COVID-19 is continuing to spread around the world, having a direct impact on people’s daily lives and health. Although the knowledge of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in the general population is now well established, there is less information on its effect on specific and vulnerable populations, such as children with chronic illness (CI). We conducted a multi-centered cross-sectional study among pediatric patients in six public children’s hospitals in Italy during the first lockdown, with the aim of assessing the proportion of children with CI presenting anxiety and depressive symptoms, and the clinical and demographic characteristics affecting such symptomatology. We included children with at least one chronic condition, with no cognitive delay, aged between 11 and 18 years. Brief standardized questionnaires were administered during medical scheduled visits to screen anxiety and depressive symptoms. We found a very high proportion of children showing mild to severe depressive and anxiety symptomatology (approximately 68% and 63%, respectively). Our results highlight the need of ensuring tailored psychological interventions to protect children with CI from the effect of the pandemic (and related restrictive measures such as quarantine and social distancing), with the final aim of promoting mental health and psychological well-being in this vulnerable population.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to explore the psychological impact of COVID-19 outbreak, during the so-called phase three of the infection in Italy, in healthcare workers and other professionals working in the Public Hospital “SS Antonio e Biagio e Cesare Arrigo” in the Piedmont Region.Methods: A monocentric prospective observational study was conducted on 113 hospital workers by completing an online survey. Data were collected from 29th June to 20th July 2020. The survey assessed self-reported socio-demographic, clinical, work and COVID-19 related information and risk perception. Moreover, it included an online version of validated questionnaires in the Italian language: Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), Coping Orientation to the Problems Experienced: COPE-NVI-25, and the Professional Quality of Life scale (ProQOl-5).Results: The exploratory analysis revealed that hospital workers showed a high percentage of post-traumatic stress symptoms in the months following the beginning of the pandemic. In general, having higher levels of education seems to be associated with less anxiety, stress, depression insomnia e post-traumatic stress symptoms. Those symptoms were reported among those who had higher risk perception, previous psychological problems, or suffered from a chronic disease. Workers with more than 10 years experience and low risk perception reported less insomnia symptoms.Conclusions: The assessment of psychological effects of COVID-19 outbreak might help to create good practices that could be used and improved to implement focused interventions on workers’ well-being, especially during COVID-19 and post COVID-19 periods.

Obiettivi: Lo scopo del presente lavoro è stato quello di esplorare l’impatto psicologico a lungo termine della pandemia da COVID-19 negli operatori sanitari e in altri professionisti che lavorano presso l’Azienza Ospedaliera “SS Antonio e Biagio, e Cesare Arrigo” di Alessandria. Materiali e Metodi: È stato condotto uno studio osservazionale prospettico monocentrico su 112 operatori dell’Azienda Ospedaliera attraverso la somministrazione di un questionario on-line. I dati sono stati raccolti a tra l’1 e il 30 aprile 2021. Il questionario comprendeva un’autovalutazione delle informazioni socio-demografiche, cliniche, lavorative e relative al COVID-19 e la percezione del rischio. Inoltre, includeva la versione on-line di questionari psicologici validati in lingua italiana: Scala dell’impatto dell’Evento-Rivista (IES-R), Scala di Depressione, Ansia e Stress (DASS-21), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), Coping Orientation to the Problems Experienced - Nuova Versione Italiana (COPE-NVI- 25), e Scala della Qualità di Vita Professionale (ProQOL-5). Risultati: L’analisi dei dati mostra che i lavoratori dell’Azienda Ospedaliera partecipanti allo studio, presentano percentuali moderate di sintomatologia da stress post-traumatico (40,2%), depressiva (40.2%), ansiosa (28.6%), da stress (44.6%) e insonnia (16.1%). La categoria dei lavoratori in ambito amministrativo mostra maggiori sintomi ansiosi e di stress post-traumatico. Le strategie di coping maggiormente utilizzate nel nostro campione sono l’attitudine positiva, l’orientamento al problema e il sostegno sociale. Il sottogruppo di lavoratori a diretto contatto con i pazienti mostra livelli moderati di compassion-satisfaction e bassi livelli di stress traumatico secondario e burn-out. Conclusioni: Dai risultati del presente lavoro si è osservato che gli effetti negativi a livello psicologico si possono mantenere anche nel lungo termine dall’insorgenza della pandemia.

Le conseguenze a livello cognitivo, psicologico, comportamentale e sociale dell’epilessia in età evolutiva hanno un ruolo importante nell’inquadramento diagnostico, nel monitoraggio e nella predisposizione di interventi successivi. Nel presente lavoro viene effettuata una panoramica delle principali caratteristiche cognitive e psicologiche dei bambini e adolescenti con epilessia, con particolare riferimento alla valutazione neuropsicologica e psico-comportamentale effettuata presso l’SSD di Psicologia di questa Azienda Ospedaliera. Tale lavoro si inserisce all’interno di un continuum, con un richiamo alle radici scientifiche e cliniche da cui il gruppo di lavoro ha preso l’avvio, verso prospettive future di assessment e intervento, con denominatore comune il concetto di una presa in carico globale del soggetto e della sua famiglia.

Background We aimed to evaluate the degree of realism and involvement, stress management and awareness of performance improvement in practitioners taking part in high fidelity simulation (HFS) training program for delivery room (DR) management, by means of a self-report test such as flow state scale (FSS). Methods This is an observational pretest-test study. Between March 2016 and May 2019, fourty-three practitioners (physicians, midwives, nurses) grouped in multidisciplinary teams were admitted to our training High Fidelity Simulation center. In a time-period of 1 month, practitioners attended two HFS courses (model 1, 2) focusing on DR management and resuscitation maneuvers. FSS test was administred at the end of M1 and M2 course, respectively. Results FSS scale items such as unambiguous feed-back, loss of self consciousness and loss of time reality, merging of action and awareness significantly improved (P < 0.05, for all) between M1 and M2. Conclusions The present results showing the high level of practitioner involvement during DR management-based HFS courses support the usefulness of HFS as a trustworthy tool for improving the awareness of practitioner performances and feed-back. The data open the way to the usefulness of FSS as a trustworthy tool for the evaluation of the efficacy of training programs in a multidisciplinary team.