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Introduction. World Health Organization describes “long COVID” as a syndrome that occurs within 3 months from the beginning of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The symptoms, which last for at least 2 months, may be episodic, even recurrent, or lasting. The clinical manifestations of long COVID are heterogeneous (fatigue, difficulty breathing, myalgias, joint pain, etc). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the presence and intensity of psychological symptoms in a population of patients who have recovered from COVID. Methods and materials. In 2020, at the Respiratory Rehabilitation and Tisiopneumological Prevention Unit of ASL Umbria 1 Perugia, a clinical and functional evaluation pathway was activated for individuals who had recovered from COVID, at least one month after the molecular test turned negative, but continued to complain symptoms consistent with long COVID. The psychological assessment was conducted through clinical interviews, supplemented by the administering of three questionnaires: GAD-7, PHQ-9, IES-R. Results. Between June 2020 and December 2021, 152 people were evaluated, whom 73% had required hospitalization for COVID. Processing of the results of the questionnaires showed that: 53% of patients had anxious symptoms, 47% had depressive symptomatology, and 20% of patients had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Conclusions. The observed psychological symptoms encountered were correlated with SARS-CoV-2 infection, which is in line with the existing literature. In our study, hospitalization, as an expression of a more severe form of the disease, was not associated with an increased risk of developing psychological symptoms. Conversely, the most significant psychological discomfort emerged in subjects who had experienced a slighter form of the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of the study is to refine the decision criteria for the interpretation of the CBA 2.0 Primary Scales Battery and to develop algorithms for the identification of depressive problems. Another objective of the study is to verify whether there are significant differences between the scores on the different primary indexes of the CBA-2.0 Battery Scales of the normative sample and clinical samples that are homogeneous for diagnostic classification. For this purpose, 53 subjects with major depressive disorder (F32.0), 30 with persistent depressive disorder (F34.1), 268 patients with other disorders (anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and trauma) and 90 healthy subjects were recruited. The statistical analyses showed that the average of the scores of the clinical groups, considered together, is significantly higher than the normative sample for the STAI-X1, STAI- X2, EPQ / RN, QPF / R, IP-2, QD, MOCQ / R-3 and STAI-X1-R indices and that depressed patients show, compared to other clinical groups, higher QD values and significantly lower EPQ / RE, QPF / R and IP-4 values. Therefore, the ability of the QD-Depression Questionnaire to discriminate not only between patients with depressive disorders and normal subjects but also between depressed patients and those with other forms of psychopathology is confirmed. The sensitivity and specificity analysis suggests lowering the alarm cut-offs: a raw total score of 10 for males and a raw total score of 13 for females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the indications of good clinical practice for the treatment of depression on the basis of the latest update of the guidelines of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and of the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT), documents that are a benchmark worldwide. Therefore, they will be used to draw indications for the Italian context. We will focus on the role played by cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), in its various forms, in the treatment of depression at different levels of severity, compared to other treatments and in different phases of treatment. We will define depression, its different levels of severity, and the various forms of CBT considered. We will then describe the methods used to select a particular intervention, not necessarily psychological, depending on the severity of depression or other factors such as cost-benefit to the health system or patient preference. Below we will describe the scientific data on the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioural interventions compared with others, and recommendations for each level of severity or phase of treatment. We will conclude that the effectiveness of CBT for depression is well established and is often one of the first interventions suggested for this framework. The milder the framework, the more CBT is recommended; the more the framework worsens, or it is in the acute phase, the more it is suggested to be combined with other treatments. Finally, we will reflect on ideas for adapting methods and procedures to the Italian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Veterinary students suffer from increased psychological stress compared to the general public and are increasingly affected by manifest mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders, as well as an increased prevalence of suicidal thoughts. Additionally, veterinary students tend to ignore signs of mental distress and do not seek support for their mental health issues. This impaired mental health is also evident in fully trained veterinarians, who, among other things, have the highest suicide rates of all medical professions. In our survey, we examined a total of 428 veterinary students at the two veterinary faculties of the Universities of Zurich and Bern. The survey was carried out across all six years of the curriculum as a cross-sectional survey using standardized questionnaires on resilience, sense of coherence and depression. In all years, the students showed increased levels of depression compared to the general public, and the salutogenic parameters of resilience and sense of coherence were also reduced. The constellation with increased depression, reduced resilience and reduced sense of coherence was particularly accentuated in the second and third year. The increased affective stress on students presents itself as a consistent condition, which - if you look at studies on fully trained veterinarians - continues into their working life together with a reduced ability to cope. The low number of participants in the higher years of study and the high number of female study participants could limit the generalizability of the results. In addition, the data was collected in spring 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have influenced the results. Active counteracting, for example by integrating the teaching of protective behavior such as mindful self-compassion and resource-oriented behavior such as mind-body techniques, therefore appears to be recommended in the veterinary training curriculum from the first semester onwards. Various measures to support students have been introduced since 2021, such as events on learning strategies, a mentoring system and seminars on mental health.