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IntroductionVery preterm (VPT) birth is a major risk condition for child development and parental wellbeing, mainly due to multiple sources of stress (e.g., separation and pain exposure) during the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) stay. Early video-feedback (VF) interventions proved effective in promoting VOT infants’ development and parental wellbeing. Electroencephalography (EEG) hyperscanning allows the assessment of brain-to-brain co-regulation during live interaction between infants and parents, offering promising insights into the mechanisms behind the interactive benefits of early VF interventions.GoalsThis study aimed to compare indices of brain-to-brain co-regulation between dyads of full-term (FT) and VPT infants interacting with their mothers and investigate the effect of an early post-discharge VF intervention on the brain-to-brain co-regulation indices of VPT dyads.Methods and analysisVPT and FT dyads will be enrolled at birth, and the former will be randomly allocated to one of two arms: VF intervention or care as usual. Short-term effectiveness will be assessed through ratings of mother–infant interaction videotaped before and after the VF intervention or care as usual. Mothers of VPT and FT infants will report on their mental state, parenting stress and bonding, and infant temperament and sensory profile at 3 and 6 months (corrected age, CA). At 9 months CA, all dyads will participate in a lab-based EEG-hyperscanning paradigm to assess brain-to-brain co-regulation through phase-locking value (PLV) and other explorative indices.Ethics and disseminationThis study was funded by the Italian Ministry of Health and received approval by the Ethics Committee of Pavia (Italy) and participating hospitals. Research findings will be reported in scientific publications, presented at international conferences, and disseminated to the general public.Study registration numberGR-2021-12375213 (Italian Ministry of Health registry).

Abbiamo letto con interesse il caso della collega, dottoressa Montali, che ringraziamo per la Sua disponibilità e generosità. Questo scritto ci regala l’opportunità di condividere alcune riflessioni teoriche, precisando che esse sono il frutto della nostra esperienza clinica come terapeute infantili, formate nello specifico del lavoro con il bambino e la sua famiglia all’interno della Società Italiana di Psicoanalisi della Relazione, Centro di Milano. Osserviamo e facciamo clinica a partire da una “qualità” di sguardo specifico, caratterizzato da premesse teoriche che cercheremo di fare emergere dal nostro commento. Lo stesso sguardo che, come analiste, vorremmo “facessero proprio” anche i genitori che bussano al nostro studio.[...]

Purpose: It is often stated that digital eye strain can impact productivity and/or work accuracy, but the relationship between symptoms, productivity, and work accuracy has been unclear. Hence this study tracked the development of visuo-ocular symptoms during prolonged digital tasks and to explore the impact of higher and lower cognitive load levels on visuo-ocular symptoms, productivity, and work accuracy. Methods: Thirty-five participants (23.2 ± 4.0 years) who had digital eye strain (diagnosed with the Computer Vision Syndrome Questionnaire) undertook an uninterrupted laptop adapted Eriksen Flanker task for 60 min on two separate days, once with a high cognitive load in randomised sequence. Symptoms were assessed at baseline and every 10 min throughout the task. Results: All visuo-ocular symptom scores significantly worsened (F = 87.783, p

Background: Comprehending and addressing the needs of caregivers during the post-intensive care unit (ICU) phase is vital for establishing sustainable support systems and improving the overall quality of life (QoL) for both patients and caregivers.Objective: To explore the experiences of family members (FMs) caring for loved ones three-months after ICU discharge and their related QoL.Methods and measures: A qualitative, descriptive research was conducted. Participants were recruited from two general ICUs in an Italian Academic Hospital. Data collection lasted two months and was performed with telephonic interviews led by ICU nurses. Thematic analysis was conducted using a hybrid approach, incorporating both deductive and inductive coding strategies. This process has been facilitated by Atlas.ti software.Results: Twenty-four FMs participated, representing a diverse range of familial relationships with the patients. Thematic analysis revealed four overarching themes: 1) QoL underwent transformations; 2) Positive emotions laden with significance; 3) Supporting role taken on by a caregiver; and 4) Life’s transience through the meaning-making of the illness event. These themes highlighted the multifaceted nature of the caregiving experience.Conclusions: This study provides valuable insights into the challenges and dynamics faced by FMs following ICU discharge. Findings underscore the importance of addressing environmental challenges, cultivating positive emotions, and strengthening caregiver-patient relationships to enhance the caregiving experience and promote overall QoL. FMs can adapt their personal concepts and reach their full potential by learning to coexist with the demanding role of caregiver and achieve a new level of resilience and fulfillment.

