnia, lack of motivation, and loneliness. In particular, loneliness and its related negative feelings are thought to be particularly pronounced during young adulthood because of the many social changes that young people deal with during this period of life. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate the type of impact of the pandemic on the mental health of young people and their levels of loneliness experienced during the first phase of the lockdown. Based on the largest Italian study on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of general population, in this paper we aim to: (1) describe the levels of loneliness in a national sample of Itali...
The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented public health emergency, with consequences at t... more The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented public health emergency, with consequences at the political, social, and economic levels. Mental health services have been called to play a key role in facing the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of the general population. In the period March–May 2020, an online survey was implemented as part of the Covid Mental Health Trial (COMET), a multicentric collaborative study carried out in Italy, one of the Western countries most severely hit by the pandemic. The present study aims to investigate the use of mental health resources during the first wave of the pandemic. The final sample consisted of 20,712 participants, mainly females (N = 14,712, 71%) with a mean age of 40.4 ± 14.3 years. Access to mental health services was reported in 7.7% of cases. Among those referred to mental health services, in 93.9% of cases (N = 1503 subjects) a psychological assessment was requested and in 15.7% of cases (N = 252) a psychiatric consulta...
Official Journal of the Italian Society of Psychopathology, Sep 9, 2011
ABSTRACT Objectives This study, funded by the Italian Ministry of Health and coordinated by the D... more ABSTRACT Objectives This study, funded by the Italian Ministry of Health and coordinated by the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Naples SUN, aims to: 1) promote the use of a structured family psychoeducational intervention in patients with bipolar I disorder and their families in Italian mental health centres; 2) assess its implementation in routine care; c) evaluate its effects on psychopathological status and social functioning of patients and their relatives. Methods This study included the following phases: 1) random selection of 11 Italian mental health centres; 2) development of informative materials and of assessment instruments; 3) training of 2 mental health workers per centre; 4) selection of 8 families of patients with bipolar I disorder for each centre and administration of family psychoeducational intervention. The difficulties and benefits encountered by professionals in implementing the intervention were registered on the Family Intervention Schedule (FIS), a 46-item self-report instrument collecting information on: 1) number of families to whom the intervention was proposed; 2) clinical and organisational difficulties experienced by the staff in the provision of the intervention; 3) advantages reported by the staff. Results The intervention has been proposed to 79 patients and their relatives. Six of them did not accept it, further 9 families left the study after receiving the informative packages. Mental health workers reported several advantages in the conduction of the intervention, in particular, improvement of their professional skills and job satisfaction, which tend to increase over time. The most frequent difficulties in implementing the intervention are the integration of family work with other responsibilities and the allowance of time to perform the intervention. These difficulties are already high at the end of the training course and tend to be stable over time. Conclusions The results of this study suggest that family psychoeducational interventions are feasible in routine settings of Italian mental health centres for the treatment of bipolar I disorder. However, in order to facilitate the dissemination of this intervention on a large scale, organisational changes are needed.
While the efficacy of family psychoeducational interventions in the treatment of schizophrenia is... more While the efficacy of family psychoeducational interventions in the treatment of schizophrenia is now well documented, few data are available on its efficacy in major depression. This study aimed to verify the effectiveness of a family psychoeducational intervention according to the Falloon model on patients’ clinical status, social functioning and lifestyle and on relatives’ burden and social network.The study was coordinated by the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Naples SUN and carried out in 7 Italian mental health centres. In each centre, 8 patients with major depression and their relatives were recruited if they fulfilled the following criteria: a) diagnosis of unipolar major depression according to the DSM-IV; b) aged between 18 and 65 years; c) in charge to the local mental health centre for at least 6 months; d) at least one depressive episode in the last two years; e) living with at least one relative aged between 18 and 70 years.Recruited families have been randomly allocated to the experimental group, which received the psychoducational intervention for 6 months, or to the control group, which received the treatment as usual plus an informative brief intervention.22 families have been treated with the experimental intervention and 22 with the control one. At the end of the intervention, patients’ clinical status and life-style significantly improved in the treated group, as well as family objective burden and social contacts.Family psychoeducational intervention are useful in reducing personal and family difficulties caused by depression and in improving patients’ lifestyles.
Background Symptoms of depression are transdiagnostic heterogenous features frequently assessed i... more Background Symptoms of depression are transdiagnostic heterogenous features frequently assessed in psychiatric disorders, that impact the response to first-line treatment and are associated with higher suicide risk. This study assessed whether severe mental pain could characterize a specific phenotype of severely depressed high-risk psychiatric patients. We also aimed to analyze differences in treatments administered. Methods 2,297 adult patients (1,404 females and 893 males; mean age = 43.25 years, SD = 15.15) treated in several Italian psychiatric departments. Patients were assessed for psychiatric diagnoses, mental pain, symptoms of depression, hopelessness, and suicide risk. Results More than 23% of the patients reported high depression symptomatology and high mental pain (HI DEP/HI PAIN). Compared to patients with lower symptoms of depression, HI DEP/HI PAIN is more frequent among females admitted to an inpatient department and is associated with higher hopelessness and suicide...
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the mental and physical health of the general population at an... more The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the mental and physical health of the general population at any age, but it is expected to have a protracted and severe consequences for younger populations. The pandemic has had several consequences on mental health including anger and irritability, depressive symptoms and somatic complaints, insomnia, lack of motivation, and loneliness. In particular, loneliness and its related negative feelings are thought to be particularly pronounced during young adulthood because of the many social changes that young people deal with during this period of life. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate the type of impact of the pandemic on the mental health of young people and their levels of loneliness experienced during the first phase of the lockdown. Based on the largest Italian study on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of general population, in this paper we aim to: (1) describe the levels of loneliness in a national sample of Itali...
The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented public health emergency, with consequences at t... more The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented public health emergency, with consequences at the political, social, and economic levels. Mental health services have been called to play a key role in facing the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of the general population. In the period March–May 2020, an online survey was implemented as part of the Covid Mental Health Trial (COMET), a multicentric collaborative study carried out in Italy, one of the Western countries most severely hit by the pandemic. The present study aims to investigate the use of mental health resources during the first wave of the pandemic. The final sample consisted of 20,712 participants, mainly females (N = 14,712, 71%) with a mean age of 40.4 ± 14.3 years. Access to mental health services was reported in 7.7% of cases. Among those referred to mental health services, in 93.9% of cases (N = 1503 subjects) a psychological assessment was requested and in 15.7% of cases (N = 252) a psychiatric consulta...
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