Michela Di Trani

Anti-Purkinje cell antibody as a biological marker in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a pilot study.

An autoimmune hypothesis has been suggested for several disorders in childhood. The aim of the study was to clarify the role of the cerebellum in ADHD and to evaluate the possible association between anti-Yo antibodies and ADHD. The presence/absence of antibodies was tested by indirect immunofluorescence assay on 30 combined subtype ADHD children, on 19 children with other psychiatric disorders (Oppositional-defiant and Conduct Disorders, Dyslexia) and 27 healthy controls. Results showed a significant positive response to the anti-Yo antibody immunoreactivity in the Purkinje cells of the cerebellum of ADHD children, compared with the control group and the psychiatric non-ADHD children. This association points to an immune dysregulation and the involvement of the cerebellum in ADHD.

The Junior Temperament and Character Inventory: Italian validation of a questionnaire for the measurement of personality from ages 6 to 16 years.

The Junior Temperament and Character Inventory (JTCI) has been developed for the assessment of the personality in individuals 6 to 14 years old according to the psychobiological model of Cloninger. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of an Italian version of JTCI. The sample included 459 subjects ranging in age from 6 to 15.9 years. Starting from the original parent version, an Italian version of JTCI was developed and administered to parents recruited in primary schools of Lazio and Campania. Using statistically appropriate methods for the analysis of dichotomous variables (binary coded), we analyzed the factor structure, the internal consistency, and the test-retest reliability. The architecture of the JTCI was consistent with the original hypothesis of the Cloninger model. Parent reports of each of the JTCI dimensions had good internal consistency and test-retest reliability over 3 months. Regarding the analysis of risk personality traits, significant correlations were found between several JTCI factors and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire scales. The JTCI is useful in research and in clinical practice to evaluate the role of temperament and character dimensions in psychopathology.

The Relationship between Personality and Depression in Expectant Parents

Several studies assessed the relationship between depression and dimensions of temperament/character using the Cloningers model of personality and the TCI-R. The aim of this study is clarify the relation between depression and personality in men and women who are expecting a baby. The Temperament and Character Inventory—Revised Form and the Beck Depression Inventory were administered to 65 pregnant women and 37 husbands during the last quarter of pregnancy. ANOVAs showed that pregnant women had higher levels of depression, reward dependence, and self-transcendence than the expectant fathers. Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis in the pregnant women group showed that harm avoidance and self-directedness were significant predictors of the level of depression. In the expectant fathers, only self-directedness was a significant predictor of depression. Low TCI-R self-directedness is a strong predictor of depression in expectant parents during pregnancy regardless of gender, and high TCI-R harm avoidance is an additional predictor of depression in expectant mothers.

Comorbid Depressive Disorders in ADHD: The Role of ADHD Severity, Subtypes and Familial Psychiatric Disorders

Objective To evaluate the presence of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Dysthymic Disorder (DD) in a sample of Italian children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and to explore specific features of comorbid depressive disorders in ADHD. Methods Three hundred and sixty-six consecutive, drug-naïve Caucasian Italian outpatients with ADHD were recruited and comorbid disorders were evaluated using DSM-IV-TR criteria. To evaluate ADHD severity, parents of all children filled out the ADHD Rating Scale. Thirty-seven children with comorbid MDD or DD were compared with 118 children with comorbid conduct disorder and 122 without comorbidity for age, sex, IQ level, family psychiatric history, and ADHD subtypes and severity. Results 42 of the ADHD children displayed comorbid depressive disorders: 16 exhibited MDD, 21 DD, and 5 both MDD and DD. The frequency of hyperactive-impulsive subtypes was significantly lower in ADHD children with depressive disorders, than in those without any comorbidity. ADHD children with depressive disorders showed a higher number of familial psychiatric disorders and higher score in the Inattentive scale of the ADHD Rating Scale, than children without any comorbidity. No differences were found for age, sex and IQ level between the three groups. Conclusion Consistent with previous studies in other countries, depressive disorders affect a significant proportion of ADHD children in Italy. Patient assessment and subsequent treatment should take into consideration the possible presence of this comorbidity, which could specifically increase the severity of ADHD attention problems.

