Search

The Detachment and Compartmentalization Inventory (DCI) is a valid and reliable self-report instrument that assesses these two distinct forms of dissociative symptoms. However, there is limited research on the cross-cultural validation of the DCI. Therefore, this study aimed to develop an Italian translation of the DCI and examine its internal structure and psychometric properties (including internal consistency, convergent validity, and test-retest reliability) within an Italian-speaking community sample. The sample consisted of 1276 adults (887 females; mean age: 29.57 ± 10.96 years), who completed the DCI and other self-report measures evaluating dissociative experiences and childhood trauma. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the original two-factor model (χ2169 = 1312.80, RMSEA = 0.073, 95%CI 0.069–0.077; CFI = 0.94; TLI = 0.94; SRMR = 0.04). Additionally, the DCI exhibited good internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent validity with another measure of dissociation. The study also confirmed the association between DCI scores and the severity of childhood trauma. Finally, a Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis demonstrated that the DCI effectively distinguishes individuals who screened positively for dissociative disorders. Overall, these findings indicate that the Italian translation of the DCI possesses satisfactory psychometric properties, suggesting its utility as a screening tool for assessing detachment and compartmentalization experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Obsessive and compulsive symptoms (OCS) are cross-cutting psychopathological manifestations frequently detected in a variety of clinical and non-clinical samples. It has been suggested that impaired mentalization abilities and traumatic experiences during childhood may be relevant etiopathogenetic factors in the development of OCS. The purpose of the current study was to cross-sectionally assess these variables in a non-clinical sample, testing the mediational role of mentalization abilities in the association between childhood trauma (CT) and OCS. Method: 667 participants (488 females; mean age= 29.76 ± 11.87 years; age range: 18-80) answered a survey including the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, the Mentalization Questionnaire and the Obsession-Compulsion subscale of the Brief Symptom Inventory. Results: The mediation model was significant for the total effect (p< .001), showing that CT was positively associated with OCS (95% CI: .006; .019) and that this association was mediated by reduced levels of mentalization capacity (95% CI: .003; .009). Such results were significant controlling for potential sociodemographic and clinical confounding variables. Conclusions: The findings contribute to elucidate the complex relationships between CT, mentalization capacity, and OCS, supporting the possibility that mentalization impairments, arising from CT, may affect top-down control mechanisms thus contributing to the development of OCS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite its high prevalence in all psychiatric disorders and its widely demonstrated clinical relevance as a marker of both clinical severity and poorer treatment response, a scientifically validated definition of dissociation remains controversial, and the understanding of its pathogenesis is still somewhat lacking. Furthermore, although most clinicians commonly refer to dissociation as a single unitary concept, the empirical evidence strongly supports the paucity of a one-dimensional approach to dissociation. Summary: Resonating with the clinical and neuroscientific data on this topic, this article aimed to provide a working hypothesis, suggesting that the wide variety of psychopathological phenomena that are currently improperly lumped into the category of dissociation are in fact produced by at least three different pathogenic processes involved in developmental trauma, namely, traumatic disintegration, detachment responses, and dissociation. Key Messages: This hypothesis should, therefore, be considered a starting point for a better understanding of the complex manifestations and processes that currently overly, attributed to dissociation per se. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formulation of precise guidelines for the treatment of dissociative disorders is hampered by the lack of an agreed definition of dissociation. On the contrary, there is unanimous agreement among experts that the term dissociation improperly groups together a vast and heterogeneous group of psychopathological manifestations sustained by different pathogenetic processes that spread throughout psychiatric clinical pictures, complicating their treatment. In view of this limitation, the review reports the guidelines for the treatment of certain dissociative manifestations of the Blue Knot Foundation (2020) of the Australian government’s Department of Health and the guidelines for the treatment of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DDI), the most severe dissociative disorder, drawn up by the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation – ISSTD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traumatic experiences, both episodic and ongoing over time, especially during development, can generate specific clinical pictures such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD), but also constitute a psychopathological dimension that spreads across all clinical pictures worsening their prognosis and treatment outcomes. The guidelines presented in this review were developed for the treatment of specific diagnostic categories. Specifically for PTSD by the American Psychiatric Association (APA; 2017), the British National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE; 2018), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Department of Defense (DoD) of the United States of America (VA/DoD; 2017). Regarding ASD, indications for the management of patients with this disorder can be found in the 2004 APA guidelines. The UK Psychological Trauma Society (2017), the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS; 2019), and NICE (2018) provide guidelines for cPTSD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Child maltreatment (CM) is a recognized public health problem, and epidemiologic data suggest that it is a widespread phenomenon, albeit with widely varying estimates. Indeed, CM as well as child abuse (CA) and neglect (CN) are complex phenomena that are difficult to study for several reasons, including terminological and definitional problems that pose a hurdle to estimating epidemiological rates. Therefore, the main aim of this umbrella review is to revise recent review data on the epidemiology of CM, CA, and CN. A second aim was to revise the definitions used. Method: A systematic search of three databases was performed in March 2022. Recent reviews (published in the last 5 years: 2017-March 2022) addressing the epidemiological rates of CM, CA, and/or CN were included. Results: Of the 314 documents retrieved by the selected search strategy, the eligibility assessment yielded a total of 29 eligible documents. Because of the great heterogeneity among them, a qualitative rather than a quantitative synthesis was performed. Conclusions: The data from this umbrella review show that the different age groups, methods, and instruments used in the literature to collect the data on the epidemiology of CM make it difficult to compare the results. Although definitions appear to be quite homogeneous, CM categorization varies widely across studies. Furthermore, this umbrella review shows that the CM reviews considered do not examine some particular forms of CM such as parental overprotection. The results are discussed in detail throughout the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]