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In this study, two groups are interviewed: the first study includes a sample of 60 physicians and health providers in the field of deafness, whose opinion on music therapy is collected by a specific questionnaire; the second involves 8 parents of deaf children attending music therapy lessons, who are asked to give an evaluation on the effect of music therapy, based on the experience of their children. Results show that health professionals know very little about the rehabilitative effectiveness of music therapy, whereas the parents of deaf children give a positive evaluation on the psychological, behavioral and linguistic benefits that music therapy gives to their deaf children.

Physician-family communication in the Intensive Care Units. Suggestions for critical situations.The present paper originates from some critical situations in clinical practice. The aim is to give some suggestions on how to convey information to families of patients admitted to Intensive Care Units, considering also the recent contribution of the international literature on "family shared decision making", "family conferences" and family care-givers attitudes towards decision making process.

Aim: To present the Italian version of the OPTION (observing patient involvement) rating scale, developed in UK by Elwyn et al. (2005), and its psychometric characteristics, together with some findings when applied on the consultations transcripts of a group of Italian General Practitioners., Methods: The OPTION scale assesses the extent to which clinicians involve patients in decisions and consists of 12 items to be rated on a 5 point scale (from 0--behaviour not observed to 4--high standard). The scale was applied to 235 transcripts of audiotaped consultations conducted by 6 male GPs. Interrater and test-retest reliability and internal validity indices were calculated on a subsample of 30 transcripts., Results: The Italian language version of OPTION showed good psychometric properties, similar to those reported for the original version. The ratings obtained for 235 consultations showed for each OPTION item a skewed distribution: the majority of scores (> 70%) were between 0 (behaviour absent) and 2 (minimum skill level)., Conclusions: The Italian language version of OPTION seems a reliable instrument to assess patient involvement in primary care settings also in Italy. The clustering of low scores confirms previous findings that clinicians without a specific training obtain very low levels of patient involvement in the decision making process.

The present paper aims to give some practical suggestions on how to convey the communication of cancer to the patient and his/her family. Guidelines supported by recent international literature are presented. The acronym SPIKES (setting, perception, invitation, knowledge, emotions, summary), proposed by Buckman (1992) and afterwards by Baile et al. (2000, 2005), is adopted as outline, adding observations from recent literature. Some commented examples to help the reader are provided.

The growing attention to the preventive aspects of health care has raised the question how to motivate patients to modify potentially health damaging habits such as smoking, alcohol abuse, wrong diet or poor exercise. The present paper examines the theory and the techniques of the motivational interview and proposes practical examples which illustrate how the physician may overcome patient's resistance. The authors describe the principal aspects of the process of motivational change and some of the corresponding attitudes and skills which the physician has to adopt in each phase of this process. The basic assumptions are that the patient is the main agent of change and that the physician's task is to facilitate this process and to sustain the patient's efforts.

In the last 30 years many factors have contributed to change the relationship between the physician and his patient, acknowledging the growing importance of the patient's active participation in the decision processes which regard his health. The majority of patients wants to be informed and involved and it is the physician's responsibility to satisfy these needs appropriately and correctly. Aim of this paper is to analyse this important information giving part of the medical consultation, to offer an operational framework and to describe the necessary communicative strategies which have been shown to increase patient understanding, satisfaction with information and adherence to treatment plans.