Background: The nosology of the psychosis high-risk state is controversial. Traditionally conceived as an ‘at risk’ state for the development of psychotic disorders, it is also conceptualised as a clinical syndrome associated with functional impairment.Aims: To investigate meta-analytically the functional status of patients at high clinical risk for psychosis and its association with longitudinal outcomes.Method: Three meta-analyses compared level of functioning (n = 3012) and quality of life (QoL) (n = 945) between a high-risk group, a healthy control group and group with psychosis, and baseline functioning in people in the high-risk group who did or did not have a transition to psychosis at follow-up (n = 654).Results: People at high risk had a large impairment in functioning (P<0.001) and worse QoL (P = 0.001) than the healthy control group, but only small to moderately better functioning (P = 0.012) and similar QoL (P = 0.958) compared with the psychosis group. Among the high-risk group, those who did not develop psychosis reported better functioning (P = 0.001) than those who did.Conclusions: Our results indicate that the high-risk state is characterised by consistent and large impairments of functioning and reduction in QoL similar to those in other coded psychiatric disorders.

A large array of studies have investigated peripheral oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (ADH) as potential biomarkers of psychiatric disorders, with highly conflicting and heterogenous findings. We searched Web of KnowledgeSM and Scopus® for English original articles investigating OT and/or ADH levels in different biological fluids (plasma/serum, saliva, urine and cerebrospinal fluid) across several psychiatric disorders. Sixty-four studies were included. We conducted 19 preliminary meta-analyses addressing OT alterations in plasma/serum, saliva, urine and cerebrospinal fluid of 7 psychiatric disorders and ADH alterations in plasma/serum, saliva, urine and cerebrospinal fluid of 6 psychiatric disorders compared to controls. Hedge's g was used as effect size measure, together with heterogeneity analyses, test of publication biases and quality control. None of them (except serum OT in anorexia nervosa) revealed significant differences. There is no convincing evidence that peripheral ADH or OT might be reliable biomarkers in psychiatric disorders. However, the lack of significant results was associated with high methodological heterogeneity, low quality of the studies, small sample size, and scarce reliability of the methods used in previous studies, which need to be validated and standardized.

The study aimed at exploring gender and additional sociodemographic differences in psychological resilience, as well as the association between resilience and psychological distress in older adults, during the first lockdown in Italy, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants attended an online survey during the first lockdown in May 2020. Psychological distress was assessed through the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21, the Resilience Scale (RS) was administered to evaluate psychological resilience, and sociodemographic variables were also collected. The study involved 108 community older adults (mean age 70.02 ± 3.5 years). Comparisons revealed that women reported significantly lower total scores of RS (p = 0.027), as well as lower levels of resilience-related domains, namely Meaningfulness (p = 0.049), Self-Reliance (p = 0.011), Perseverance (p = 0.035), and Existential Aloneness (p = 0.014), compared to men. Significantly higher RS scores were found in older adults being involved in a relationship, compared to those not involved in relationships (p = 0.026), and in older adults with children (p = 0.015), compared to those without offspring, suggesting the importance for older adults of not dealing alone with such a dramatic and stressful event, such as the pandemic. Negative correlations were found between psychological resilience and stress, depression, and anxiety. Linear regressions revealed that lower RS total scores, as well as lower scores in the majority of the RS scales, were associated with greater levels of stress, greater levels of anxiety, and greater levels of depressive symptoms. This study suggested that older women might appear more vulnerable in facing the pandemic, compared to men; having not lived alone through the lockdown period might also be considered as a factor of resilience for older adults.

The purpose of this systematic review was to assess the types of emotion regulation (ER) strategies used and difficulties in emotion regulation experienced by older adults, within the theoretical f...

The COVID-19 outbreak had a negative impact on psychological status among elderly subjects, negatively affecting their health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Psychological factors that promote resilience might beneficially contribute also to promoting a better HRQoL among elderly subjects. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the contribution of dispositional optimism and expressive flexibility on the HRQoL of elderly outpatients during the COVID-19 outbreak. The outpatients were recruited from October 2018 to October 2019, and then followed-up during April 2020, by evaluating their HRQoL. The baseline sample consisted of 141 elderly outpatients (mean age 80.31 ± 6.84 years); the final number of outpatients included in the follow-up evaluation was 104 (mean age 80.26 ± 6.39). Univariate and multivariate linear regressions were developed to explore significant associations with the physical and mental component of HRQoL. Baseline dispositional optimism was a predictor of the mental component of HRQoL at follow-up; the flexible suppression of emotional expression was a predictor of the physical component of HRQoL at follow-up. From a psychogeriatric perspective, the accurate assessment of psychological factors, such as dispositional optimism and expressive flexibility, might help physicians and psychologists to recognize additional patients’ vulnerabilities during the current emergency.