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The present paper is aimed to describe methods and results of an educational intervention on doctor-patient communication. The intervention was addressed to 26 hospital physicians and lasted 20 hours, and it was formulated according to patient-centred model. At the end of the intervention, participants referred satisfaction for the course, and the proportion of doctors with patient-centred style was higher compared to the one of the initial assessment (Z Wilcoxon=2,236; p=.02). No associations were found between communicative-relational style and sociodemographic variables. For hospital physicians, three main topics seems require future interventions: the communication of bad news, the management of own emotions, the influence of context's factors on doctor-patient relationship.

Aims: The present study aims to investigate whether exists a meaningful relation between quality of life and subjective well being with regard to the pharmacological treatment (antipsychotic typical versus atypical) in a sample of people with psychotic disorders integrated in a Community Residential Rehabilitation Centre; to examine whether the different antipsychotic treatment is correlated to a different answer to the psychosocial rehabilitation intervention in terms of significant improvement in the positive and negative symptomatology, subjective well-being and quality of life., Method: All patients, who suffer from schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder according to DSM-IV criteria, treated with antipsychotic and stabilized from at least one month, were enrolled in the study., Results: 32 patients have participated in the study: 22 patients treated with atypical drugs and 10 with typical. The analysis of the collected data didn't show any significant statistical difference at baseline with regard to symptomatology, subjective well-being and quality of life. From the statistical analysis of the data to the endpoint, after a month of psychosocial rehabilitation, we found a statistically meaningful improvement in all the areas inquired in the group of the patients dealt with antipsychotic atypical drugs., Conclusion: The results confirm that the atypical antipsychotics are more effective, than the typical, to improve symptomatology, subjective well-being and quality of life of psychiatric patients.

Many knowledges on the mental disease that the community possesses are turning out of information disclosed from the media. It's common in the press to connect actions of violence and murders to the mental diseases. For this reason, the reader is induced to infer that murders and other violent actions are more frequent in people who have suffered from mentally ill, than in the general population. The mystifying impression provided by media accrues from the fact that these reports are rarely compensated from positive reports. Objective of the present study is to characterize the type of information concerning mental illness diffused from the local daily paper "Giornale di Brescia" in the year 2001. The results show that many articles connote negatively the mental disease. The journalistic sensationalism, denounced facing the speech of the prejudgment in the comparisons of the mentally ill people, seems to still remain, in the considered year of publication, one unchanging tendency.

Aims: To identify knowledge about medication in a sample of patients admitted in a residential psychiatric rehabilitation unit., Methods: All consecutive patients admitted in a psychiatric rehabilitation unit during January 2000-April 2001 were interviewed about the medications prescribed; in particular they were asked about names, daily dose, therapeutic and side effects of the psychotropic drugs they took., Results: 74 patients were surveyed about their knowledge of the psychopharmacological treatment they took. Most patients demonstrated a good knowledge about drugs' name (77%) and daily dose (74.3%); one-quarter (25.7%) had some understanding about the reason why the medications were prescribed and theirs intended effects while only 5.4% was able to indicate the side effects of medications prescribed. Overall, 21.6% of patients could correctly indicate drugs' name, daily dose and therapeutic effects of all medications they took., Conclusions: The results of our study indicate the importance in clinical practice to devote particular attention to the patients' understanding of provided information about treatment and the crucial role of strategies, aimed at improving compliance and maximize the effects of therapeutic interventions.

Malignant lymphomas involving the prostate are rare whether as primary lymphoma or as secondary to generalized disease. Middle age, histotype prevalently non Hodgkin, intermediate and high grade of malignancy, symptoms of bladder outflow obstruction, diagnosis generally made after histological examination, severe prognosis are the most important features that result from literature review. The evaluation of therapeutic treatments is difficult as most reports do not include a sufficient number of cases. The Authors presenting two cases of lymphoma of the prostate point out the usefulness of radiotherapy since the prostate is usually a bulky seat of disease and suggest the combination with multiple drug chemotherapy for intermediate and high grade of malignancy and in advanced stages. The authors suggest that prognosis depends on histotype rather than on prostatic involvement of disease.