Biomedical subjects

D Mugnaini

Publications and source records attributed to D Mugnaini.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

The evaluation of impairment in the attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: the contribution of the impairment rating scale.

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common and impairing child psychological disorders, frequently encountered in pediatric primary care settings. Such a disorder is not only an obstacle to the child's and to the community's actual well-being, but is also a risk factor for future risk-taking, antisocial behavior and psychopathology. In diagnosing such a disorder, clinicians should take into account the most important DSM-IV diagnostic criterion, ADHD-specific-impairment. Authors discuss the central role of impairment evaluation in defining the presence and severity of ADHD, intervention urgency, planning and evaluation, and, in Italy, the need for drug therapy. A comprehensive evaluation of impairment, including investigations about learning difficulties, internalizing symptoms, and maladjustment in social contexts, as consequences of ADHD primary and secondary symptoms, is suggested. The children's global assessment scale (C-GAS), one of the common scales used in Italy to assess impairment, seems to give too general and vague information. Even if an accurate interview relative to the different aspects of impairment is necessary, the authors propose the use of the impairment rating scale (IRS), as an easy, reliable, and valid instrument that could initially (and finally) qualify and quantify impairment present in the child's life, both in school and nonschool settings.

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗

PubMed2004

Dissociative disorder in children. A case study.

Dissociative disorder is well-known in adulthood but in many cases it begins in childhood where it is usually not taken into consideration, rarely diagnosed, and often mistaken with borderline disorders. In childhood dissociation is well-defined: in a dimensional way by the presence of the dissociation symptoms over 2 SD and in a categorial view by the presence of primary symptoms. We made a psychiatric assessment on a child aged 11 years and 7 months, who said he heard "voices in his head". The assessment included: Children Dissociative Checklist (CDC), Adolescent Dissociative Experience Scale (A-DES), Children Depression Inventory (CDI), Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children-Revised (WISC-R), Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), Children Behaviour Check-list (CBCL), (Scale Disturbi Attenzione Genitori, parent attention deficit scale, SDAG), Parent Conners Questionnaire, free conversation, a drawing, a neurological examination, an EEG-Holter and a semistructured psychiatric interview: K-SADS PL 1.0. SDQ, CDI and CBCL showed pathological scores in every area. K-SADS PL 1.0 excluded schizophrenia and showed: attention deficit, disthymic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, oppositive-defiant disorder and conduct disorder with rage episodes, like borderline disorder. I.Q. was 76, SDAG (total 46) and Conners (mean points 1.81) showed a high score, simulating Attention Deficit with Hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The presence of primary symptoms, like dissociative amnesia and very high scores in CDC (23, mean score for MPD) and in A-DES (85, mean 4.2) are useful for diagnoses. Dissociative disorder also exists in childhood, but it should be differentiated from ADHD and borderline disorder.

Child↗

PubMed2002

The child's awareness of the concept of mental disease. A case study.

In international literature not many papers discuss the comprehension of the mental disease concept by children and their ability to understand its behavioral and ethical consequences. A knowledge of this domain could be very important for health professionals and practitioners who have to cope with children abused by adult relatives with psychiatric illnesses. The case study of an 8 year-old girl describes a brief child training, projected to facilitate the recovery of the child mother relationship, through the child's comprehension of the concept of mental disease. The girl was initially assessed in a child psychiatric clinic after a period of hospitalization caused by a severe physical aggression committed by the mother during an acute schizophrenic episode (an attempt of homicide and suicide). Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other psychopathologies were absent in the child. The training project included: 1) the achievement of a confidential relationship between the girl and the doctor, 2) the child's comprehension of the general concept of illness, 3) the child's comprehension of the concept of mental illness and the absence of responsibility relative to the bizarre and aggressive behavior of the psychiatric patient. After 2 months of child training, the girl showed a partial but sufficient comprehension of the concept of mental illness. Hence, the girl successfully restored her relationship with the mother, without developing any psychopathological effects. This result was confirmed after one year.

Attitude to Health↗

PubMed1995

Insulin treatment affects the behaviour of Tetrahymena pyriformis and T. malaccensis.

Populations of Tetrahymena pyriformis and T. malaccensis were treated with insulin, then washed and treated again 24 h later. The ethograms of controls, treated, washed and retreated populations were drawn. Statistical analysis showed that T. pyriformis was affected by insulin more severely than T. malaccensis. In T. pyriformis the effects of the 'memory' of the first treatment seem to be more relevant than those of the first and second treatments themselves. On the contrary in T. malaccensis treatments with insulin per se seem to affect the behaviour more strongly than the memory of the first treatment itself. These results are discussed in detail in the context of previous work.

Animals↗