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Objectives In older adults, PTSD is associated with decreased verbal learning and executive dysfunction. Therefore, feasibility of EMDR-treatment to improve cognitive performance in older adults with PTSD was examined. Additionally, we investigated pre-treatment correlation with often co-occurring risk factors for cognitive decline (sleep problems, depressive disorder, physical inactivity, childhood traumatic events). Design Multicenter design with pre-post measurements. Setting Psychiatric Dutch hospitals Mondriaan Mental Health Center and Altrecht. Participants 22 treatment-seeking PTSD-outpatients (60-84 years). Intervention Weekly one-hour EMDR session during 3, 6, or 9 months. Measurements PTSD was assessed with Clinician-Administered PTSD-scale for DSM-5 (CAPS-5). Verbal learning memory was measured with Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), interference with Stroop Colour-Word Test (SCWT) and working memory with Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Digit Span (WAIS-IV-DS). Results A Linear mixed-model showed significant improvement on RAVLT immediate-recall (F (1, 21) = 15.928, P = .001, 95% CI -6.98-2.20), delayed-recall (F (1, 21) = 7.095, P = .015, 95% CI -2.43-.30), recognition (F (21) = 8.885, P = .007, 95% CI -1.70– -.30), and SCWT (F (1,21) = 5.504, P = .029, 95% CI 4.38-72.78) but not on WAIS-IV-DS (F (20) = -1.237, P = .230, 95% CI -3.07-.78). There was no significant influence of therapy duration and CAPS-5 pre-treatment scores. There were small-medium nonsignificant correlations between CAPS-5 and cognitive performance pre-post differences, and between most cognitive measures and sleep problems, depressive disorder, and physical inactivity. Conclusions Cognitive functioning on memory and attention possible increased in older adults with PTSD after EMDR treatment. Further research is needed with a larger sample and a control condition to corroborate these findings and to identify the possible mediating role of modifiable risk factors.

Objectives In older adults, PTSD is associated with decreased verbal learning and executive dysfunction. Therefore, feasibility of EMDR-treatment to improve cognitive performance in older adults with PTSD was examined. Additionally, we investigated pre-treatment correlation with often co-occurring risk factors for cognitive decline (sleep problems, depressive disorder, physical inactivity, childhood traumatic events). Design Multicenter design with pre-post measurements. Setting Psychiatric Dutch hospitals Mondriaan Mental Health Center and Altrecht. Participants 22 treatment-seeking PTSD-outpatients (60-84 years). Intervention Weekly one-hour EMDR session during 3, 6, or 9 months. Measurements PTSD was assessed with Clinician-Administered PTSD-scale for DSM-5 (CAPS-5). Verbal learning memory was measured with Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), interference with Stroop Colour-Word Test (SCWT) and working memory with Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Digit Span (WAIS-IV-DS). Results A Linear mixed-model showed significant improvement on RAVLT immediate-recall (F (1, 21) = 15.928, P = .001, 95% CI -6.98-2.20), delayed-recall (F (1, 21) = 7.095, P = .015, 95% CI -2.43-.30), recognition (F (21) = 8.885, P = .007, 95% CI -1.70– -.30), and SCWT (F (1,21) = 5.504, P = .029, 95% CI 4.38-72.78) but not on WAIS-IV-DS (F (20) = -1.237, P = .230, 95% CI -3.07-.78). There was no significant influence of therapy duration and CAPS-5 pre-treatment scores. There were small-medium nonsignificant correlations between CAPS-5 and cognitive performance pre-post differences, and between most cognitive measures and sleep problems, depressive disorder, and physical inactivity. Conclusions Cognitive functioning on memory and attention possible increased in older adults with PTSD after EMDR treatment. Further research is needed with a larger sample and a control condition to corroborate these findings and to identify the possible mediating role of modifiable risk factors.

