Cognitive rehabilitation outcomes in patients with Multiple sclerosis: Preliminary data about the potential role of personality traits.

Background Multiple Sclerosis (MS) can be associated with personality changes. Personality traits affect the cognitive functions, mood, and psychological well-being of people with MS and their families. Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate whether personality traits might be predictors of cognitive recovery in people with MS. Methods. Thirty-one patients with a diagnosis of MS were enrolled in this study. Each participant was evaluated by a neuropsychologist before (T0) and after the end of the rehabilitation treatment (T1). The Five-Factor Model (FFM) has been used to describe the basic personality structure by highlighting five personality traits: extroversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness. The rehabilitation program included conventional physiotherapy, speech therapy, psychological support, cognitive rehabilitation, and nutritional therapy as well as robotic rehabilitation, advanced cognitive rehabilitation, and virtual reality. Logistic regressions are carried out to measure the changes score between T0 and T1. Results The results showed that patients had significant improvement in cognitive and behavioral functioning. Here, we considered the relationships between the scores of cognitive and emotional/behavioral domains, the five scales of the BFQ, besides the psychiatric symptoms. In particular, the mental quality of life, visuospatial and verbal long-term memory were positively influenced by the agreeableness trait, while depression was negatively affected by this trait. Conclusion Our data suggest that personality traits could influence cognitive and behavioral recovery in patients with MS.

Uncertainty, alexithymia, suppression and vulnerability during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has expanded to reach many countries, involving healthcare systems facing high numbers of infected patients. The repercussions concern every segment of the population; therefore it is necessary to understand the extent of psychopathological variations. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE: 355 subjects aged from 18 to 78 years old (M = 36.51, SD = 13.08) with a prevalence of female subjects (70.3%) were involved in completing the protocol during the early 10 days of lockdown. The module provided for the collection of personal information, such as age, gender, and years of study. The variables considered concerned the administration of the IUS-12, the TAS-20, the PVDQ-15 and the SMQ. Descriptive statistics, correlational and linear regressions analyses were performed in order to highlight significant relationships and dependences among the variables. RESULTS: Several relationships emerged with reference to the included variables. In particular, uncertainty and alexithymia proved to be indices with an important predictive role in developing psychopathology. The suppression of disturbing and unknown contents represented a defense for overcoming representations, whose impact proved to be negative in terms of adaptation. The results clarified the general tendencies of the population to cope with anguish due to the lack of knowledge in the first 10 days of lockdown. CONCLUSIONS: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the population is evident. The decision to analyze uncertainty, alexithymia and contamination as relevant issues brought the need to analyze a dynamic of conscious suppression of disturbing contents. The results may represent key points to establish interventions.

Patients' perspective and usability of innovation technology in a new rehabilitation pathway: An exploratory study in patients with multiple sclerosis.

INTRODUCTION: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system, which causes sensori-motor and cognitive disabilities, as well as neuropsychiatric abnormalities. Technological innovations could offer a valuable way to improve neurorehabilitation outcomes. Aim of the study is to assess the feasibility and usability of new rehabilitation technologies as perceived by patients suffering from MS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: MS inpatients attending the Robotic and Behavioral Neurorehabilitation Service of the IRCCS Centro Neurolesi Bonino Pulejo (Messina, Italy) from February 2017 to April 2019, were enrolled in this exploratory study. The patients were submitted to a personalized rehabilitation treatment using robotics (such as Lokomat, Geosystem, Ekso, Armeo) and virtual reality (i.e. BTS-Nirvana, CAREN, VRRS), following a dedicated innovative pathway. RESULTS: All patients completed the study. Significant pre-post-treatment differences were found in the perception of patients' quality of life, regarding both physical and mental items (p<0,001), as well as in the achievement of the therapeutic goal. Finally, we observed that patients declared a high usability of the robotic devices, and that rehabilitation with the new devices was well tolerated. CONCLUSIONS: our results support the idea that neurorehabilitation using innovation technologies can be useful for the commitment and motivation during the rehabilitation process, with possible positive effects on the functional and psychological outcomes of patients with MS.