Coronavirus 2019 pandemic lockdown in Italy lasted for 2 months, 1 week and 2 days. During this long period, one of the longest in Europe, the restrictions produced effects on people’s psychological well-being, with consequences that also continued after lockdown. The purpose of the study is to investigate these effects and how they changed in the general population over a period of time. We are also interested in exploring people’s post-lockdown anxiety and concerns. We conducted an online survey using snowball sampling techniques. The longitudinal study consisted of four administrations covering a period of 10 weeks between April (baseline) and June (last follow-up). Levels of anxiety and depression were assessed by GAD-7 and PHQ-9, coping strategies were assessed by Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS) and social support was assessed by MSPSS. Post-lockdown anxiety was explored by developing a set of ad-hoc questions. PCA was used to determine the principal categories of post-lockdown anxiety/concern resulting from the ad-hoc questions. Longitudinal data, given their nested structure, were analyzed through mixed modeling. Of the 411 responders at baseline, 169 had at least 3 out of 4 data points; the analysis was therefore conducted on this sample. Levels of depression and anxiety were found to be significantly higher in the study sample in comparison with normative samples for each of the fourtime points; levels of coping showed that scores from the study sample were significantly lower than normative data at all-time points. Levels of perceived social support were significantly lower than normative data at the baseline and the first follow-up. The results of the study suggest that the lockdown experience had enduring consequences on the mental health of individuals. Prevention and support interventions to limit the psychological distress caused by COVID-19 should be taken into consideration in countries experiencing a second wave of the pandemic.

Differences in gustatory sensitivity, nutritional habits, circulating levels of modulators, anthropometric measures, and metabolic assays may be involved in overweight (OW) development. The present study aimed at evaluating the differences in these aspects between 39 OW (19 female; mean age = 53.51 ± 11.17), 18 stage I (11 female; mean age = 54.3 ± 13.1 years), and 20 II (10 female; mean age = 54.5 ± 11.9) obesity participants when compared with 60 lean subjects (LS; 29 female; mean age = 54.04 ± 10.27). Participants were evaluated based on taste function scores, nutritional habits, levels of modulators (leptin, insulin, ghrelin, and glucose), and bioelectrical impedance analysis measurements. Significant reductions in total and subtests taste scores were found between LS and stage I and II obesity participants. Significant reductions in total and all subtests taste scores were found between OW and stage II obesity participants. Together with the progressive increase in plasmatic leptin levels, insulin, and serum glucose, decrease in plasmatic ghrelin levels, and changes in anthropometric measures and nutritional habits along with body mass index, these data for the first time demonstrated that taste sensitivity, biochemical regulators, and food habits play a parallel, concurring role along the stages evolving to obesity.

Objective: Impaired self-awareness (ISA) of altered functional capacities is a common sequelae of severe acquired brain injury that can severely hamper neuro-rehabilitation in this clinical population. ISA is frequently associated with anosodiaphoria and/or apathy. Although several scales are available to measure apathy, no tools have been published to specifically assess anosodiaphoria after acquired brain injury. In this paper, we reported an initial effort to develop an anosodiaphoria subscale in a commonly used measure of ISA, that is, the Patient Competency Rating scale-neurorehabilitation form (PCRS-NR). Method: A sample of 46 participants with severe acquired brain injury completed a functional, ISA, apathy, and anosodiaphoria assessment. One informal caregiver of each patient participated in the study. Thus, we were able to obtain external data on his/her level of functional competencies, and self-awareness, which allowed separating patients with low self-awareness (LSA) from those with high self-awareness (HSA). Finally, the patients were compared with 44 healthy age–gender–years of formal education matched control participants (HCs). Results: Compared to both patients with HSA and HCs, patients with LSA demonstrated greater anosodiapvhoria and lower levels of functioning than both HSA patients and HCs. A stronger relationship emerged between ISA and anosodiaphoria rather than with apathy. Conclusions: These initial findings provide support that PCRS scale can be adapted to measure anosodiaphoria as well as ISA. The findings reveal a stronger correlation between this measure of anosodiaphoria and ISA compared with the correlation of apathy to ISA. The present method for measuring anosodiaphoria takes into account the actual levels of patients’ functioning.

Debate about the psychological background and the impact on self-perception and social integration of cosmetic surgery and minimally invasive cosmetic procedures (MICPs), such as botulinum toxin (BoNT) and facial filler injections is still ongoing. The aim of the present study was to assess the psychological background and the impact on self-perception and social integration of cosmetic surgery and MICPs. By means of a survey procedure, a thorough battery of validated questionnaires (VQs) investigating sociodemographic backgrounds and changes in body perception (brown obsessive-compulsive scale modified for body dysmorphic disorder; body appreciation scale (BAS-2); and multidimensional body self relations questionnaire–body area satisfaction scale), anxiety and depression (depression anxiety stress scales, personality traits (rosenberg self-esteem scale [RSE]), social interaction (social interaction anxiety scale), quality of life (World Health Organization Quality of Life) and eating attitude (Eating Attitude Test) was administered in a cohort of women routinely undergoing MICPs (n = 37) and in a matched group of women who never underwent such procedures (n = 29), serving as control group (CG). When compared to CG, MICPs participants demonstrated significant (P < .05) lower social interaction anxiety scale (SIAS-6) scores (95% confidence Interval [CI]: 6.4–7.5 vs 7.47–8.94; Cohen d = 0.65) and higher scores along the RSE (95% CI: 32.99–35.6 vs 28.22–32.66; Cohen d = −0.74) and BAS-2 (95% CI: 38.72–42.73 vs 32.36–38.88; Cohen d = −0.66). MICPs participants demonstrated significant positive correlations between age and number of total sessions (R = 0.44; 95% CI = 0.02–0.09) in the last 2 years which further negatively (r = −0.45; 95% CI = −0.5 to −0.04) and positively (R = 0.54; 95% CI = 0.07–0.18) correlated with SIAS-6 and BAS-2, respectively. The present study highlighted that women undergoing aesthetic medicine treatments are burdened by less interpersonal problems and demonstrate greater self-esteem and better own body perception. However, the absence of pre/post intervention data limits the understanding of whether observed psychological differences are a consequence of MICPs or factors influencing their adoption.