Anti-Yo Antibodies in Children With ADHD First Results About Serum Cytokines

Objective: We investigated whether ADHD children who are positive to Purkinje cell antibodies display pro-inflammatory activity associated with high cytokine serum levels. Method: Fifty-eight ADHD outpatients were compared with 36 healthy, age- and sex-matched children. Forty-five of the ADHD children were positive to anti-Yo antibodies, whereas 34 of the control children were negative. Interleukin 4 (IL-4), IL-6, IL-10, IL-17, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα), and interferon gamma (IFNγ) cytokine serum levels were tested in ADHD children who were positive to anti-Yo antibodies and in the control children who were negative. Results: Anti-Yo antibodies were present to a greater extent in the ADHD group: 77.58% versus 22.42%. Significant differences emerged between the two groups in IL-6 and IL-10, with higher cytokine levels being detected in ADHD children than in controls. Conclusion: Immune processes in ADHD are likely to be associated with mediators of inflammation, such as cytokines. These results contribute to our understanding of action of neural antibodies and cytokines in ADHD.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and alexithymia: a pilot study

Although the relationship between alexithymia and psychopathology has been studied extensively in adults, research is lacking on alexithymia in childhood psychopathology. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between alexithymia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The Italian version of the Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children was administered to a sample of 50 children with a DSM-IV diagnosis of ADHD, as assessed by means of the K-SADS PL, and to 100 healthy, age- and sex-matched children without ADHD. The total alexithymia score as well as the difficulty in identifying feelings (DIF) and externally oriented thinking factors were significantly associated with ADHD. The total alexithymia score, the DIF, and the difficulty in describing feelings factors were also significantly associated with symptoms of hyperactivity/impulsivity. No significant relationship between alexithymia and inattentiveness symptoms emerged. Results provide preliminary data on the relationship between alexithymia and ADHD. Findings point to an association between difficulty in identifying emotions and hyperactivity/impulsivity. Future studies conducted on larger patient samples, as well as longitudinal designs, are warranted to confirm our findings.

A more global approach to musculoskeletal pain: Expressive writing as an effective adjunct to physiotherapy

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of written emotional disclosure as an adjunct to physiotherapy. Forty outpatients with musculoskeletal pain were treated with Mézières physiotherapy for 10 sessions. Half of the subjects also wrote about difficult life experiences immediately after four of these sessions. Data analysis showed that although both the writing and non-writing groups displayed lower pain scores after physiotherapy, the difference was stronger in the writing group. Pain scores continued to decrease six months after physiotherapy in the writing group alone. The postural evaluation revealed a greater improvement in the writing group than in the non-writing group, while the TAS-20 and SCL-90 scores decreased in the writing group alone. These results indicate that written emotional disclosure is an effective adjunct to physiotherapy insofar as it promotes further health improvements at both the physical and psychological levels.

Alexithymia in parents and adolescents with generalised anxiety disorder

Background The relationship between generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) and alexithymia has been poorly studied in adolescents. The present study examined the alexithymia levels in adolescents with GAD and their parents compared with healthy control participants (adolescents and their parents). Method The sample included 300 participants: 50 adolescents with GAD and 50 healthy adolescents, 13–18 years of age, and their 200 parents (100 mothers and 100 fathers). The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children was performed to evaluate adolescents’ mental health while the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale was performed to assess alexithymia levels in both adolescents and their parents. Results Adolescents with GAD showed a significantly higher rate of alexithymia when compared with control adolescents. The mothers of adolescents with GAD showed an alexithymia score higher than did the controls’ mothers. The fathers of the two groups showed no differences of in their rate of alexithymia. Moreover, in the clinical sample, adolescent and maternal alexithymia scores were not correlated, while significant directed correlations were found between these adolescents and their own fathers. Conclusions Our findings show an association between GAD and alexithymia in adolescents. A significant presence of alexithymic traits in the mothers of the patients with GAD was shown. An intergenerational transmission of alexithymia could be supposed but this cannot be a linear mechanism. The assessment of alexithymia in adolescents with psychological disorders, and in their parents, could be useful to plan a more targeted therapeutic approach.

