Franco Viviani

Hypnosis in the treatment of anticipatory nausea and vomiting in patients receiving cancer chemotherapy.

Aims and Background: In addition to nausea and vomiting following chemotherapy treatment, cancer patients can experience these side effects prior to a treatment session, the so-called anticipatory nausea and vomiting. As various psychological and neurophysiological aspects have been claimed to be implied in its etiopathogenesis, the present paper aims to shortly review the etiological, epidemiological and therapeutical assumptions on the topic, in particular the psychological-behavioral therapies. Patients and Methods: The present study was carried out on 16 consecutive adult cancer patients affected by chemotherapy-induced anticipatory nausea and vomiting who had received at least four treatment cycles. All of them were submitted to induction of relaxation followed by hypnosis. Results: In all subjects anticipatory nausea and vomiting disappeared, and major responses to chemotherapy-induced emesis control were recorded in almost all patients. Conclusions: The experience highlights the potential value of hypnosis in the management of anticipatory nausea and vomiting; furthermore, the susceptibility to anticipatory nausea and vomiting is discussed under the psychoanalytic point of view.

Congenital Dyschromatopsia and School Achievement

In 1993-94, in Liguria (a northwestern Italian region) a study was carried out on dyschromatopsia, a congenital sex-linked form of colour blindness. 3124 junior high school boys aged 10–15 years were tested using Ishihara plates (1973 edition) and Farnsworths D-15 test (1947 edition). 152 students were identified as colour blind (4.87%), a value slightly below the Italian average of 5.3%. The school achievement of these students was assessed by means of the school marks of two randomised subsamples composed of 82 dyschromates and 82 orthochromates, paired homogeneously by age and class Statistical analysis indicated significantly lower general school achievement for the 82 dyschromate subjects (except for art). The learning difficulties of dyschromate persons for whom colour is a basic didactic tool are discussed. Introduction of dyschromatopsia tests at preschool would be desirable.

The origin of infibulation in Somalia: An ethological hypothesis

Abstract Recent studies on excisory practices in Somalia have shown a connection between a pastoral way of life and infibulation. Pastoral life in Somalia is characterized by a) the raising of herds of large animals (cattle, camels, zebus) and small animals (sheep, goats) which live alongside predators such as lions, leopards, hyenas, etc., and b) a rigid sex-based division of labor in caring for the herds. It is here suggested that infibulation is an evolutionary response to the situation, made necessary by the reaction of animals to sexually-linked female odors. The “odorless” infibulated woman who tends the herds of smaller animals is less likely to attract predators and her presence is less disquieting to the sheep and goats that are the main source of subsistence for herself and her offspring.

Colour Blindness in Italian Art High School Students

To highlight the link between colour blindness and school achievement, the Ishihara and Farnsworth tests were administered to 3,565 high school art students (2,545 girls and 1,020 boys). Analysis showed colour defective students were discriminated against in theoretical subject matter, relative to orthochromate students, but not in the art-related subjects. This emphasizes the need to recognize youth with colour defective vision early.

On the origins of human laterality: environmental and hereditary variables in a sample of children.

On the basis of operationally defined handedness data from 1,348 subjects of both sexes and of ages 10 to 15 years, laterality was compared with prehistorical data of handprints found in caves. It was hypothesized that the greater production of left handprints found in caves in comparison with current data should be ascribed to a nonestablished deviation of lefthanders towards righthandedness as environmental pressures in the distant past were lower.

At the Roots of Ethnic Female Genital Modification: Preliminary Report

The substitution of the term female genital mutilation with ethnic female genital modification (EFGM) would be beneficial because of its lesser semantically negative connotation and superior expression of the interventions’ expansive/reductive duality. All forms of EFGM have a clear relationship with coupling, and thus with the resulting fecundity (concrete manifestation of procreative capacity). Fecundity is the fundamental element linking the first inhabitants of Africa to their most recent descendants (De Rachewiltz, 1963). All forms of EFGM aim to increase fecundity (in reality or according to cultural assumption) and are accomplished by either enhancement of genitalia (expansive modification, such as elongation of the labia minora) or degradation of genitalia (reductive modification, such as infibulation). Both longininfism and infibulation refer, in their origin, to the same past population, the Bushmen/Hottentots. This group carried the “apron” as a congenital, morphologic feature. This has been preserved through manipulation, for descending from an ancient Khoisanid population.

