[Psychological assistance in organ transplantation]. / L'assistenza psicologica nei trapianti d'organo.

The aim of this report is introducing with a series of psychological, psychiatric and psychosocial problems, that can arise, at every point, in the procedure of organ transplantations. Different areas of intervention are considered: the assistance to the patients and their families during the pre- and post-operative periods; the evaluation of transplant recipients' quality of life; ethical and psychological problems of living kidney donation; psychosocial support to donors' families; the training of the intensive therapy units to entertain relationships with donors' relatives; the delicate psychological aspects of transplantation during childhood. The sense of awareness about these matters is growing in Italy too, and many initiatives of psychological and psychiatric help are being developed in collaboration with several transplantation centres.

[Neurotic and depressive status related to organic pathology in patients in thermal therapy]. / Stati nevrotici e depressivi in rapporto con la patologia organica in utenti termali.

Females and males with no psychiatric history, 25-75 years old, attending thermal facilities in Boario Terme (N = 449) and in Sangemini Terme (N = 40) were administered, on the 2nd-3rd day of their admission, a questionnaire expressly conceive in order to declare conscious motivations for thermal treatments and, in addiction, the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire (MHQ), the Zung Self Rating Scale for Depression (ZUNG-D) and the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), in order to detect neurotic symptoms and/or anxious or depressive complaints in this kind of population. A re-test was performed after 10 days by 73 subjects, in order to verify the impact of thermal treatments on psychoneurotic profiles. Baseline data were compared with those from normal controls and psychiatric outpatients. All statistical comparisons (probands versus matched controls; test versus re-test) were analysed by means of two-tailed Student "t" test (lever of significance: p less than 0.05). In the light of the data so obtained, subjects attending thermal facilities show a typical MHQ psychoneurotic profile, more marked in females and in subjects with gastrointestinal referred somatic disease and partially responding to thermal treatments, which supports the hypothesis that a particular form of neurosis may play a significant role in motivating request of thermal therapies. The results are largely discussed.

[Study of the motivations for balneotherapy. Considerations on the needs of thermal baths users]. / Studio delle motivazioni alla terapia idropinica. Considerazioni sui bisogni dell'utente termale.

After a brief reminder of the dual therapeutic aspect (biological and psychological) of spa treatment, the results are presented of a series of psychological reaction tests (McFarland's Psychosomatic Inventory, the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire, the Rorschach test) given to a randomized sample of 106 patients together with semistructured interviews conducted by two different psychiatrists. The results show substantial agreement between the motivations volunteered verbally and those revealed by the tests and may be summed up as affective rigidity, impoverished emotional life and difficulty in handling body-related anxieties. It is therefore suggested that it would be useful to create a psychosocial spa centre able to provide global treatment adapted to the specific needs of individual users.

[Psychological profile of the spa user. Preliminary study of motivations for spa treatment]. / Il profilo psicologico dell'utente termale. Studio preliminare delle motivazioni alla terapia termale idropinica.

The main psychological and possible psychopathological traits of the spa user are identified and classified in order to clarify motivational aspects. Two different self-assessment tests, the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire (MHQ) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) were given, the first to 500 subjects who had undergone spa treatment cycles lasting at least 10 days and the second to a control group of 50. MHQ data showed a significant incidence of certain neurotic traits, especially phobia, obsession and somatisation in the first group. Despite their different areas of competence and survey methods, both questionnaires produced results to support the hypothesis that a particular form of neurosis may play a significant part in motivating recourse to spa treatment.

General hospital psychiatry in Italy: on the hospitalization of psychiatric patients and consultation-liaison psychiatry after Law 180, 1978.

The type of psychiatric assistance carried out in Italy before Basaglia's views gained ground--that is, before 1968, when his book L'Istituzione Negata was published--is first described. The "Democratic Psychiatry" movement he launched was the mainspring of Law 180 (1978), known to have led to the closing of asylums. This law has brought about moves to create new mental health community services covering wide areas, the setting up of special diagnosis and care sections in general hospitals responsible for compulsory admissions--and overcrowding in private clinics and University clinics within general hospitals. The role of the psychiatric ward (opposed by the supporters of "Democratic Psychiatry") and of consultation-liaison psychiatry within the ambit of the general hospital is then discussed in the light of our experience.