IntroductionBulimic episodes experienced by patients with Binge Eating Disorder (BED) might be sustained by an enhanced behavioral propensity to approach food stimuli.MethodsTo test this hypothesis, automatic approach avoidance tendencies toward high-calorie foods (HCF), low-calorie foods (LCF), and neutral objects were assessed in a group of 23 patients with BED, and their performance was compared to the one of 17 patients with obesity without BED and a group of 32 normal weight participants. All participants performed a mobile approach-avoidance task in which they were required to approach and avoid different stimuli by respectively pulling their phone toward themselves or pushing it away. Reaction times were analyzed.ResultsResults showed a significant three-way interaction between group, type of movement and stimulus. Post-hoc analyses revealed that all the groups displayed an approach bias toward HCF. Patients with BED and healthy controls also displayed an approach bias toward LCF, a bias that was absent in obese individuals without BED. Moreover, patients with BED were faster in approaching food stimuli, both HCF and LCF, compared to healthy controls.DiscussionThese behavioral tendencies are quite consistent with the real-life attitudes of both BED patients and patients with obesity and might contribute to the maintenance of unhealthy eating habits such as binging in patients with BED and high-calorie diets in patients with obesity.

BackgroundFace-to-face visual contact is a key component of the early parent-child interaction, therefore a visual impairment condition of the parent or the child represents a risk factor for dyadic patterns' development.AimsThe study presents a critical single case of a blind father and a 18-month-old visually impaired child. The study aims to explore changes in the relational functioning of this dyad during an early family-centered intervention.Methods and proceduresTen parent-child sessions were videotaped and micro-analytically coded. Data were analyzed through a State Space Grid crossing child's social cues and types of father verbalizations.Outcomes and resultsFindings showed a stable increase in the amount of child social cues over time. Moreover, the dyad exhibited progressive changes in dyadic regulation, stability, and organization. The return time to the “active interaction” region of interest decreased progressively. A reduction was observed also for the time spent by the dyad in the region “no vocal contact.”Conclusions and implicationsThis critical single case highlighted the benefits of parental engagement in early interventions for the dyadic regulation in parent-child interaction.

This article aims at taking a look at the psychologist’s role in juvenile community centres. There are different kinds of Residential Child Care Centres and one constant-as to them- is represented by the psychologist, an important and significant figure in all of the centres aiming at taking in minors, at understanding their needs and at identifying and spotting their skills. Every day, each meeting is given up to the laborious construction of a sense of sharing, that shouldn’t neglect or overlook and demean the minor, that shouldn’t make even the peculiar importance of the community centre, that shouldn’t standardize all the good practices that make diversity a richness.This is the programmatic aim of each juvenile reception center, but, in everyday’s routines, we have to take account of situations like “chaos”, “suffering”, “exhaustion”, “ bother”, “aggressiveness”, equally experienced by all the ones who are involved in the centre’s life. These conflicts, in a group context, have to be identified, to be made clear, to be provided of significance.As stated by Jaques (1989), only through the engagement of all the members in an analysis of the implicit rules that are related to the work structure/organization, it’s possible to activate a development process (working through) of the worries and anxiety tinged with the functions and the objectives of the belonging social institution. Burnout, related to an individual or a work group, represents in this case a symptom that can’t be attributable to any individual or group psychopathology, but it’s a valuable and unequivocal sign of the fact that the centre is “ill” (Giunta et al., 2010).

Each clinical act, whether strictly therapeutic or expert in nature, presupposes an assessment of the credibility of our interlocutor. This necessary and preliminary act becomes all the more important as our doing gets closer to the expert (professional) dimension. But simulating a mental illness or, on the contrary, pretending not to have problems when instead you are afflicted by a psychiatric condition, are all behaviors united by the fact that the subject who carries them out, reports a lie with respect to the real condition, with motivations and purposes that can be completely different. Clinical analysis is the only one that can demonstrate and discriminate the real disorder from those who are not. In light of this, the present work intends to highlight how the simulation of pathology in the expert field is a field that needs further study as it is complex and at the same time rich in phenomena that does not allow an easy solution and which necessarily require the examination of different levels.

