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Durante la pandemia da Coronavirus (Covid-19), l'uso della psicoterapia online (PO) è stato ampiamente rivalutato. In situazioni in cui il passaggio alla PO siano caratterizzati da necessità e urgenza, la preparazione tecnica e teorica del terapeuta può essere cruciale. Nel presente studio abbiamo pertanto indagato il ruolo di tale preparazione sul passaggio alla PO durante l'emergenza Covid-19, nel contesto di un servizio privato di psicoterapia (Santagostino). Un questionario costruito ad hoc è stato utilizzato per rilevare l'esperienza pregressa di PO di 86 terapeuti, il grado riferito di familiarità con i sistemi di videocomunicazione, di conoscenza teorica e scientifica della PO, e la percentuale di pazienti in cura passati in PO. Sono state inoltre raccolte informazioni riguardo all'orientamento terapeutico e al grado personale di scetticismo nei confronti della PO prima della pandemia. Su 158 terapeuti contattati, 86 hanno completato il questionario. L'esperienza pregressa del terapeuta in PO si è dimostrata la variabile più predittiva per il passaggio dei pazienti alla PO. Accanto a essa la familiarità tecnica dei terapeuti, associata a un basso scetticismo. I risultati dello studio suggeriscono che una precedente esperienza, e dunque formazione, all'uso della PO, potrebbe favorire sia il suo utilizzo da parte del terapeuta, che l'adesione dei pazienti alla PO stessa. Una adeguata formazione tecnica e teorica potrebbe incrementare il senso di padronanza e fiducia (vs. scetticismo) nella PO.

The aim of this critical review was to outline emerging trends and perspectives of clinical pharmacopsychology, an area of clinical psychology that is concerned with the psychological effects of medications. The historical development of clinical pharmacopsychology (Kraepelin, Pichot, Kellner, Di Mascio, Shader, Bech) is outlined, with critical review of its most representative expressions and reference to current challenges of clinical research. Clinical pharmacopsychology is concerned with the application of clinimetric methods to the assessment of psychotropic effects of medications (including behavioral toxicity and iatrogenic comorbidity) and the interaction of drugs with specific and non-specific treatment ingredients. Clinical pharmacopsychology offers a unifying framework for the understanding of clinical phenomena in medical and psychiatric settings. Research in this area deserves high priority.

A large body of research, documenting the impact of a family's functioning on health outcomes, highlights the importance of introducing the evaluation of patients' family dynamics into clinical judgment. The Family Assessment Device (FAD) is a self-report questionnaire designed to assess specific dimensions of family functioning. This qualitative systematic review, which follows PRISMA guidelines, aimed to identify the FAD's clinimetric properties and to report the incremental utility of its inclusion in clinical settings. A thorough literature search was performed, using both computerized and manual searches, yielding a total of 148 studies that were included in this review. The FAD has been extensively used in a variety of research contexts. In the majority of studies it was able to discriminate between clinical populations and controls and among groups of patients with different illnesses. The FAD also showed good test-retest and concurrent reliability, and modest sensitivity to change after treatment. FAD-dysfunctional family functioning was related to several patient clinical outcomes, including lower recovery rates and adherence to treatment, longer recovery time, poorer quality of life, and increased risk of relapse and drop-out. The present review demonstrates that the FAD is a suitable instrument for the evaluation of family functioning both in clinical and research settings.

The aim of the present study was to validate the Italian version and to assess the clinimetric properties of Ahearn and Carroll's Visual Analogue Scales for Bipolarity (MVAS-BP), a self-rating questionnaire measuring affective state.MVAS-BP consist of 26 items: 1 item assesses overall mood, 2 items anger and 23 items are based on the Carroll model of bipolar disorder (Consummatory Reward, Incentive Reward, Central Pain, Psychomotor Regulation). MVAS-BP have been translated into Italian and administered with Kellner's Symptom Questionnaire (SQ), Ryff's Psychological Well-Being Scales (PWB), and Cloninger's Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) to a normative sample of 450 people. The assessment was repeated after one month. Test-retest reliability, means scores, differences according to sociodemographic variables and correlations among the scales of MVAS-BP, SQ, PWB and TPQ were performed in order to assess clinimetric properties.Test-retest coefficients were highly significant. Significant sex differences were found in the scales of consummatory reward, central pain, psychomotor regulation and anger. MVAS-BP scales were significantly related with symptom and well-being scales, but with very low correlation coefficients, and only with one personality dimension, TPQ Harm Avoidance.MVAS-BP has been found to possess clinimetric properties and to record specific and different information from those investigated by other questionnaires.

INTRODUCTION: Psychosocial factors play a significant role in the recovery and quality of life of stroke survivors. This pilot study evaluated family functioning, psychological well-being and distress in hospitalized stroke patients. METHODS: 11 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of stroke (63,6% male; age M±SD= 72,36±10,11; 72,7% ischemic, 27,3% hemorrhagic; 54,5% right-sided, 45,5% left-sided; time since onset M±SD=18,55±4,05 days) were compared to 11 controls matched for socio-demographic variables. Participants were administered the following self-report questionnaires: the Symptom Questionnaire (SQ), the Psychosocial Index (PSI), the Psychological Well-Being Scale (PWB) and the Family Assessment Device (FAD). Non-parametric tests were applied to compare groups and to evaluate correlations among the variables considered. RESULTS. Ischemic stroke patients showed significantly higher levels of psychosocial stress (PSI) compared to hemorrhagic stroke patients (p=0,031). Compared to controls, stroke patients showed significantly higher scores in SQ-Somatic Symptoms total scale (p=0,038), PSI-Psychological Distress scale (p=0,048) and in FAD-Roles scale (p=0,032), indicating greater familial dysfunction. Within the patients group, significant correlations were found between PSI-Psychological distress scale and most of the FAD and SQ scales (p˂0.05). In contrast, within the control group significant correlations between FAD and PWB scales were uncovered (p˂0.05) but few significant correlations between FAD, SQ and PSI scales were found (p˂0.05). CONCLUSIONS. Stroke patients present higher levels of psychological distress and family dysfunction compared to controls. Family dysfunction seems to be related to greater individual psychological distress in patients and to a lower psychological well-being in controls. Further controlled studies with larger samples are needed.

A large body of research documents the influence of family’s dynamics on the management and outcomes of chronic illnesses. The Family Assessment Device (FAD) is a well-validated self-report questionnaire designed to assess six dimension of family functioning- Communication, Roles, Problem Solving, Affective Responsiveness, Affective Involvement and Behavior Control. The aim of the present paper was to verify the incremental utility of including the FAD in clinical settings.METHOD- A systematic review of the literature was performed, following PRISMA guidelines and using both computerized (Medline, PsycINFO, Web of Science) and manual searches. All searches were limited to references published in English and Italian between April 1983 and May 2012. RESULTS- A total of 120 studies were examined and included in this review. The FAD has been extensively used in a variety of research contexts, including medical and psychiatric populations. The FAD was found to discriminate between clinical populations and controls and among groups of patients with different illnesses. It also showed good test-retest reliability and sensitivity to change after treatment. FAD-dysfunctional family functioning was related to lower patients’ recovery rates and adherence to treatment, longer recovery time, poorer quality of life and increased risk of relapse and drop-out.CONCLUSIONS- The present review supports the importance of assessing family functioning which may improve clinical outcomes in medical settings. The FAD demonstrated to have good clinimetric properties and to be a suitable instrument for this purpose