Riv Psichiatr
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The coronavirus disease 2019 (CoViD-19) caused by the novel Coronavirus strain SARS-CoV-2 is currently a pandemic. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared that the CoViD-19 outbreak is a public health emergency of international concern. The virus has already had a direct impact on the physical health of million people, and besides, it is supposed to pose a mental health threat of great magnitude globally. ⋯ Providing psychological first aid is an essential care component for populations that have been victims of emergencies and disasters, before, during and after the event. With the aim of dealing better with the urgent psychological problems of people involved in the CoViD-19 pandemic, a new psychological crisis intervention model is needed. Given the recommendation to minimize face-to-face interaction, online mental health services have been widely adopted in China and are urged in other countries.
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Review
[The draft of the ICD-11 chapter on mental and behavioral disorders: an update for clinicians].
The ICD-11 chapter on mental and behavioral disorders is currently under development. A simplified version of the diagnostic guidelines for schizophrenia and other primary psychotic disorders, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, disorders specifically associated with stress, and feeding and eating disorders has been made available for use in the field studies. For all the other sections of the classification, a brief general definition and sometimes a description of some of the included disorders can be found on the ICD-11 beta platform. In the present article, we provide some information on the content of the various sections of the classification on the basis of the available documents, with the warning that some of the aspects may still be subject to revision.
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Relaxation techniques (TR) and biofeedback (BFB) are widely used in psychiatric and psychological practice for the treatment for anxiety and stress-related disorders. ⋯ TR and BFB are effective for anxiety and somatic stress-related disorders, associated with coping and quality of life improvement and affordable costs; they are minimally invasive but needing an active participation in the treatment process. Some limits are responders' prediction, continuity of practice and limited effectiveness for depression disorders. Finally, it is shown that they are real psychosomatic therapies that are able to produce somatic peripheral changes (neuroendocrine, neurovegetative and muscular systems) generated by the mind and secondary to the involvement of central neurotransmitter circuits.
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Bereavement, in the form of the loss of a significant attachment figure to death, disrupts the self-narratives of survivors, and typically launches them into an unsought quest for meaning in the loss as well as in their changed lives. A growing body of research on diverse groups – bereaved parents, young people, elders – suffering loss through both natural and violent death, documents the link between inability to find meaning in the experience and the intensity of complicated grief they suffer. This article reviews this literature, arguing that processes of sense-making and benefit-finding play a crucial role in bereavement adaptation for many of the bereaved, and accordingly that interventions that facilitate processes of meaning reconstruction can support effective psychotherapy for those struggling with intense and prolonged grief.
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Starting from the evidence that not all burn patients develop a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the aim of this overview was to describe variables, which favour the development of the disorder following to burn injury and to delineate directions for a treatment. ⋯ The literature underlines the importance of the individual vulnerability to the development of PTSD in burn patients, besides the experience itself of a traumatic event. These patients face particular and specific problems, therefore, with the purpose to develop a suitable intervention, it would be useful to appraise, besides the physical and psychosocial implications of the burn, the psychological characteristics of each patient, to articulate a treatment that may account for the complexity of the burn patient.