An overview on Hebephrenia, a diagnostic cornerstone in the neurodevelopmental model of Schizophrenia.

Pre-Kraepelinian observations converged in Kahlbaum's and Hecker's description of Hebephrenia. For Kraepelin, Hebephrenia was an 'idiopathic incurable dementia whose onset is in adolescence'. It became the core of 'Dementia Praecox', and then Bleulerian 'Schizophrenia'. In recent decades, the resurgence of the 'late neurodevelopment' hypothesis of schizophrenia has brought into focus Hecker's clinical reports of adolescents who, as a result of a putative loss of psychic energy, showed a rapidly progressive cognitive impairment leading to functional and behavioural disorganization. This paper summarizes the nineteenth-century conceptualization of Hebephrenia as a developmental illness.

Unexpected subthreshold autism spectrum in a 25-year-old male stalker hospitalized for delusional disorder: a case report.

This paper highlights the clinical challenges faced when assessing patients with stalking behaviors with psychotic disorders, suggesting the need for an accurate assessment of adult autism spectrum symptoms. A 25-year-old man with a diagnosis of delusional disorder, erotomanic type, was hospitalized for acute psychotic symptoms occurred in the framework of a repeated stalking behavior towards his ex girlfriend. When assessed for adult autism spectrum symptoms upon an accurate clinical evaluation, he reported elevated scores in the mentalizing deficit and social anxiety domains by means of the 14 item Ritvo Autism and Asperger Diagnostic Scale (RAADS-14). Authors discuss a possible role of adult (subthreshold) autism spectrum symptoms, generally disregarded in adult psychiatry, on the type of psychotic features and stalking behavior developed that may help for appropriate diagnosis and treatment.

[Complicated Grief in DSM-5 era]. / Il lutto complicato nell'era del DSM-5.

An increasing number of data has been recently focused on recognizing pathological grief reactions and on the distinction from physiological processes. Particularly, several studies have supported Complicated Grief (CG) as an independent disorder, in order to define the failure of spontaneous physiological mourning resolution. Upon these studies, the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) with the name of "Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder". This article aims at retracing the history of clinical research about the physiological and psychopathological processes related to grief and aims at presenting the main scientific studies that have described the features of the CG defining it as a distinct disorder. Similarities and distinctions among CG and Depression, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Adjustment Disorder were also reported.