Spiritual issues, beliefs, needs, and resources in palliative healthcare providers: An Italian qualitative study.

The significance of spirituality in navigating the meaning of illness and death has been well-established. However, healthcare professionals working with palliation also grapple with their own spiritual dimensions when confronted with these circumstances. This study aimed to explore spirituality from a subjective standpoint among a sample of palliative care professionals, investigating its role and associated needs. For the first time, the FICA Spiritual History Tool was applied in a focus group setting. The meetings were transcribed, and thematic analysis was performed. The findings underscore how spirituality is perceived as more relational than transcendent, potentially fostering connections between the self, patients, and colleagues, thereby enhancing resilience. Simultaneously, spirituality needs to be considered as a potential source of suffering that could impact both the quality of life and work of healthcare workers involved. This issue should be addressed through dedicated moments of shared reprocessing, with beneficial implications for public health.

The Neural Signature of Psychological Interventions in Persons With Cancer: A Scoping Review.

OBJECTIVE: People diagnosed with cancer have to deal with the debilitating psychological implications of this disease. Although the clinical efficacy of psychological interventions is well documented, relatively little has been written on the neural correlates of these treatments in the context of oncology. The present work is the first to provide an overall perspective of the existing literature on this topic. It also considers the potential directions for future research. METHODS: This scoping review was carried out across 5 databases (EMBASE, PsycINFO, OVID MEDLINE, CINAHL, COCHRANE CENTRAL), from conception dates until 3 December 2021. RESULTS: From an initial set of 4172 records, 13 papers were selected for this review. They consisted of 9 randomized controlled studies (RCTs), 1 quasi-experiment, 2 single case studies, and 1 secondary quantitative analysis. The studies were also heterogeneous in terms of the patient and control populations, psychological interventions, and neuroimaging methodologies used. The findings from these few studies suggest that psychological interventions in oncology patients may modulate both cortical and subcortical brain activity, consistent with the brain areas involved in distress reactions in general and to cancer specifically. The implications of this scoping review in terms of future research are also discussed. CONCLUSIONS: The literature on the neural correlates of psychological interventions in cancer patients is very limited, and thus requires further exploration. The provision of psychological interventions offers cancer patients a more integrated approach to care, which may in turn help preserve both the physical and the psychological wellbeing of individuals with cancer.

The emotional side of post-traumatic stress reaction during COVID-19 pandemic: an Italian survey.

BACKGROUND: Social restrictions due to COVID-19 might have had a significant impact on mental health. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of four emotional domains (nervousness, anger, numbness, physiological arousal) in a sample of citizens during the first pandemic wave in 2020, and their association with sociodemographic characteristics, housing conditions and lifestyle modifications. METHODS: A cross-sectional study based on a self-administered online questionnaire was set up to investigate emotions. Respondents were recruited through a non-probabilistic snowball sampling approach. The SPAN questionnaire was used to measure emotions in the interviewed population. The association between emotions and independent variables (gender, age, marital status, educational level, working condition, housing condition, COVID-19 positivity, sleep disturbance, increase in alcohol consumption and decrease in physical activity) was assessed through the multivariate Poisson regression. RESULTS: A total of 6,675 subjects were included in the analysis. Almost half of respondents (48.9%) experienced nervousness, 41.3% anger, 15.6% numbness and 18.8% physiological arousal. Females were more likely to face nervousness, anger and physiological arousal. For all the outcomes a decreasing trend was observed from younger to older. Singles were more likely to experience numbness compared to married people. Increase in alcohol consumption was associated with nervousness, anger and numbness. Decrease in physical activity was associated with nervousness, anger and physiological arousal. Restless sleep was the variable most associated with all emotional domains. CONCLUSIONS: The first COVID-19 pandemic wave had a significant emotional impact on this sample, especially among younger people, singles and females. Even without reaching clinical relevance, these emotions could represent a form of psychological distress, which requires the implementation of preventive strategies, in particular regarding lifestyle care.