Persistent negative symptoms in young people at clinical high risk of psychosis treated with an Italian early intervention program: a longitudinal study.

Negative symptoms in CHR-P people are generally not responsive to treatments and commonly related to poorer functional outcome. However, less research attention has been dedicated to Persistent Negative Symptoms (PNS), defined as clinically stable negative symptoms of moderate severity evident for at least 6 months. This study aims to (a) determine the prevalence of PNS in a sample of young people at CHR-P; (b) investigate any association of PNS with functioning and clinical features; (c) examine longitudinal course of PNS across 2 years of follow-up and changes in PNS severity levels with specialized treatments. One Hundred Eighty CHR-P participants were recruited and were divided into CHR-P/PNS + and CHR-P/PNS- subgroups. The clinical assessments were based on the PANSS and the GAF and were conducted at baseline and every 12 months during the follow-up. Twenty four participants showed PNS at entry. Of them, 21 concluded the 2-year follow-up period. At baseline, the CHR-P/PNS + participants showed more educational and employment deficits, and more social and functioning impairment. During the follow-up, the CHR-P/PNS + subgroup had a significant longitudinal decrease in negative symptoms, which was specifically related to antidepressant treatment. CHR-P/PNS + subjects also showed a higher incidence of new hospitalization and a lower functional recovery over time. Our findings support that the persistence of negative symptoms in CHR-P people is longitudinally related to worse daily functioning and more severe clinical conditions that are at higher risk of hospitalization and are less responsive to specialized treatments.

The Parma integrated model for intervention on pathological addictions in an Italian prison: process description and preliminary findings.

Background - Interventions for inmates with Pathological Addiction (PA) still remain a problematic issue in Italian prisons, despite a 1999 major government reform transferring PA care in prison to the National Health Service. Aim of this research was to describe the integrated intervention model implemented for prisoners with PA in the Parma Penitentiary Institutes from January 2020 to June 2020. This specific approach is based on "person-tailored" therapeutic-rehabilitation programs in line with local community PA services. Methods - All the procedures were first carefully illustrated, especially the service for newly admitted inmates and the specialized rehabilitation treatments provided. A process analysis on the first six months of clinical activity was then performed. Results - Since January 2020, 178 subjects entered the service for newly admitted inmates: 55 (30.9%) were taken in charge for a PA. Conclusions - Our results support the feasibility of an integrated intervention model for PA in Italian prisons, based on specialized psychiatric treatments planned and provided in collaboration with inmates and their community health and social services.