In recent decades, Italy has been affected by constant migratory flows of people, which have brought substantial changes to the social, cultural and economic structure of the country.There are, in fact, many second-generation immigrants on the national territory, who induce political actors and institutions in charge of culture to develop programmes and build pathways to integration, appropriate to their needs. First of all, within the category of "second generation immigrants" there are numerous and heterogeneous individual experiences, whose common denominator is represented by the migratory experience, often experienced only by their parents.This young generation appears, therefore, as suspended between two cultures, the ancestral one, relative to the homeland, and the dominant one, relative to the society of arrival. Numerous international studies (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001; Sayad, 2002; Palmas, 2012) highlight the possible paths of integration of second generations within the host societies, in order to promote valid and profitable pathways to integration.As far as Italy is concerned, the picture is, however, more complex, since the phenomenon is inextricably linked to territorial variables of a different nature. Therefore, each region and small territorial entity has peculiar characteristics that require an ad hoc analysis.The proposed research aims to highlight the most important aspects of the integration pathways of second-generation young immigrants in the Palermo area, striving to grasp the psychosocial dynamics of inclusion and marginalization.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) comorbidity is common in clinical practice and it seems to be related to shared etiological mechanisms and genetic susceptibility. Moreover, occurrence of psychosis can further complicate these complex clinical pictures. Here, we discuss the case of a nine-years-old boy presenting with an episode of abnormal sustained posture of the upper limbs, resembling dystonia, at the age of 3. At this time, auditory and visual hallucinations, as well as obsessive thoughts and attentional lability were also present and a diagnosis of “Early onset psychosis” was initially made. Due to the worsening of clinical picture, several hospitalizations were necessary and pharmacological treatment with carbamazepine, risperidone and aripiprazole was carried out. Extensive clinic evaluation revealed a past medical and personal history of toe walking, weak social skills and stereotyped behavior observed and ADOS-2 Module 2 administration revealed severe Autism scores. Moreover, signs of attention and hyperactivity were consistent with ADHD diagnosis. This work highlights the importance of a complete diagnostic assessment in patients with complex presentation, suggesting the possible overlap diagnosis of ADHD and Autism even in presence of psychotic-like symptoms.

Professionals who work in residential children’s communities face many difficulties and, when the hosted children have a history of abuse and maltreatment, the risk of vicarious traumatization and professional burn-out, which has a negative effect on the professional’s work and well-being as well as on the effectiveness at work, is very high. This qualitative study aims to explore, via the content analysis of text recorded in some Photolangage® groups, the representations of social workers and educators in residential children’s communities on the theme of work management of physical and sexual abuse victims. The participants were 37 social workers from 6 residential communities for 0-6 years old child in the region of Palermo (Italy). The analysis of the discourse revealed four main themes: “emotional responses”, “difficulty in coping with emotions related to abuse”, “relationship with the institutional network” and “work methods/strategies”, which seem to guide and inform the social workers in our daily relationship with children. These results, which are in line with clinical observations, indicate the importance of supporting, through tools such as supervision and analysis of professional practices, professionals who work with maltreated and abused children, the only way to protect their well-being and the “therapeutic role” in the care and protection of children which they fulfil.

Today, the most disturbing political question seems to be of a psychodynamic nature: what occupies the minds of individuals and society in general, other than a wealth of contradictions and a great emptiness? The accumulation of insensitivity and cruelty towards the world and towards oneself seems to be shaping up as the biggest problem facing this new century.To this end, the present study lays out an innovative psychodynamic reading of the political and cultural attitude of populism. The phenomenon is herein analyzed using a psychodynamic perspective, which will enable us to deduce just how such an orientation, in its phenomenological aspects, lends itself to fundamentalist connotations typical of saturated thought. If it can be said that the individual often acts in a manner that seeks to consciously utilize reason and emotion through the intermediary of the Ego, the masses tend to act impulsively and without any conscious awareness of their actions, on the basis of unmediated instinctual drives. Understanding the unconscious dynamics that underlie the attitudes and behaviors which the general population assumes in the face of crises, social emergencies, diversity, economics, and ecology is an essential step towards developing sustainable, concrete solutions at the psychological, social, and political levels, precisely by taking as a starting point a profound awareness of the psychodynamic mechanisms which dictate the orientation of the perception of reality and the resulting decision-making process.

