Emotional reactions and stigmatization after a parricide in South Tyrol, Italy, among mental health professionals and the general population, including persons with mental disorders, relatives, and persons with no direct or indirect contact.

Introduction: This study was conducted on the occasion of the parricide in Bolzano (South Tyrol, Italy) in January 2021. The psychological impact of parricide on the general population and on mental health professionals has scarcely been investigated to the present day. Studies on stigmatization show differences between various groups. The aim was to analyze the emotional reactions to the parricide and the stigmatization of persons with mental disorders in the South Tyrolian population. Methods: In September 2022, 121 mental health professionals of the Department of Psychiatry in Bolzano were surveyed using an online questionnaire. In addition, from January to March 2023, the general population of South Tyrol was invited to take part in the survey through an online-link and was divided into three groups: 267 persons with mental health problems, 855 relatives and 1,019 persons with no direct or indirect contact to people with mental problems. The validated Reported and Intended Behavior Scale (RIBS) was used together with questions on the emotional reactions to the parricide and the perceived dangerousness of psychiatric patients. Descriptive statistics, one-way Anovas as well as regressions were carried out. Results and discussion: All groups experienced sadness the most. Relatives experienced more sadness and anger than the other groups. Over 80% of the professionals stated that psychiatric patients were not at greater risk of committing parricide. The population with no contact rated the risk higher than those affected and had the lowest level of openness (RIBS). There were no differences between genders, but there were age differences, with younger people being more stigmatizing. The results suggest that personal contact, appropriate information, and education are associated with less stigmatization.

Dimensions of a hyper memory: investigating the factors modulating exceptional retrieval in a single case of highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM).

Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM) is a rare form of exceptional memory, characterised by an ability to recall personal episodes in response to dates. The single case "DT" is one of less than 100 HSAM individuals globally, and little is known about how these individuals organise the vast number of events they can recollect. We administered 2 novel priming tasks to explore navigation between autobiographical memories. In both tasks, a "prime" date appeared on the screen and DT was instructed to access and begin reliving a specific memory from that date. After 3 s, a "target" date appeared, and DT switched to the new memory. Latencies were recorded. Experiment 1 explored the influence of emotional valence on memory navigation. DT was quicker moving from positive or negative memories to neutral memories, compared to between neutral memories, supporting the role of emotionality in connecting memories in HSAM. Experiment 2 investigated semantic content and mental timeline configuration's role in organisation. DT was faster moving forward (e.g., 1996-1997) than backwards (e.g., 2023-2022), indicating a forwards perception of time. No differences were observed regarding semantic content. Results provide insight into DT's memory dimensions and support the use of this task to explore organisation.

How Mental Health and Suicidality Changed during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study in the General and Psychiatric Population Illustrating Risk and Protective Factors.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in psychological distress in the general population, but contrasting results have been shown regarding its impact on psychological symptoms in clinical and non-clinical samples. Consequently, the aim of the present study was to compare in a longitudinal design (September-November 2020 and February-April 2021) the mental health outcomes of a clinical and a control sample and to determine the implications of various risk and protective factors in this regard. A total of 234 participants from the general population and 80 psychiatric patients took part in the present online study using the following measurements: the Brief Symptom Checklist (BSCL); Three-Item Loneliness Scale (TILS); Resilience Scale-13 (RS-13); and Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being Scale-Non-Illness (FACIT-Sp Non-Illness). The results show an overall decrease in active suicidal ideation as well as "peace", a subscale of spiritual well-being, as well as increases in passive suicidal activation in the clinical sample, which did not change in the control sample. Psychological symptoms did not significantly change in either group. Significant group effects show an increase in resilience in the clinical sample. Resilience and peace turned out to be protective factors for negative mental health outcomes. However, loneliness, which interestingly increased only in the control sample, was shown to be an overall potential risk factor. Our results highlight the complex implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health outcomes of different groups in the population, demonstrating the necessity of further research, specifically regarding the risk of active and passive suicidal activation. Highlighted protective factors are discussed in regards to spirituality (i.e., peace), which is not strictly related to religion but rather personal spirituality related to the meaning of situations of one's life, as well as in terms of mental health interventions.

Enhancing mental health and well-being in adults from lower-resource settings: A mixed-method evaluation of the impact of problem management plus.

Mental health conditions, recognised as a global crisis, were further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Access to mental health services remains limited, particularly in low-income regions. Task-sharing interventions, exemplified by Problem Management Plus (PM+), have emerged as potential solutions to bridge this treatment gap. This study presents an evaluation of the PM+ scale-up in Sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia and Benin) and Eastern Europe (Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina) as part of a mental health and psychosocial support programming including 87 adult participants. A mixed-method approach assesses the impact of the intervention. Quantitative analyses reveal significant reductions in self-reported problems, depression, anxiety and improved functioning. Qualitative data highlight four main themes: general health, family relationships, psychosocial problems and daily activities. These thematic areas demonstrate consistent improvements across clients, irrespective of the region. The findings underscore the impact of PM+ in addressing a broad spectrum of client issues, demonstrating its potential as a valuable tool for mitigating mental health challenges in diverse settings. This study contributes to the burgeoning body of evidence supporting PM+ and highlights its promise in enhancing mental health outcomes on a global scale, particularly for vulnerable populations.

Explicit and implicit memory for the QWERTY keyboard: the role of motor simulation and deictic gestures.

In three experiments, we investigated explicit and implicit knowledge about the location of letters on the QWERTY keyboard in young students, and the mechanisms involved. Participants completed a verbal report task in which they were asked to locate the 21 letters of the Italian alphabet on a blank QWERTY keyboard (explicit memory). Subsequently, they carried out a motor production task, i.e., typing letters on a blank keyboard (implicit memory). Consistent with previous studies and several theories emphasizing the importance of implicit knowledge in typing, results showed that explicit knowledge about the QWERTY keyboard is systematically worse than procedural knowledge (Experiment 1). These two types of knowledge, however, are related. Second, we showed that explicit memory for letter position was affected when participants were engaged in a secondary task that required hands/arms movements. Specifically, loading participants' sensorimotor resources led to a decrease in explicit memory performance when the secondary task required hand/arm movements (hand/arms tapping) compared to when it required legs-feet movements (control condition). This result suggests that explicit knowledge is modulated by sensorimotor simulation (Experiment 2). Third, compared to a purely verbal response, pointing to the key on the keyboard did not improve explicit memory accuracy (Experiment 3). Taken together, the results indicate that sensorimotor simulation, and not just gestures, modulates the accessibility to explicit mental representations of verbal/spatial material, like letters on a keyboard.