Changes in Infibulation Practice in East Africa

According to the available information from Somalia and Sudan, female infibulation in East Africa is moving more toward sunna rather than its complete eradication. In Merka, Somalia, sunna has evolved into a unique practice called sunna gudnin. A videotape, shot on location in Somalia, has been used as an educational and therapeutic tool to promote the idea of non-circumcision. From 1999 to 2001, the videotape was presented at international congresses and meetings on female genital mutilation (London, Ghent, Sydney), where Somalis working on international projects on immigration were in attendance. In Italy, the videotape was shown to Somali social workers in Rome and Padua, to Sudanese students visiting the University of Padua, and to students at the University of Padua in the Faculties of Psychology and Agricultural Science. From the discussions that ensue following each presentation of the video, we conclude that the sunna gudnin ritual, as well as other alternatives to female genital mutilation, are acceptable to the populations that devised them, but cannot be exported to other populations.

Male Circumcision Among the Venda of Limpopo (South Africa)

In order to collect raw data on male circumcision (MC) in the Limpopo region of South Africa, in Spring 2009 a semi-structured and open-ended interview was conducted on 27 male subjects of various ages, all of them circumcised and belonging to the Venda ethnic group. The main conclusions from the interviews are as follows: (a) The practice is still carried out among the majority of the male population; (b) Contrary to female expansive interventions on genitalia, which are now disappearing among the Venda population, MC is still widely carried out in the area considered; (c) Nowadays the operation is often carried out in day-hospitals regimen as opposed to in the Bush (performed by traditional operators). If the operation is performed in the Bush, however, a health worker often supervises the rite; (d) These small changes (location and operator) are due to hygienic reasons, mainly connected to the quite high prevalence of HIV in the region; (e) However, the ritual is one of the most important moments in a boy’s life: a rite of passage, making him a “man,” and enabling him to have status in the community, have sexual relations, in the belief that MC will enhance his sexual capacities.

Genital Stretching Among the Venda Ethnic Group (South Africa)

Different interventions on the body are topics of great interest for anthropologists, as they were historically found in populations lacking the concept of “separateness” from their own body, reducing it to an instrument, a conveyor of symbols. Interventions on genitalia are of particular interest, not only because of their symbolic value, their inter-ethnic impact, and the ethical and moral questions they raise, but by the fact that they are sometimes adopted from surrounding populations as a “founding” cultural trait and maintained over a period of time. In this chapter, we present some data on the genital stretching of women from the Venda group, an ethnic group in South Africa; a practice that became a part of their system of rites and, due to “modernization,” is now fast disappearing.

NOCIRC of Italy: Scientific Activities 2006–2009

As the majority of Italians are not circumcised, the knowledge of the various aspects of male circumcision (MC) is lacking. The waves of immigrants from Muslim countries presented various problems concerning ritual MC, among them the fact that an ambiguous legislation enabled fraudulent use of National Health Services (NHS) funding, as ritual MCs were falsely labelled as being “therapeutic” in order to have them performed for free under the NHS. To better understand MC in Italy, during the last three years, different graduation theses supervised by the author permitted the gathering of: (a) epidemiological data to update the first epidemiological survey on the topic, (b) the attitudes of 173 Italian urologists toward MC, that were assessed by means of a questionnaire during a national medical congress. A previous thesis allowed (c) the production of the questionnaire administered to these professionals and, finally, (d) interviews were carried out. They were performed in the 15 health facilities supposed to carry out ritual MC, in order to build a map of these facilities in Italy and to better understand the underlying motivations and implications. Data confirm the fact that MC in Italy exists as a delicate, underground, and multifaceted problem. It appears that, “behind the scenes,” not only unnecessary interventions are performed but also that legal violations are common.