Online video gaming is now widely considered an activity possibly related to addictive behaviors, so that the diagnosis of Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) is now included both in DSM-5 and ICD-11; however, there is still debate about some specific features of such disorder. One debated aspect is time spent playing: IGD gamers certainly play a high amount of time, but, on the other hand, also highly-engaged individuals or people working with video games (e.g.: eSports professional players) may play a lot without developing IGD. The literature agrees on the importance of deepening the role of time spent playing video games in IGD, to understand if it can be considered a symptom useful for the diagnosis, or not: one possibility is that time spent playing is not important in an absolute sense, but relatively to specific day phases. The present research involved 133 participants to test the relationship between average time spent playing over day phases (morning, afternoon, night; week, weekend days), age, game preferences and IGD. IGD score positively predicted time spent playing during weekend mornings, which are a day phase usually dedicated to other activities. Instead, time spent playing during afternoon was negatively predicted by age, according to this day phase being more related to youngsters' spare time, while night playing was related to preference for game genres which need dedicated time to organize multi-playing. Discussion deals with the utility of these preliminary results for future, more systematic research on IGD and its distinctive symptoms. Keywords: Internet gaming disorder, Video game addiction, Problematic gaming, Time spent playing, MMORPGs, MOBA

Stigma towards mental ill people is gaining importance within the field of mental health. The following paper tries to investigate the stigma phenomenon of undergraduates in Medicine, Psychology and Nursing. Since those are the key figures of the future in the treatment of the patients, their possible stigmatizing behaviors can influence negatively the therapeutic course of the patients themselves.For this purpose, a review of the major works concerned with the object of the study has been conducted, in order to survey feasible interventions to reduce stigma and negative attitudes from the students.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between traumatic experiences, insecure attachment styles and psychiatric symptoms in adulthood. Self-report measures concerning trauma, attachment styles and psychopathology were administered to 59 adults (33.9% males, 66.1% females) ranging in age from 18 to 61 years old. Results showed that traumatic experiences were associated with insecure attachment styles and psychopathology, in particular concerning aggressive tendencies. Findings of the study suggest that the exploration of past experiences and current attachment relationships, in terms of interpersonal functioning, may be crucial for understanding aggressiveness.

Use of videogames (VGs) is almost ubiquitous in preadolescents’ and adolescents’ everyday life. One of the most intriguing research topics about positive effects of VG use is about the domain of visuospatial competencies. Previous research show that training with videogames enables children and adolescents to improve their scores in visuospatial tests (such as mental rotation of shapes and cubes), and that such training could overcome gender differences in these domains. Our study aimed at (1) verifying the positive effects of videogame use in the visuospatial domain both for male and female adolescents and preadolescents and (2) verifying whether the visualization style (2D or isometric 3D) of the VG has an influence about the positive effects of gaming. Six measures of visuospatial competency were administered to 318 preadolescents (mean of age = 13.94 years, range 10–18) prior and after a 3-day training with 2D and 3D Tetris. Results indicate that (1) gaming on the whole has slight positive effects both for males and females in enhancing visuospatial competencies, at least in the short term, and (2) it seems that participants who used the videogame with 2D graphics obtained greater improvements in the mental rotation domain while the participants who used the videogame with 3D graphics obtained greater improvements in the spatial visualization domain. However, a general learning effect between T1 and T2 was measured, which was found regardless of Experimental condition, indicating that the effect of training with videogames can be less relevant than expected.

