Emergency situations have been associated with negative psychological adjustment outcomes in healthcare professionals, although studies on the impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic amongst Italian health workers are limited. The main aim of this study was to investigate the psychological adjustment of healthcare professionals during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, evaluating differences according to working or not with patients affected by COVID-19 and in areas with a more severe spread of this pandemic. Healthcare professionals’ attitudes toward psychological support were analyzed. The levels of anxiety, depression, psychological stress, and professional quality of life (compassion satisfaction, burnout, and compassion fatigue) and attitudes toward psychological support were measured among 627 Italian healthcare workers (mean age = 40.55 years; SD = 11.49; range: 27–72). Significantly higher levels of stress, burnout, secondary trauma, anxiety, and depression were observed among professionals working with COVID-19 patients. Higher levels of stress and burnout and lower levels of compassion satisfaction were detected in professionals working in areas with higher rates of contagion. No interaction effects were found between working (or not) with patients affected by COVID-19 and working (or not) in areas with a more severe diffusion of this pandemic. Finally, in the group of professionals who worked with COVID-19 patients, the percentage of professionals who thought to ask for psychological support was twice that of the group that did not work with COVID-19 patients. The overall findings indicate that the mental health of frontline healthcare workers requires further consideration and that targeted prevention and intervention programs are necessary.

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) linked to 5q is a recessive motor neuron disease characterized by progressive and diffuse weakness and muscular atrophy. SMA is the most common neurodegenerative disease in childhood with an incidence of approximately 1 in 6000–10,000 live births, being long considered a leading cause of hereditary mortality in infancy, worldwide. The classification of SMA is based on the natural history of the disease, with a wide clinical spectrum of onset and severity. We are currently in a new therapeutic era, that, thanks to the widespread use of the newly approved disease-modifying therapies and the possibility of an early administration, should lead to a deep change in the clinical scenario and, thus, in the history of SMA. With the aim to achieve a new view of SMA, in this review we consider different aspects of this neuromuscular disease: the historical perspective, the clinical features, the diagnostic process, the psychological outcome, innovation in treatments and therapies, the possibility of an early identification of affected infants in the pre-symptomatic phase through newborn screening programs.

The current study aimed at investigating the perceived impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Italian individuals with a preexisting medical condition. Specifically, the study analyzed: (a) if different conditions were associated with different levels of distress, different levels of worry, and different emotion regulation strategies (i.e., cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression); and (b) if distress levels were associated with levels of worry about COVID-19, emotion regulation strategies, and changes to medical treatment due to the pandemic. This cross-sectional study involved 124 individuals (79.8% female; mean age = 48.88 years; SD = 14.95) with a diagnosis of chronic disease. The questionnaires, administered during the peak of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy (April-May 2020), comprised the Perceived Stress Scale, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, a COVID-19 worry questionnaire, and a questionnaire designed to collect anamnestic and sociodemographic data. Higher levels of expressive suppression and worries related to COVID-19, and changes to medical treatment due to the pandemic, were associated with higher perceived stress in patients with a preexisting chronic disease. No differences emerged in the study variables according to the type of chronic disease. The results highlight the importance of considering expressive suppression, levels of worry about COVID-19, and changes to scheduled medical treatment. Screening procedures based on these factors may be useful for identifying individuals with a preexisting medical condition at higher risk of distress, in order to offer them specific and remotely delivered psychological support. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).