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Aims: To explore: a) the burden of care, and the professional and social support in relatives of patients with bipolar disorders; b) the psychosocial interventions provided to patients and their families by Italian mental health centres., Methods: 342 outpatients with a bipolar disorder and their key-relatives were randomly recruited in 26 Italian mental health centres, randomly selected and stratified by geographical area and population density. Family burden was explored in relation to: a) patient's clinical status and disability; b) relatives' social and professional support; c) interventions received by patients and their families; d) geographical area., Results: In the previous two months, global functioning was moderately impaired in 36% of the patients, and severely impaired in 34% of them. Twenty-one percent of patients attended a rehabilitative programme, and 3% of their families received a psychoeducational intervention. Burden was higher when patient's symptoms and disability were more severe, the relatives had poorer psychological support and help in emergencies by the social network, and the family lived in Southern Italy. Differences in family burden in relation to geographical area disappeared when psychosocial interventions were provided., Conclusion: This study highlights the need to increase the availability of rehabilitative interventions for patients with bipolar disorders and of psychological support for their families, especially in Southern Italy.

Objective: This study explored the effectiveness of a psychoeducational family intervention for schizophrenia on patients' clinical status and disability and relatives' burden and perceived support., Methods: The study has been carried out in 17 mental health centres. In each of them, 2 professionals were trained in a psychoeducational intervention and applied it for six months with families of users with schizophrenia. At baseline and six months later, patients' clinical status and disability, and relatives' burden, social network and professional support were assessed by validated tools., Results: Of the seventy-one recruited families, 48 (68%) completed the intervention. At six months, a significant improvement was found in patients' clinical status and social functioning, as well as in relatives' burden and social and professional support. In particular, the percentage of patients with poor or very poor global social functioning dropped from 50% to 27% at six months. Forty percent of patients and 45% of relatives reported a significant improvement in their social contacts over the intervention period., Conclusions: The results of this study confirm the hypothesis that psychoeducational family interventions may have a significant effect on social outcome and family burden in schizophrenia when provided in routine conditions.

Aims: This study aims to explore: a) the feasibility of psycho-educational interventions for families of users with schizophrenia in clinical practice by trained staff; b) the benefits and problems encountered by professionals in the use of these interventions., Methods: 46 professionals from 23 Italian Mental Health Services (MHS) attended at a three-module training course in psycho-educational interventions and four supervisions in the subsequent year. Following the course, participants provided the intervention to families of users with schizophrenia. The difficulties and benefits encountered by trainees to use the intervention were registered on the Famnily Intervention Schedule., Results: 83% of the participants completed the training course. Following the course, the intervention started in 71 families from 17 MHS. 76% of trainees provided the intervention to 2-5 families, while 13% of them only held informative sessions on schizophrenia. During the supervision period, the organisational difficulties experienced by the professionals were stable, while the benefits increased. Differences in benefits and difficulties were detected in relation to the trainees' experience and professional roles., Conclusions: It is possible to introduce psycho-educational interventions in MHS after a relatively brief period of training and supervision of the staff. Organisational difficulties need to be addressed to increase the dissemination of these interventions on a large scale.

