SAFA: A new measure to evaluate psychiatric symptoms detected in a sample of children and adolescents affected by eating disorders. Correlations with risk factors

Franzoni, Emilio; Monti, Maria Giuseppina; Pellicciari, Alessandro; Muratore, C.; Verrotti, Alberto; Garone, Caterina; Cecconi, I; Iero, Luisa; Gualandi, Stefano; Savarino, F.; Gualandi, Paola

doi:10.2147/ndt.s4874

Cited by 31 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…The SAFA battery was validated. It showed good psychometric properties (Cianchetti and Sannio Fascello, 2001;Franzoni et al, 2009;Pellicciari et al, 2012). In our study, the Cronbach's test showed α values of 0.84 for answers to SAFA anxiety questions and of 0.77 for SAFA depression.…”

Section: Anxiety and Depressive Symptomssupporting

confidence: 54%

Anxiety, Depression, and Body Weight in Children and Adolescents With Migraine

et al. 2020

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Background: There is a lack of studies that explore the possible association between body weight, psychological symptoms, and migraine severity in pediatric populations. The purpose of the study was to explore: (1) the association between body weight and the frequency of migraine attacks, (2) the possible differences in anxiety and depression symptoms according to the frequency of attacks and body weight, and (3) the possible mediating role of anxiety and/or depression in the association between body weight and frequency of migraine attacks in children. Methods: One hundred and eleven children/adolescents with migraine were included (47 boys and 64 girls; mean age 11.7; ±2.4 years). The patients were classified as: (1) high frequency patients, reporting from weekly to daily episodes and (2) low frequency patients, with ≤3 episodes per month. According to their body mass index percentiles, the patients were divided in "Normal weight" (from ≥5 to <85 percentile), "Overweight" (from ≥85 to <95 percentile), and "Obese" (≥95 percentile). Given the low number of obese patients, the overweight and obese groups were considered together in the "Overweight" group. Anxiety and depression symptoms were assessed by the Self-Administered Psychiatric Scales for Children and Adolescents (SAFA). Results: Fifty-four patients were normal in weight (49.6%), while 56 patients (50.4%) were overweight. The overweight patients showed a higher frequency of migraine attacks (64.7%; p < 0.05). Patients with a high frequency of attacks reported higher scores in all SAFA-Anxiety subscales (SAFA-A Tot: F = 15.107; p = 0.000). Overweight patients showed a significantly higher score in the "Separation anxiety" subscale (F = 7.855; p = 0.006). We found a mediating role between the overweight and high frequency for total anxiety (z = 2.11 ± 0.03; p < 0.05) and social anxiety (z = 2.04 ± 0.03; p < 0.05). Conclusions: Our results suggest that, among the children suffering from migraine, the overweight status is associated with a higher frequency of attacks and separation anxiety symptoms. In particular, our study provides the first evidence of the role of anxiety in linking overweight and the frequency of migraine attacks in children and adolescents.

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Section: Anxiety and Depressive Symptomssupporting

confidence: 54%

Anxiety, Depression, and Body Weight in Children and Adolescents With Migraine

et al. 2020

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“…Anxiety was measured using the Self-Administered Psychiatric Scales for Children and Adolescents (SAFA) battery [ 21 – 24 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of attachment insecurity in the emergence of anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents with migraine: an empirical study

et al. 2017

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BackgroundIt is widely recognised that there are associations between headache, psychiatric comorbidity and attachment insecurity in both adults and children. The aims of this study were: 1) to compare perceived attachment security and anxiety in children and adolescents with migraine without aura and a healthy control group; 2) to test whether the child’s perceived security of attachment to the mother and the father mediated the association between migraine and anxiety.MethodsOne hundred children and adolescents with Migraine without Aura were compared with a control group of 100 children without headache. The Security Scale (measures perceived security of attachments) and the Self-Administered Psychiatric Scales for Children and Adolescents, a measure of anxiety symptoms, were administered to all participants.ResultsThe clinical group had lower attachment security than the control group and higher scores on all anxiety scales. Anxiety was negatively correlated with attachment. Children’s attachment to their mother mediated the increase in global anxiety in the clinical group. Insecure paternal attachment was associated with greater insecurity in maternal attachment, suggesting that there is a complex pathway from migraine to anxiety symptoms mediated by perceived insecurity of paternal attachment and hence also by perceived insecurity of maternal attachment.ConclusionThese results suggest that insecure parental attachment may exacerbate anxiety in children and adolescents with migraine and point to the importance of multimodal interventions, perhaps taking account of family relationships, for children and adolescents with migraine.

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“…SAFA is a self-reporting questionnaire for investigating the specific components of anxious, depressive and somatic symptoms. Many Italian studies have used these scales to assess different symptomatology associated with disorders like Tourette Syndrome, eating disorders or learning disabilities (Franzoni et al, 2009;Termine et al, 2011;Nacinovich et al, 2012;Pellicciari et al, 2012;Mammarella et al, 2014). The SAFA scales measure: Anxiety (SAFA-A), Depression (SAFA-D), Obsessive-Compulsive symptoms (SAFA-O), Psychogenic eating disorders (SAFA-P), Somatic Symptoms and Hypochondria (SAFA-S) and Phobias (SAFA-F).…”

Section: Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Internalizing Symptoms in Developmental Dyslexia: A Comparison Between Primary and Secondary School

et al. 2020

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Although the relationship between developmental dyslexia (DD) and the risk of occurrence of internalizing symptomatology has been widely investigated in the extant literature, different findings have been reported. In this study, two experiments with two general purposes are presented. The first study investigates whether the differences in the severity of internalizing symptoms between DD and controls are greater in students attending secondary school than in those attending primary school. Sixtyfive DD and 169 controls attending primary and secondary school took part in the first study. The diagnosis of dyslexia was obtained from standardized reading tests; internalizing symptom severity was assessed with the Self Administrated Psychiatric Scales for Children and Adolescents questionnaire. The results showed that adolescents with dyslexia had an increased level of self-perceived anxiety, depression and somatic symptoms, whereas no significant differences between DD and controls emerged in childhood. In the second study, a cohort of adolescents attending secondary school (DD = 44; controls = 51) was closely analyzed to clarify whether contextual and subjective factors could contribute toward exacerbating the risk of internalizing symptomatology at that age. Internalizing symptom severity was assessed with the Child Behavior Checklist, Youth Self Report questionnaire, decision-making factors were measured with the Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire, and student's quality of life was gaged using the Clipper test. The results showed that high levels of internalizing symptoms in DD were associated with a low level of self-esteem and the tendency to react to problematic situations with hyperactivation. By contrast, positive relationships with peers were associated with low symptom severity. In conclusion, the intensified internalizing symptoms that could emerge in adolescents in association with the presence of dyslexia are predicted by social protective and risk factors that are associated with symptom severity. Accordingly, the results suggest that remediation programs for dyslexia should include implementing motivation strategies, self-esteem enhancement activities and building peers networks that, starting in childhood, can prevent the appearance of internalizing symptoms.

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SAFA: A new measure to evaluate psychiatric symptoms detected in a sample of children and adolescents affected by eating disorders. Correlations with risk factors

Cited by 31 publications

References 14 publications

Anxiety, Depression, and Body Weight in Children and Adolescents With Migraine

Anxiety, Depression, and Body Weight in Children and Adolescents With Migraine

The role of attachment insecurity in the emergence of anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents with migraine: an empirical study

Internalizing Symptoms in Developmental Dyslexia: A Comparison Between Primary and Secondary School

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