L’associazionismo familiare rappresenta un oggetto di studio apparentemente ‘‘di nicchia’’ nel contesto delle società occidentali, per diversi motivi. Innanzitutto, l’indeterminatezza rispetto a cosa si intenda, a livello sociale, con il termine famiglia che, senza sciogliere tale ambiguità, è permanentemente e diffusamente ricorrente nel dibattito pubblico politico, economico, culturale e sociale.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the health and wellbeing of the global population. This paper presents the results of a longitudinal transcultural study that was begun at the peak of the pandemic (in April, 2020). An online survey was used to collect data from English-, Spanish-, and Portuguese-speaking participants. The survey collected information about sociodemographics, lifestyle activities, COVID-19-related circumstances, and drug use (with an emphasis on hallucinogenic drugs), as well as involving psychometric questionnaires. Users of hallucinogenic drugs had higher psychological well-being and lower scores on psychopathology scales, both at baseline and during follow-ups. This difference was larger when users were distinguished by frequency of use, as regular users scored higher on psychological well-being and lower on psychopathology scales. Subjects with more psychological distress had lower scores for all scales of post-traumatic growth, but if they were regular hallucinogens users, they had higher scores for post-traumatic growth. When comparing the results between cultural contexts, heterogeneous results were obtained. There were more English-speaking regular users of hallucinogenic drugs. Further research should analyse the potential role of hallucinogens in large-scale catastrophes, with a special focus on post-traumatic growth.

L'allocazione delle funzioni normative e amministrative.

Il saggio esplora i diversi aspetti dell'impegno politico di Nicola Pistelli nella sua partecipazione al dibattito di politica economica fra il 1954 e il 1964. Si tratta di un decennio cruciale, caratterizzato da grandi mutamenti per l’economia e la società italiana, ma anche per la storia della politica economica nel nostro paese. Un decennio compreso fra l’annuncio dello Schema Vanoni al Congresso di Napoli del giugno 1954 e la fine dei lavori della prima commissione per la Programmazione economica con il varo Piano Giolitti 1965-1968. Anni di intensa crescita, alimentati da un consistente flusso di investimenti pubblici e dall’apertura dei mercati europei dopo il Trattato di Roma, che portarono ad uno stato di virtuale piena occupazione.

Familial and social generativity, well-being, and active engagement: these are the topics that we have investigated in the present work, with the goal of gaining a better understanding of active aging. Our findings allow us to confirm the literature that supports the idea that while it is true that participation in volunteer activity correlates with medium-high levels of well-being in older people (see, for example, Erikson - Erikson - Kivnick, 1986; Bosse - Aldwin - Levenson - Workman-Daniels - Ekerdt, 1990; Duncan - Whitney, 1990; Luoh - Herzog, 2002), it is also true that older people who are engaged in their family networks enjoy elevated well-being (see, in this connection, Minkler - Roe - Robertson-Beckley, 1994). In fact, the older people in the two groups of participants – volunteers and non-volunteers – show substantially the same good levels of well-being. These results go against the tendency in literature that supports the presence of higher levels of well-being in volunteers compared to their non-engaged peers.

Background: Whether arrhythmia risks will increase if drugs with electrocardiographic (ECG) QT-prolonging properties are combined is generally supposed but not well studied. Based on available evidence, the Arizona Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics (AZCERT) classification defines the risk of QT prolongation for exposure to single drugs. We aimed to investigate how combining AZCERT drug categories impacts QT duration and how relative drug exposure affects the extent of pharmacodynamic drug–drug interactions. Methods: In a cohort of 2558 psychiatric inpatients and outpatients, we modeled whether AZCERT class and number of coprescribed QT-prolonging drugs correlates with observed rate-corrected QT duration (QTc) while also considering age, sex, inpatient status, and other QTc-prolonging risk factors. We concurrently considered administered drug doses and pharmacokinetic interactions modulating drug clearance to calculate individual weights of relative exposure with AZCERT drugs. Because QTc duration is concentration-dependent, we estimated individual drug exposure with these drugs and included this information as weights in weighted regression analyses. Results: Drugs attributing a ‘known’ risk for clinical consequences were associated with the largest QTc prolongations. However, the presence of at least two versus one QTc-prolonging drug yielded nonsignificant prolongations [exposure-weighted parameter estimates with 95% confidence intervals for ‘known’ risk drugs + 0.93 ms (–8.88;10.75)]. Estimates for the ‘conditional’ risk class increased upon refinement with relative drug exposure and co-administration of a ‘known’ risk drug as a further risk factor. Conclusions: These observations indicate that indiscriminate combinations of QTc-prolonging drugs do not necessarily result in additive QTc prolongation and suggest that QT prolongation caused by drug combinations strongly depends on the nature of the combination partners and individual drug exposure.

