The flip side of collaborative alliance: a single-case study.

The present single case study explored whether a positive collaboration may conceal some of the patient's dysfunctional interpersonal schemas, hence reflecting a non-authentic collaboration. In particular, we reasoned that conceiving collaborations only as adaptive relations may prevent a comprehensive insight of the therapeutic relationship itself. To explore this possibility, we used an intersubjective approach that emphasizes the integration of specific and non-specific factors in an interdependent way. In particular, we assessed different constructs (i.e. therapeutic alliance, technical interventions, defense mechanism, therapeutic relationship) of the therapeutic process and combined them through statistical methods able to investigate the micro- and macro-analytic processes that define each interaction. Results of a single case study (Sara) showed that the collaborative functioning may hold back many critical aspects, that hardly conciliate with the classic positive definition of collaboration. These findings, therefore, indicate that Sara's collaborative alliance works mainly as a pseudo-alliance.

Very preterm birth is associated with PLAGL1 gene hypomethylation at birth and discharge.

AIM: Recent findings show that DNA methylation is susceptible to very preterm (VPT) birth and to the experience of the early stay in the neonatal intensive care unit. The aim of the study was to compare PLAGL1 methylation between VPT and full-term (FT) infants at birth as well as between VPT infants at discharge and FT infants at birth. METHODS: DNA was collected from cord blood of 56 VPT and 27 FT infants at birth and from peripheral blood in VPT infants at neonatal intensive care unit discharge. Sociodemographic and neonatal variables were considered. RESULTS: PLAGL1 methylation at birth and at discharge were highly correlated in VPT infants. Lower methylation emerged in VPT infants at birth and discharge compared to FT counterparts. CONCLUSION: PLAGL1 hypomethylation emerged as a potential epigenetic mark of VPT birth. Future research is warranted to assess the functional consequences of PLAGL1 diminished methylation in VPT infants' development.