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Antonio Preti

Publications and source records attributed to Antonio Preti.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Seasonality and suicide in Italy: amplitude is positively related to suicide rates.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have reported changes in the time patterns of suicide, with conflicting findings regarding the direction of these changes: data from Italy were investigated to evaluate the influence of recent social and medicine-related changes on the seasonality of suicides in the country. METHODS: A total of 71,227 male suicides and 26,466 female suicides occurring in Italy from 1974 to 2003 were investigated with harmonic spectral analysis to extract their monthly seasonal dispersion by five-year intervals. RESULTS: The suicide rates of both males and females showed a rising trend, with an evident peak in the 1987-1994 period and a decrease thereafter. Seasonality of suicides, with a clear peak in spring as against the other seasons, accounted for a statistically significant proportion of total variance: around 40% among males and 39% among females. Seasonality did not change across time in a relevant way; however, an anticipation of the peak was observed in both males and females over time, with amplitude increasing or decreasing as a function of yearly suicide rates. LIMITATIONS: Data could not be analysed according to age or to the method of suicide, since this information was not available across the whole time interval. CONCLUSION: The seasonal effect on mortality by suicide is positively related to suicide rates, so much that changes in suicide rates over time correspond to changes in suicide seasonality.

Female↗
PubMed2006

The psychometric discriminative properties of the Peters et al Delusions Inventory: a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To establish sensitivity, specificity, and discriminative validity of the Peters et al Delusions Inventory (PDI), a recently released self-compiled questionnaire aimed at measuring psychosis proneness in the general population. METHOD: Eighty-one patients diagnosed with a mental disorder with psychotic features (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, major depression) and 210 putatively healthy individuals were invited to complete the PDI and the brief version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). The receiver operating characteristic analysis has been used to extract the best threshold to discriminate between cases, those with a psychotic disorder, and noncases, those without a psychotic disorder. RESULTS: The best PDI threshold in discriminating between cases and noncases was 8 (sensitivity, 74%; specificity, 79%). The corresponding figures of sensitivity and specificity for a GHQ-12 cutoff of 6 were 63% and 83%, respectively. The value of the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was found to be higher for the PDI (0.815) than for the GHQ-12 (0.770), although at a barely detectable, statistically significant difference (Z = 1.45, P = .073). CONCLUSION: The expected high negative predictive value of the PDI (96%) in the general population suggests it will be a valuable tool in future research on psychosis proneness.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Changes in the seasonality of suicides over time in Slovenia, 1971 to 2002.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have reported changes in the time patterns of suicide, with reduced seasonality in some European and Asian countries. Anyway conflicting data were reported on the fading of suicide seasonality, and in some countries a rising trend was reported. METHODS: Harmonic spectral analysis was used to analyze all suicides in Slovenia in the years 1971 to 2002 (14,325 among males; 4350 among females). Analyses of overall changes are based on data aggregated by intervals of 8 years. RESULTS: In both sexes, seasonal variance accounts for a statistically significant proportion of total variance (36.0% among males; 13.3% among females). Anyway in both sexes the season-attributable variance in the latest interval is considerably lower than in the preceding periods. LIMITATIONS: Data could not be analyzed according to age or to mental disorder diagnosis, since this information was not available. CONCLUSION: The seasonal effect on mortality by suicide is sensitive to change, but its causes seem not to be sex-dependant.

Female↗
PubMed2006

Sexual abuse and eating disorder symptoms: the mediator role of bodily dissatisfaction.

OBJECTIVE: The relationship between sexual abuse and eating disorders remains controversial; the role of intervening variables has often been neglected in past research. This study aimed at investigating the role of bodily dissatisfaction as a mediator effect on the impact of sexual abuse and the reporting of eating disorder symptoms. METHOD: In a community sample of 126 young women aged 18 to 30 years, we investigated the links between sexual abuse and eating disorders by means of self-compiled measures, including the Eating Attitudes Test, the Bulimic Investigatory Test of Edinburgh, the Body Attitudes Test (BAT), and the revised Hopkins Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R). RESULTS: Those who reported sexual abuse in childhood scored higher at the Eating Attitudes Test, the Bulimic Investigatory Test of Edinburgh, and the BAT, compared with those who denied sexual abuse or experienced sexual abuse at an age after puberty. The experience of bodily dissatisfaction, as measured by the BAT, acted as an intervening variable (mediator) between sexual abuse in childhood and eating disorder symptoms. CONCLUSION: Although caution is required when reading the conclusions that could be drawn from self-reported measures, sexual abuse before puberty could be considered as a risk factor for the development of eating disorder symptoms, inducing revulsion about the body in ways that may intermix with concerns about body shape, size, and weight.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Body of evidence: tattoos, body piercing, and eating disorder symptoms among adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: Tattoos and body piercing have been linked to risk-taking behaviors, including disordered eating, but the findings have come from selected samples that were at greater risk for bias due to comorbidity. This study set out to explore concurrently the prevalence of tattoos and body piercing, and eating disorder symptoms in a representative adolescent sample of a community in Sardinia, a major island in Italy. METHODS: A community sample of 828 students (female, 535; male, 282; mean age=17.5+/-1.4 years) among those attending high school in the district of Cagliari, Italy, were invited to take the Eating Attitudes Test, the Bulimic Investigatory Test of Edinburgh, and the Body Attitudes Test, alongside a short questionnaire aimed at evaluating their resorting to body modification practices, including tattooing and body piercing. RESULTS: Females scored higher than males at all eating disorder inventories. More males than females admitted the use of tattoos (14.5% vs. 5.4%), whereas the reverse was found for body piercing (18.4% vs. 21.3%). Tattoos among females and body piercing in both genders were statistically associated with eating disorder measures related to bulimia symptoms. On the whole, the degree of association was modest. CONCLUSIONS: Tattoos and body piecing should be seen as desires to show a subject's identity rather than as a marker of psychopathology. Greater health education, however, is needed in the wake of the growing popularity of these body modification practices.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Suicide to harass others: clues from mythology to understanding suicide bombing attacks.

