The Role of Attitudes Toward Medication and Treatment Adherence in the Clinical Response to LAIs: Findings From the STAR Network Depot Study
Background: Long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotics are efficacious in managing psychotic symptoms in people affected by severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The present study aimed to investigate whether attitude toward treatment and treatment adherence represent predictors of symptoms changes over time.Methods: The STAR Network “Depot Study” was a naturalistic, multicenter, observational, prospective study that enrolled people initiating a LAI without restrictions on diagnosis, clinical severity or setting. Participants from 32 Italian centers were assessed at three time points: baseline, 6-month, and 12-month follow-up. Psychopathological symptoms, att…
Dreaming and the neurobiology of self: recent advances and implications for psychiatry
Throughout most of the 20th century, dreaming was considered at the center of the leading psychotherapeutic approaches to mental disorders. Psychodynamic models of the mind stemmed from Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams, according to which knowledge of the unconscious foundations of most symptoms could be enhanced by an accurate evaluation of reported dreams. Toward the end of the century, these conceptualizations were challenged by a progressive shift of perspective in the direction of neurobiologically informed, mechanistic models of brain dysfunction. The diffusion of effective psychotropic medications developed to target specific symptoms across different disorders contributed to…