Relationship between aberrant salience and positive emotion misrecognition in acute relapse of schizophrenia.

INTRODUCTION: Aberrant salience is the incorrect assignment of salience or significance to innocuous stimuli, and been hypothesized to be a central mechanism in the development of psychosis. In addition to aberrant salience, social-cognitive models of psychosis suggest that the way people process information about the self is important in all stages of psychosis. The aim of the present study is to explore the relationship between aberrant salience and emotion processing in schizophrenia patients with psychotic relapse. METHODS: A sample of 42 patients with relapse was recruited. Aberrant salience was measured with the Aberrant Salience Inventory (ASI). Assessment of social cognition was carried out using the Facial Emotion Identification Test (FEIT). Partial correlations were controlled for possible confounding variables. RESULTS: The ASI factors "increase in meaning" and "heightened cognition" positively correlated with impaired recognition of positive emotions, and ASI total score inversely correlated to time to response to task. Most of incorrect answers corresponded to misclassification of positive emotions. CONCLUSION: Our findings show that there is evidence for a relationship between aberrant salience and emotion processing during a psychotic episode; we propose that aberrant salience and alterations in emotion processing trigger the loss of modulating feedback from the external world to produce a self-referential mental state.

The Role of Demoralization and Hopelessness in Suicide Risk in Schizophrenia: A Review of the Literature.

Background and Objectives: Demoralization has been defined by hopelessness and helplessness attributable to a loss of purpose and meaning in life. Demoralization is a meaningful mental health concern, frequently associated with suicide risk in medical and psychiatric patients. The aim of this systematic review was to synthesize the recent empirical evidence on demoralization in patients with schizophrenia and to better understand the relationship between demoralization and suicide risk in patients with schizophrenia. Methods: A comprehensive literature search using key words and subject headings was performed following PRISMA guidelines with several bibliographic databases, resulting in the identification of 27 studies. Results: The findings suggested that demoralization is prevalent in patients with schizophrenia and supported the hypothesis that the association between depression and suicide is moderated by hopelessness. In clinical practice, it is important to recognize symptoms of demoralization using appropriate psychological tools to better understand the suffering of patients with schizophrenia and to implement suicide prevention programs.

[The health care through the critical eyes of the users: a survey]. / Le criticità dell'assistenza sanitaria attraverso lo sguardo degli utenti: un'indagine conoscitiva.

INTRODUCTION: Hospitalization is a condition, in which the individual ceases his daily normal acti- vities to be taken over by a hospital, in order to solve a health problem. The healthcare profes- sionals have the responsibility to make the event "admission" the least traumatic as possible. In this regard the welcome is a crucial moment - like a "business card" for the structure - and it will mostly define the satisfaction of the hospitalization experience. OBJECTIVE: Aim of this study is to explore the experience of hospitalization of the respondents, to outline the main issues that affect the quality of care provided in two hospitals in Rome and to detect the most common critical situations, in relation to the thematic areas identified. METHOD: Data collected through semi-structured questionnaires and following phenomenological approach focused on the analysis of experiences of respondents to extract the meaning themes with inductive technique of Van Kaam. RESULTS: Thanks to the interviews about the users hospitalization experience, there were outlined four key-elements that affect the quality of care provided and the more obvious critical issues detected; therefore it is highlighted a relational and communicative asymmetry between the heal- thcare provider and the user and also a lack of awareness of healthcare professionals on the impor- tance of the "primacy effect", which is a preliminary element to strengthen the subsequent posi- tive perceptions of hospital care. CONCLUSIONS: In the light of the results, that work can provide interesting insights and guidance to all those who, for various reasons, are active in the health professions in addition to contribu- ting to the improvement of the quality of care in our facilities.