The relationship between emotional self-awareness, emotion regulation, and diabetes distress among Italian and Dutch adults with type 1 diabetes.

Objective: Evidence suggests that many adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D) experience clinically relevant levels of diabetes distress, indicating coping difficulties. Studies have primarily focused on emotion regulation as a possible construct to be addressed in psychological interventions to alleviate diabetes distress. This study extends the literature by investigating the cross-sectional association between emotion regulation, diabetes distress and the construct of emotional self-awareness as an additional variable to be considered in potentially reducing diabetes distress. Methods: Via an online survey, data was collected on emotional self-awareness dimensions (attention to feelings, clarity of feelings), emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, mood repair) and diabetes distress, along with self-reported clinical and sociodemographic information. Multiple linear regression with stepwise backward method was used to examine associations, controlling for country. Results: N = 262 Italian and Dutch adults with T1D (80.5% women, M = 38.12 years, SD = 12.14) participated. Clarity of feelings was significantly negatively associated with diabetes distress, resulting in a medium effect size (ß = -0.22, p < 0.001). Likewise, mood repair was negatively related to diabetes distress, showing a small effect size (ß = -0.26, p < 0.001). Conclusion: These findings shed light on the importance of a dimension of emotional self-awareness, namely clarity of feelings. This represents the ability to identify one's emotional states and discriminate between them. Thus, it should be considered in psychological interventions, such as mentalization-based treatment, that might contribute to alleviating T1D-related distress.

Oriented mentalization-based treatment for borderline personality disorder patients: preliminary results at Camposampiero Mental Health Center.

This contribution presents two brief reports about preliminary results of 18 months of oriented Mentalization-Based Treatment (MBT), with Borderline Personality Disorder patients, recruited at the Camposampiero Mental Health Center. Following in large part Bateman and Fonagy guidelines for MBT in institutional settings, this paper presents preliminary results in two brief reports related to two cohorts of patient underwent to the oriented MBT in Camposampiero Mental Health Center (MHC). In the first study, we analyzed a group of 9 patients: an anamnestic schedule was administered; then, symptoms (SCL-90-R), psychodiagnostic scale and global health functioning (Health of the Nation Outcome Scale, Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Disorder [SCID-II], Global Assessment of Functioning, [GAF]), data on service impact and service costs (Cassel Community Adjustment Questionnaire, Patient Evaluation Schedule and folder data) were provided at the beginning (T0), at the end of the treatment (T2) and 1 year after the end of the MBT project. The second study showed a micro-analytical change on a second patient cohort (n=6) at T0, 3, 6 and 9 months (T1) were presented considering specifically mentalization (Comparative Psychotherapy Process Scale, Modes of Mentalization Scale, Mentalization Imbalances Scale) and patienttherapist session evaluation trends (Session Evaluation Questionnaire) and patient reflective functioning at T0 and T2 (Reflective Functioning Questionnaire). Aims and hypotheses of the two studies pointed out how the oriented MBT bring to an improvement of the overall functioning of the patients, a reduction of the symptoms, a decrease of the diagnostic criteria for the Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and the other Axis II disorders, a reduction of the workload hours for the MHC staff and of the costs of the assistance. The analyses of both the studies were carried out using non-parametric statistics (Friedman test, Spearman correlation, Chi-square). Preliminary results confirmed the improvement in the overall functioning of patients (GAF), the reduction in BPD-related symptoms and in diagnostic criteria for BPD (SCID-II), the improvement of patients' mentalization skills, and a significant reduction in workload for health staff. Standing the limits and the preliminary results, the two brief reports demonstrate the feasibility of an oriented MBT within an Italian Public Service and the effectiveness of this treatment pathway for patients with BPD, leaving some open questions to stimulate a fruitful clinical discussion.