Suicide by revenge, the Samsonic suicide, and the suicide by devotio, all described in classical mythology and also reported in the ethnographic literature, belong to the same class of suicidal behaviors as kamikaze suicide and the suicide bombing attack: suicide to harass and burden others or suicide with a hostile intent. The lack of a social dimension to share in a positive manner may lead an individual to integrate him/herself in another social structure, e.g., a military organization, which allows the individual to express his/her desires and personal identity only by destroying others and themselves. The dynamics of these forms of suicide are also likely to work in other displays of life-threatening behavior, such as family annihilation, mass murder, and spree killing. A more thorough investigation of the dynamics operating in suicide bombing attacks could, therefore, contribute to preventative strategies against violence at large.

Attitude↗
PubMed2006

Prison suicides and self-harming behaviours in Italy, 1990-2002.

Data on suicides, attempted suicides and other self-harming behaviours that occurred in Italian prisons from 1990 to 2002 was studied on official records, as documented by the Ministry of Justice. Over the study interval, completed suicide rates in Italian prisons were constantly about ten times higher than among the general population, but over time they did not increase significantly despite nearly a doubling in the absolute number of inmates. The rate of completed suicides in overcrowded prisons was about ten times higher than in non-overcrowded ones. Attempted suicides were about ten times higher than completed suicides, with females being significantly more likely to attempt to take their own lives and males being more likely to complete suicide. Self-injuring acts without the intent to die involve about one in every ten individuals, with foreigners (non-EU citizens mostly) being twice as likely to self-harm than residents. A better identification of the people suffering from mental disorders and a reduction in prison overcrowding are two key issues that need to be implemented to reduce the impact of suicide and self-harming behaviours among convicts.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Suicide among animals: clues from folklore that may prevent suicidal behaviour in human beings.

Knowing the most likely reasons for suicide might increase the chances to identify the early signs of suicide. Folkloric tales on suicide among animals are a possible source of such information, since people probably explain animal suicide using the same reasons they would apply to their kin. Modern naturalistic studies ave found little evidence of self-harming conduct among nonhuman species. Nevertheless, mythological accounts often report suicidal behaviour among animals. Claudius Aelian's De natura animalium, a classic in its genre, written in the 2nd century AD, reports 21 cases of suicide among animals. In Aelian's tales, the severing of social ties emerges as an important motive for suicide, together with incest and rage caused by adultery. Paying attention to the mechanisms leading to suicide described in ancient mythology may help us understand unusual and uncommon motives for suicide and the reasons people feel suicidal.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Distribution of deaths by unintentional illicit drug overdose in Italy based on periodicity over time, 1984-2000.

AIM: To assess whether substance-abusing people have a higher risk of dying from unintentional acute intoxication in specific periods of the year. METHODS: A total of 15,792 deaths (males=14,259; females=1533) were ascertained to be due to unintentional acute intoxication by illicit drugs in Italy in the study period (1984-2000). Distribution of deaths by month was studied with circular statistics techniques, based on the maximization of mean vector length (MMVL) method. The Rayleigh test was used to verify the hypothesis of uniform distribution of the events across some relevant periods. Density estimates for significant periodicities were derived with the kernel method for circular variables. RESULTS: Over the study period there was a steady increase in the number of deaths by overdose in Italy, affecting both genders, but more evident among males. The monthly distribution of deaths over the study period followed an uneven trend, with a slightly higher risk in the period between December and January, and in August, in both genders. The monthly distribution of deaths due to unintentional acute intoxication by illicit drugs appears influenced by non-casual oscillations following a thrice-yearly cycle, interlaced with a significantly more evident 6-monthly recurrence. CONCLUSIONS: There does seem to be a higher risk of dying from unintentional overdose in specific periods of the year. Better knowledge of the factors affecting the risk of mortality among substance-abusing people--due to changes in environmental or biological rhythms--could allow prediction of negative events, hence their prevention.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed2003

Suicidal ideation and aggressiveness in school-aged youths.

