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Introduction: The transition from childhood to adulthood is one of the main critical points in the network of services for taking care of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Within the framework of the national research programs on autism, an exploratory longitudinal multicentre study was conducted. This research program, called "Ev.A Project (Developmental and Adult Age)", was proposed by the Italian National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità, ISS) and the aim was the development and testing of a diagnostic, therapeutic, assistance and educational pathway (PDTAE) for autism., Aim: The present study aimed to evaluate two impact outcomes of the care protocol: the response obtained by the ASD person, and the perception of the change in the family context., Methods: Participants underwent an initial clinical evaluation and then after one year. Over the course of the year, participants undertook a program of intervention. The measures of adaptive functioning, need for support, psychiatric symptomatology and family quality of life were used for the outcome assessment. Linear mixed models were constructed for each measure to estimate the explanatory/predictive behavior of the intensity of the interventions, adjusted for the participant's level of symptom severity., Results: The results estimate a main effect of Intervention Group (b=-27.22, p<0.001) and severity level (b=-41.87, p<0.001) on the adaptive functioning of the ASD person, but no effect on performance on the dimension of Family Quality of Life (b=0.523, p=0.455)., Conclusions: The most significant predictor of the impact on the ASD person is the activation of the service network, which must take into account the level of severity of the presented symptoms.

Introduction: Aim of this study was to implement and validate the Italian version of the Screening Questionnaire for Disaster Mental Health (SQD), a tool for the screening of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression in the long-term aftermaths of a natural disaster., Methods: A convenience sample of 116 subjects living in L'Aquila after the 2009 earthquake were administered the SQD and two gold-standard instruments for PTSD and depression. Reliability, concurrent validity and convergent validity of SQD were estimated., Results: Cronbach's alpha was 0.86. Concurrent validity as measured by the Spearman correlation coefficient resulted statistically significant both for PTSD and depression SQD subscales, as well as convergent validity as measured by ROC-AUC method., Conclusions: SQD is a valid, efficient and easy-to-use screening instrument for PTSD and depression after natural disasters.

Introduction: In the present work we describe the mental health condition of L'Aquila population in the aftermath of the earthquake in terms of structural, process and outcome perspectives., Method: Literature revision of the published reports on the L'Aquila earthquake has been performed., Results: Although important psychological distress has been reported by the population, capacity of resilience can be observed. However if resilient mechanisms intervened in immediate aftermath of the earthquake, important dangers are conceivable in the current medium-long-term perspective due to the long-lasting alterations of day-to-day life and the disruption of social networks that can be well associated with mental health problems., Conclusions: In a condition such as an earthquake, the immediate physical, medical, and emergency rescue needs must be addressed initially. However training first responders to identify psychological distress symptoms would be important for mental health triage in the field.

Damage to health associated with emissions from coal power stations can vary greatly from one location to another depending on the size of the plant, location and the characteristics of the population. Population-based studies conducted by independent groups in different locations around the world show effects on health in populations at higher risk, but failed to definitely demonstrate direct effects on morbidity and mortality, to be exclusively attributed to the presence of active power stations. However, evidence on the role of micropollutants from power station activities suggests that a complete and thorough analysis should be made on the environmental cycle. Therefore danger should in any case be assessed as carefully as possible while assuming, at most, that all micropollutants may come into direct contact with man through the various potential pathways throughout their entire lifetime, regardless of the factors that reduce their presence.