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Biomedical subjects

E Sanavio

Publications and source records attributed to E Sanavio.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

Psychological and emotional aspects and pain.

A patient's psychological condition can be influenced by symptoms and, at the same time, it can influence the perception of symptoms. In psychological assessment, pain can modify the results of a questionnaire, so a patient's state at the moment of the evaluation should be taken into account. Questionnaires used in assessment do not always provide clear-cut answers concerning the individual psychological component. Moreover, difficulties in classifying headache patients does not permit correct comparisons between population samples whenever patients are not classified into well defined homogeneous groups. Overall, in the three groups examined - migraine, tension-type headache and cluster headache - it can be affirmed that with self-report assessment based on questionnaires, the tension-type headache subjects present a more interesting psychological profile for its clinical implications.

Cluster Headache↗
PubMed2003

Phobic anxiety in 11 nations. Part I: Dimensional constancy of the five-factor model.

The Fear Survey Schedule-III (FSS-III) was administered to a total of 5491 students in Australia, East Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, and Venezuela, and submitted to the multiple group method of confirmatory analysis (MGM) in order to determine the cross-national dimensional constancy of the five-factor model of self-assessed fears originally established in Dutch, British, and Canadian samples. The model comprises fears of bodily injury-illness-death, agoraphobic fears, social fears, fears of sexual and aggressive scenes, and harmless animals fears. Close correspondence between the factors was demonstrated across national samples. In each country, the corresponding scales were internally consistent, were intercorrelated at magnitudes comparable to those yielded in the original samples, and yielded (in 93% of the total number of 55 comparisons) sex differences in line with the usual finding (higher scores for females). In each country, the relatively largest sex differences were obtained on harmless animals fears. The organization of self-assessed fears is sufficiently similar across nations to warrant the use of the same weight matrix (scoring key) for the FSS-III in the different countries and to make cross-national comparisons feasible. This opens the way to further studies that attempt to predict (on an a priori basis) cross-national variations in fear levels with dimensions of national cultures.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Compulsive checking and selective processing of threatening information.

Threatening stimuli are processed differently from neutral ones by anxious and obsessive-compulsive subjects. In the present research, processing of threatening words was compared with that of neutral words for two groups of Italian students, one with high mean and one with low mean score on Checking, a subscale of the Padua Inventory. Two tests were given, a computerized version of the emotional Stroop task and a later recognition test under incidental learning conditions. The expected interference effect on the Stroop task for those scoring high on Checking was confirmed. These results suggest an association between compulsive checking and bias in the first automatic stages of processing of threatening stimuli.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Neuroticism and type A behaviour pattern in healthy Italian blue-collar workers.

BACKGROUND: Even if type A behavior pattern is not a typical pattern of specific social class, in Italy no research study has been conducted on blue-collar workers. In the present study we sought to identify differences in the psychological profiles of type A and non-type A Italian blue-collar subjects. METHODS: Seventy-three healthy male blue-collar workers, aged 35-59 years, completed the CBA-2.0 Primary Scales (a battery of standardized questionnaires) and the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS). Following the Structured Interview each subject was classified as type A1, A2, X, or B. In the present study, type X and B subjects were considered within the group referred to as type 'non-A'. RESULTS: The analysis of variance showed that the A1 subjects had higher neuroticism scores than the A2 and non-A subjects but revealed no differences in extraversion, anxiety, depression, obsession-compulsion scores. In the JAS only the 'speed and impatience' scale differentiated the three groups: the highest scores being obtained by the A1 subjects. Among the JAS scales, only correlations (Pearson) between speed and impatience, trait anxiety and neuroticism were found. CONCLUSION: In our Italian blue-collar sample, type A1 seems to define a subject with high neuroticism score. Finally, our results do not recommend the use of the JAS in Italy for measuring the type A behavior pattern.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

A computerized approach to cognitive behavioural assessment: an introduction to CBA-2.0 primary scales.

The Cognitive Behavioural Assessment-2.0 (CBA-2.0) Primary Scales is an automated assessment package investigating the cognitive-verbal response system. It consists of: (1) self-reports and questionnaires aimed at identifying and specifying patients' problems; (2) a group of programs and logical rules, implemented on personal computers, providing an editor with items, questionnaire scoring and an analysis of responses; (3) an intelligent program which analyzes the responses emerging from the questionnaires and forms hypotheses for the selection of Secondary Scales and for further assessment. The package is part of a research project aimed at reducing part of the decision-making process to an operational language and simulating behavioral therapists decisions in cases of clinical assessment.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy↗
PubMed1982

An operant approach to the treatment of writer's cramp.

A theoretical model of writer's cramp is presented. In addition to the original emotional arousal and subsequent conditioned stimuli inherent in a classical conditioning paradigm, this model stresses the role of operant behaviors in the maintenance of the disorder. The immediate consequences of the actual cramp and subsequent escape behaviors are emphasized. An extinction procedure consisting of response-cost and response-prevention measures is tested using an A-B-A-B design. Two patients totally unable to write, were able to increase cramp latency and were gradually retrained to write. Follow-up assessments at 6, 9 and 12 months confirmed the treatment gains.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Coping and cognitive processing style in HIV-positive subjects.

BACKGROUND: People's reactions to traumatic events are mediated by their subjective style of coping. This is of particular importance for HIV+ patients, mainly in the first phases of the disease. This work aimed at examining whether an 'acceptance' style of coping, as opposed to a 'mental disengagement' style, selectively influences the first stages of the processing of neutral, emotional and HIV-related information. METHOD: Two groups of 11 HIV+ asymptomatic subjects were chosen according to their coping strategies, acceptance or mental disengagement, as measured by Coping Orientations to the Problems Experienced (COPE). Twenty-two patients completed the Emotional Stroop Task and an incidental memory recognition task containing neutral, emotional and HIV-related stimuli. RESULTS: Analysis of reaction times (RTs) on the Emotional Stroop Task showed that HIV+ subjects have longer RTs for emotional and HIV-related than for neutral words. Instead, no effect was found as regards interaction with style of coping. CONCLUSION: Results confirmed a processing bias of emotional information, whereas Acceptance and Mental disengagement strategies, as measured by the COPE scales, did not appear to influence information processing.

Adaptation, Psychological↗