Alexithymia according to Bucci's multiple code theory: A preliminary investigation with healthy and hypertensive individuals

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the relation between alexithymia and Referential Activity (RA), a linguistic measure of the process by which non-verbal emotional experience is connected to language. METHODS The 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia (TSIA) were administered to 20 postgraduate students and 15 outpatients with hypertension. The Weighted Referential Activity Dictionary (WRAD) and other linguistic measures (Reflection, Disfluency, and Somatic Sense) were applied to texts derived from the TSIA using the Discourse Attributes Analysis Program (DAAP). RESULTS Multiple linear regressions performed in the whole sample showed a relation between TSIA scores and Somatic Sense. Comparing the two groups, hypertensive subjects yielded higher scores on the TSIA than the young adult sample; no differences in DAAP measures emerged. A significant negative correlation was found between the TAS-20 Difficulty Describing Feelings score and the DAAP measure of references to body activations (Somatic Sense) both in the young adult sample and in hypertensives. In the young adult sample, negative relations emerged between different TSIA factors, WRAD score, and Somatic Sense; a positive relation with fragmented speech (Disfluency) and use of rationalization (Reflection) was also found. In hypertensive subjects, using the TSIA, a negative correlation between alexithymia and Somatic Sense and a positive correlation between alexithymia and the Mean High WRAD (a measure of intensity of engagement during the speech) were found. CONCLUSION The TSIA seems to be a more adequate instrument than the TAS-20 to explore relations between alexithymia and RA. Results appear to suggest a complex, nonlinear relation between alexithymia and RA, presumably influenced by subject-specific characteristics. PRACTITIONER POINTS A relation between alexithymia and RA has been proposed on theoretical grounds, but there has been minimal empirical investigation. This was the first study to employ both a self-report measure and a structured interview for measuring alexithymia in relation to RA. The results of this study suggest a complex, nonlinear relation between alexithymia and RA; this finding is essentially obtained with the structured interview measure of alexithymia. This relation is presumably influenced by subject-specific characteristics.

Writing for All, for Some, or for No One? Some Thoughts on the Applications and Evaluations of the Writing Technique

In the past decades, writing about traumatic events or situations has progressively obtained high status as a fast, efficient, and low-cost method of promoting health. It is increasingly being employed in new populations, notably clinical ones. However, recently a review and meta-analysis including 61 studies on different situations (Meads, 2003) challenged the view that this intervention has overall beneficial health effects. This study received some methodological criticism. However, more recent, often considered as more methodologically sound, meta-analyses by Frisina, Borod, and Lepore, (2004) and Frisina, Lepore, and Borod (2005), which focused on nine studies performed on samples with physical or psychiatric disorders, yielded results that also were not very impressive: although the technique was significantly effective, the effect size obtained was only d = .19. This is a small effect size and low compared to the d = .47 found in a meta-analysis on studies performed in the general population (Smyth, 1998). Comparing results obtained in somatic patients with findings from patients with psychiatric problems yielded a d = .21 for physical disorders and d = .07 (nonsignificant) for psychiatric distress. Concerning the latter finding, it is not surprising that improvement of mental disorders through psychological interventions needs much more effort and a good relationship with the patient. But also the effect on physical symptoms appeared much less impressive when compared to the results obtained in the general population. In our view, this may be due to the same factors as those responsible for the null findings in the Meads (2003) meta-analysis. In both cases, very heterogeneous samples such as terminal renal cancer, prostate cancer, asthma, and rheumatoid arthritis patients were combined. Before proposing an attempt for a classification of patients into those “for whom it does work” (Norman, Lumley, Dooley, & Diamond, 2004) and those “for whom it does not,” it is important to understand the origin of the homogenizing approach, such as used in a meta-analysis, because it refers to a scientific-ideological attitude with a rather long history.