Although it is noted that interpersonal sensorimotor coordination can influence several high-level socio-cognitive processes, its impact on creative collaboration is nearly unexplored. Here, we investigated the effects of a form of sensorimotor coordination, that is, sensorimotor synchronization, on a subsequent creative collaboration task. 60 pairs (n total = 120 participants) formed by previously unacquainted individuals performed a tower-building task either jointly or alone, followed by a dyadic creativity task. Tower building time in the joint condition was recorded through a sensorized platform and creativity performance was evaluated by two independent raters based on the quantity and quality of generated ideas. We controlled for gender composition and for the disposition to cooperate and to adopt a creative, analytical style. Results showed that male-male couples were more creative after the joint-action condition, whereas female-female and mixed-gender couples were more creative after the solo condition. Regression analyses of tower building time on creativity performance revealed that building time was a significant predictor of creativity dimensions in male-male and in mixed-gender couples but did not predict creative performance in female-female couples. Overall, these findings suggest that the manipulation of sensorimotor coordination can influence performance in a subsequent creative collaboration task, with the nature, and magnitude of this effect depending on the gender composition of the dyads. These results have potential implications for the design of sensorimotor-based strategies to enhance dyadic creative performance in several contexts, especially for the organizational settings.

Pathological gambling is an emerging and increasing phenomenon in Western counties. This work is aimed at reviewing the existing literature on this topic, paying special attention to its development, course and outcome in adolescence. We will explore epidemiological data, the instruments for the diagnostic and clinical assessment, the course and the outcome of the disorder, the comorbidity with other psychiatric syndromes and disorders. The main risk factors will be described at individual, social and community level. We provide an overview of the available pharmacological and psychological treatments and we report a clinical vignette in order to describe the psychological and psychopathological features of pathological gambling in adolescence.

Aim: Research has extensively examined the relationship between defense mechanisms (DM) and personality traits. However, no study to date has explored if specific defenses (alone or in combination) are able to predict dysfunctional variants of personality domains, as conceived in the alternative DSM-5 model for personality disorders. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between DMs and DSM-5 maladaptive personality domains among adults.Materials and Methods: Three hundred and twenty-eight adults aged between 18 and 64 years old completed measures on DMs and maladapive personality domains. Regression analyses were performed to determine which DMs predicted the maladaptive personality domains of negative affectivity, detachment, antagonism, disinhibition, and psychoticism.Results: According to psychoanalytic literature, results showed that immature defenses positively predicted maladaptive personality domain scores, whereas mature defenses were generally related with better personality functioning. Moreover, different defense patterns emerged as significant predictors of the maladaptive personality domains comprised in the alternative DSM-5 model for personality disorder.Discussion: Our findings support the view that defense patterns represent core components of personality and its disorders, and suggest that an increased use of immature defenses and a reduced use of mature defenses have a negative impact on the development of personality.

Lo studio sul rapporto padrino-padre-figlio è un aspetto della fenomenologia mafiosa ancora poco affrontato dal versante psicologico.Vista la scarsa presenza di studi su tale specifico argomento crediamo che per comprendere a fondo il fenomeno lo si debba analizzare tenendo, come linea-guida, due vertici di osservazione: da un lato gli studi psicologici sulla funzione ed il ruolo paterno; dall'altro, gli studi ed i lavori svolti sulla relazione psicologia e mafia. Il nostro contributo nasce“anche” dall'esigenza di creare un ponte tra questi due con-testi apparentemente così distanti tra loro ma in realtà così vicini da farci ipotizzare la presenza del padre sotto le vesti del tanto rinomato padrino.

La visione comune che il fenomeno mafioso andasse scandagliato e compreso in una tensione etica, ma anche scientifica e particolare, in una prospettiva interdisciplinare che ne sostenesse l„intendimento in un orizzonte di complessità e ne promuovesse il distanziamento dalle collusioni quotidiane, nonché la convergenza di interessi ed il dialogo tra campi del sapere distanti tra loro: quello giuridico giudiziario e quello psicodinamico e gruppoanalitico, ha partorito alla fine degli anni Novanta una fervida sezione di studi che hanno affiancato quelli sul sentire mafioso (Di Maria, 1995) e sul pensare mafioso (Fiore, 1997), sistematizzando le indagini sulla psiche mafiosa e riconoscendo nella mafia siciliana un„organizzazione/istituzione un sistema antropopsichico in cui cultura, famiglia, individuo e società si compermeano.