This work was aimed at evaluating the effect of the addition of monoacylglycerols (MAG) with different fatty acid composition, thus obtained from different vegetable oils such as olive (OO), soybean (SO), and palm (PO). MAG were added in the purified olive oil at different concentrations (5, 15, and 30 mg/g) and consequently the oxidative process was monitored. For this purpose, the purified oil added with MAG was subjected to oven test for 28 days, during which the multiparametric analysis of oxidation was carried out: peroxide value, spectrophotometric constants (K , K ), oxidized triacylglycerol, and triacylglycerol 270 232 oligopolymers. Our results showed that both OO and SO MAG significantly slowed the oxidative processes after 15 days, in a dose-dependent manner. For PO MAG, on the other hand, although the dose dependent effect was less evident, an antioxidant effect was observed that was greater than that observed for the other MAG, already detectable in the early stages of oven test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of polar and non‐polar compounds recovered from oxidized corn oils on oxidative stability in bulk oils are evaluated in the presence or absence of an antioxidant, tert‐butylhydroquinone (TBHQ). The balance of antioxidant and prooxidant compounds in oils is confirmed using the 2,2‐diphenyl‐1‐picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) spectroscopic method. Polar compounds accelerated the depletion of headspace oxygen content and increased the conjugated dienoic acid value and p‐anisidine value in oils with or without 200 ppm TBHQ, which implies that polar compounds from oxidized lipids are prooxidants. However, added non‐polar compounds showed no prooxidative properties in oils, irrespective of the presence of TBHQ. The antioxidant‐prooxidant balance (APB) value, which is calculated as the ratio of the loss of DPPH in isooctane to that in methanol, may reflect the content balance between antioxidant and prooxidative oxidized lipid products in oils. Low APB values indicate that oils are in a highly oxidized state. Practical Applications: Polar compounds from oxidized oils act as prooxidants. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the polar content in frying oils accurately. Using modified DPPH methods, not only the content of antioxidants but also prooxidative polar compounds in oils can be determined simultaneously. Modified DPPH methods can predict the oxidative stability of frying oil and help to extend the shelf‐life of fried foods in the food industry. Polar compounds from oxidized oils function as prooxidants. Non‐polar compounds do not act as prooxidants nor antioxidants. Modified 2,2‐diphenyl‐1‐picrylhydrazyl methods can predict the oxidative stability of frying oil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work was to study the physical properties and oxidative stability of model olive oil-in-water (o/w) emulsions stabilised by β-lactoglobulin (BLG), enriched with olive phenolic compounds, namely oleuropein, tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol, and added with maltodextrins (MD 7.5-9.9) in different concentrations to modify the viscosity of the continuous water phase. Emulsions were characterized for their viscosity, droplet size distribution, microstructure and interfacial protein coverage. The oxidative stability was monitored by means of hydroperoxides, hexanal and nonanal contents as indices of primary and secondary oxidation products, respectively. At high concentrations, MD increased significantly the viscosity of the emulsions; conversely, the addition of olive phenolic compounds did not show any significant effect on it. Both MD and phenolic compounds resulted to affect both the droplet size and the bigger to smaller particles ratio, with phenolic compounds generally improving the dispersion degree. A delay in the decomposition of hydroperoxides was observed as a consequence of MD addition, which also resulted to affect the efficiency of the phenolic compounds among the different systems. However, the highest protection towards oxidations was obtained when hydroxytyrosol was added. MD effect was related not only to the higher viscosity of the emulsions but also to complex interactions that occurred among the different components of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: The heterogeneity of schizophrenia psychopathology has led to a search for symptom clusters that could be related to broad features of the disease. The objectives of the study were to: (1) highlight the pattern of symptoms among Kuwaiti subjects with schizophrenia, using the ICD-10 symptom checklist; (2) assess the factor structure of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale 18 (BPRS-18) and BPRS-24, and (3) evaluate the relationship of the resulting factors with sociodemographic characteristics, age at onset of illness, family history of mental illness, objective indicators of quality of life, self-esteem, affect balance, family caregiver burden, patient's perceptions of service satisfaction and needs for care. Method: Consecutive outpatients in stable condition were assessed with the BPRS and ICD-10 symptom checklist, as well as measures of quality of life, needs for care, service satisfaction and family caregiver burden. Results: There were 130 patients (66.1% men, mean age = 36.8 years, age at onset of illness = 24.2 years, duration of illness = 12.9 years). Of the ICD-10 symptoms, the commonest positive symptoms were hallucinations (58.5%) and delusions (72%). Catatonic symptoms were rare (2.9%). About a quarter of the subjects experienced 4 of the negative symptoms. In exploratory factor analysis, we broadly replicated the known syndromes for BPRS-24 (disorganization, positive, activation, manic, negative and depression) and BPRS-18 (negative, positive, activation and affect). In regression analyses, the variables independently associated with psychopathology were family income, negative affect, self-esteem, duration of illness, age, lack of money for enjoyment, met needs for care and caregiver tension. The negative syndrome had more significant associations with the variables investigated than the positive syndrome. Psychopathological scores were separable from indices of psychological well-being. Conclusion: In this first study of schizophrenia psychopathology from the Arab world, the clinical manifestations were similar to the data from the developed countries. The persistence of psychotic symptoms despite freely available antipsychotic treatment and the impact on caregiver burden call for attention to the perennial issue of treatment resistance and underscore the need for continued interaction with family members after the acute inpatient phase of treatment, in order to address the impact of symptoms. Copyright © 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  The aim of the research was to evaluate the pro-oxidant action of oxidized triglyceride oliogopolymers, a class of oxidation compounds present in refined vegetable oils. Silica gel column chromatography was used to obtain the polar compounds from a thermally oxidized oil and preparative gel permeation chromatography to separate and collect the oxidized triglyceride oligopolymers. A purified oil that was practically free of oxidation and hydrolytic degradation products, pigments and anti-oxidants was prepared in the laboratory to evaluate pro-oxidant activity without interferences. Addition of percent amounts of oxidized triglyceride oligopolymers of 0.25 to 1.0% to both the purified and unpurified oils clearly evidenced the pro-oxidant activity of this class of compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]