This study set out to explore the frequency and correlates of suicidal ideation in a community sample of school-aged adolescents living in a northeastern area of Italy. The study involved a mixed male-female sample of 1,000 adolescents, corresponding to 10% of the young population aged 15-19 in the district. We investigated psychological distress through the revised Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R), from which we also derived our indicators on suicidality (items concerning hopelessness and suicidal ideation). Propensity to aggression was measured with an Italian version of the Aggression Questionnaire. Females scored significantly higher than males on all SCL-90-R subscales, with the exception of the hostility subscale. In our sample, 30.8% of females and 25.3% of males reported having thought about suicide; one adolescent out of 20 reported suicidal ideation of high intensity (5% out of the total sample in both genders). Males scored significantly higher than females on the Aggression Questionnaire. Both males and females who reported suicidal feelings had significantly higher scores on the Aggression Questionnaire than did those who denied suicidal ideation. Suicidal ideation is a rather widespread occurrence among adolescents and correlates with other indicators of psychological distress. Psychological distress in adolescence might also be expressed through turbulent behaviors and conduct disorders. Identification of the mental disorders underlying a higher propensity to aggression might help to prevent other negative outcomes such as suicide.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

The spectrum of eating disorders: prevalence in an area of Northeast Italy.

This study aims at exploring the prevalence of eating disorders in a sample of adolescents living in a community in Northeast Italy. It takes into account age and gender differences in a mixed male-female sample of 1000 school-aged adolescents corresponding to 10% of the young population aged 15-19 years of the district. The study was based on self-reported questionnaires, including the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT), the Bulimic Investigatory Test of Edinburgh (BITE), and the Body Attitudes Test (BAT). The cases at risk were identified on the basis of the suggested validated cutoff for a clinically relevant syndrome. Females scored higher than males at all ages, body mass index levels, and socio-economic status levels. We found 100 females (15.8%) and 8 males (2.8%) scoring higher than the suggested cutoff for caseness on the EAT (cutoff=30); 26 females (4.1%) and 1 male (0.3%) scoring higher than the suggested cutoff for caseness on the BITE (cutoff=20); 287 females (45.5%) and 24 males (8.6%) scoring higher than the suggested cutoff for caseness on the BAT (cutoff=36). We did not find any gradient between age and socioeconomic status and the scores on the eating disorder inventories. BAT scores predicted with sharp precision the presence of an abnormal psychometric pattern on the EAT and the BITE. The prevalence of psychometric patterns that indicate an eating disorder seems in our adolescent sample higher than those reported in previous similar studies carried out in the North of Italy. The use of self-report inventories is a limitation in drawing definitive conclusions on the rates of eating disorder in this area; however, bodily dissatisfaction seems to be psychologically linked to abnormal eating patterns.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Eating disorders and suicide risk factors in adolescents: an Italian community-based study.

In a mixed male-female sample of 1000 adolescents age 15 to 19 years in a northeastern area of Italy, we investigated the links between eating disorders and suicidal tendencies by means of self-compiled measures, including the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT), the Bulimic Investigatory Test of Edinburgh (BITE), the Body Attitudes Test (BAT), and the SCL-90-R. More females than males reported abnormal eating patterns suggesting eating disorders: we found that 100 females (15.8%) and 8 males (2.8%) achieved scores above the suggested cutoff on EAT (cutoff = 30), 26 females (4.1%) and 1 male (.3%) achieved scores above the suggested cutoff on BITE (cutoff = 20), and 287 females (45.5%) and 24 males (8.6%) achieved scores above the suggested cutoff on BAT (cutoff = 36). More females than males also reported symptoms of hopelessness (44.3% vs. 30.5%) and suicidal ideation (30.8% vs. 25.3%). Both males and females reporting suicidal ideation achieved significantly higher scores on the eating disorders inventories, with no independent contribution by age, socioeconomic status, or body mass index. Although caution is required when drawing conclusions from self-reported measures, studies on mood disorders and suicidality in youth clearly need to include measures of eating disorders.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Axokine (Regeneron).

Axokine, a second-generation neurotrophic factor that is related to ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), is under development by Regeneron for the potential treatment of obesity and associated complications such as type 2 diabetes.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Tomoxetine (Eli Lilly & Co).

Eli Lilly is developing tomoxetine, a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, for the potential treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression. As of May 2000, tomoxetine was undergoing phase III trials in the US [368128]. An NDA was filed with the FDA in October 2001, with a launch expected in the second half of 2002 [426786]. Tomoxetine was first investigated by Lilly in the 1980s as a potential treatment for depressive illness. The compound was selected from a series of potent inhibitors of norepinephrine reuptake, and reached large-scale phase II clinical trials for depression in 1990. Development for this indication appeared to stop at that time, despite some evidence that tomoxetine wasfairly effective [273943]. In 1996, Lilly apparently restarted preclinical development of tomoxetine as a potential therapyfor ADHD, and submitted EP-00721777 claiming tomoxetine's utility for this disorder in July of that year [273956]. In June 2001, ABN AMRO predicted sales of $121 million in 2002, rising to $4,064 million in 2012 [422762]. In October 2001, analysts at Salomon Smith Barney predicted that the product would make sales of $24 million in 2002, rising to $305 million in 2005 [427501].

Animals↗