Il lavoro focalizza l’attenzione sul rapporto tra lo scambio intergenerazionale e la posizione attiva degli anziani a partire dall’ipotesi che possa esserci un’associazione non casuale tra questi due elementi, soprattutto quando l’impegno attivo assume una chiara e rilevante caratteristica prosociale, come nel caso del volontariato. La ricerca, di orientamento clinico-sociale e di natura qualitativa, ha indagato i seguenti ambiti: la generatività familiare, l’esperienza di impegno o di disimpegno degli anziani e, infine, il loro stato di benessere. Hanno partecipato alla ricerca 20 anziani impegnati in attività di volontariato e 16 anziani non impegnati. Lo strumento utilizzato è l’Intervista Clinica Generazionale di Tamanza e Cigoli. I risultati mostrano come in entrambi i gruppi di partecipanti la forma di generatività più diffusa sia quella funzionale, anche se quella fertile “pura” è più diffusa tra i volontari. A questa forma familiare si associano motivazioni sociali o valoriali al volontariato, mentre le forme di generatività meno funzionali sembrano essere sorrette soprattutto da motivazioni autocentrate.

Treatment experiments of a landfill leachate were performed by wet air oxidation (WAO) with the addition of H2O2 (as free radical promoter), and a Fenton-type (at pH ≈ 7) process, in order to compare COD (chemical oxygen demand) and AOX (adsorbable organic halogen) reduction as well as biodegradability enhancement measured by OUR respirometric parameter. The WAO reactions were performed in a batch reactor at various temperatures in the range of T = 430-500 K employing a concentration of c = 0.88 mol L–1 of H2O2. The same H2O2 concentration was used in the Fenton-type-pH ≈ 7 experimental session considering H2O2/Fe(II) mole ratios of 5, 10 and 15. Similar results were obtained in COD abatement but appreciably different performance in AOX removal and biodegradability enhancement was observed. A comparison between the treatment trials brought to the evidence that Fenton-Type-pH ≈ 7 process has poor performance in biodegradability enhancement, diversely the H2O2 promoted WAO get to better performances even at mild temperature. This process could be considered as advantageous solution in landfill leachate pre-treatment when the main objectives are COD and AOX degradation together with the biodegradability enhancement for final treatment in common biological aerobic wastewater treatment plants.

La mediazione di comunità può essere collocata - a pieno titolo - all'interno del più ampio contesto di pratiche (interventi di comunità, lavoro sociale di rete, empowerment, ecc.) che permettono di promuovere il benessere della collettività. In particolare, la mediazione di comunità, collocandosi nel cuore della dialettica tra libertà e controllo sociale - così come avremo modo di esplicitare più avanti - , costituisce uno strumento cruciale per rendere operativo il concetto di cittadinanza societaria, inteso come quel complesso di norme di libertà e di vincoli che non stanno né nei semplici individui (come soggetti astratti), né nei sistemi, ma nella relazione sociale intesa come azione reciproca, reale e piena fra soggetti . In Italia si tratta di una forma di intervento ancora scarsamente praticato, anche se alcune interessanti esperienze sono comunque presenti sia a livello dei quartieri, sia in ambito scolastico . Decisamente più ricca e più consolidata è l’esperienza in altri paesi che ha portato nel settembre del 2000 alla realizzazione di un Seminario Europeo tenutosi a Créteil, in cui si è arrivati a una prima definizione di mediazione sociale.

La mediazione di comunità può essere collocata - a pieno titolo - all'interno del più ampio contesto di pratiche (interventi di comunità, lavoro sociale di rete, empowerment, ecc.) che permettono di promuovere il benessere della collettività. In particolare, la mediazione di comunità, collocandosi nel cuore della dialettica tra libertà e controllo sociale - così come avremo modo di esplicitare più avanti - , costituisce uno strumento cruciale per rendere operativo il concetto di cittadinanza societaria, inteso come quel complesso di norme di libertà e di vincoli che non stanno né nei semplici individui (come soggetti astratti), né nei sistemi, ma nella relazione sociale intesa come azione reciproca, reale e piena fra soggetti . In Italia si tratta di una forma di intervento ancora scarsamente praticato, anche se alcune interessanti esperienze sono comunque presenti sia a livello dei quartieri, sia in ambito scolastico . Decisamente più ricca e più consolidata è l’esperienza in altri paesi che ha portato nel settembre del 2000 alla realizzazione di un Seminario Europeo tenutosi a Créteil, in cui si è arrivati a una prima definizione di mediazione sociale.

Il contributo analizza, attraverso elaborazioni di dati Istat, la consisitenza degli scambi informali all'interno delle reti primarie. E' possibile sostenere che gli scambi parentali sono forti e significativi, ma che avvengono all'interno di linee di discendenza mediamente più povere che in passato: pertanto coinvolgono un numero sempre più ridotto di soggetti, ognuno dei quali caricato da pesanti oneri di cura.