Claudio Imperatori

European University of Rome | UNIER · Department of Human Sciences

Parental overcontrol is associated with depressive symptoms and affective vulnerability. A ruminative response style may develop as a coping mechanism for a highly controlling and critical parenting style. The main aim of the current cross-sectional study was to examine the mediating role of brooding and reflective rumination in the association bet...

Microstates analysis of electroencephalography (EEG) has gained increasing attention among researchers and clinicians as a valid tool for investigating temporal dynamics of large-scale brain networks with a millisecond time resolution. Although microstates analysis has been widely applied to elucidate the neurophysiological basis of various cogniti...

Introduction: Recent studies suggest that parental overcontrol could be considered a specific form of childhood trauma (CT). Although previous research has shown that CT alters the functional and structural architecture of large-scale networks in the brain, the neural basis associated with parental overcontrol has not been sufficiently explored. Th...

Reciprocal connections exist between mental health and physical health, and conditions of cellular senescence/advanced biological age have been observed in association with certain psychiatric diseases. However, the construct of frailty has only preliminarily been explored in young adults and in relation to psychopathology so far. In the present st...

Objective Obsessive and compulsive symptoms (OCS) are cross-cutting psychopathological manifestations frequently detected in a variety of clinical and non-clinical samples. It has been suggested that impaired mentalization abilities and traumatic experiences during childhood may be relevant etiopathogenetic factors in the development of OCS. The pu...

Versione italiana validata del "Detachment and Compartmentalization Inventory" (DCI)

The Detachment and Compartmentalization Inventory (DCI) is a valid and reliable self-report instrument that assesses these two distinct forms of dissociative symptoms. However, there is limited research on the cross-cultural validation of the DCI. Therefore, this study aimed to develop an Italian translation of the DCI and examine its internal stru...

Over the past years, different studies provided preliminary evidence that Disorganized Attachment (DA) may have dysregulatory and disintegrative effects on both autonomic arousal regulation and brain connectivity. However, despite the clinical relevance of this construct, few studies have investigated the specific alterations underlying DA using el...

b> Background: Despite its high prevalence in all psychiatric disorders and its widely demonstrated clinical relevance as a marker of both clinical severity and poorer treatment response, a scientifically validated definition of dissociation remains controversial, and the understanding of its pathogenesis is still somewhat lacking. Furthermore, alt...

Both clinical observations and empirical data suggest that metacognitive functioning is a factor strongly associated with a good psychotherapeutic outcome. It has been suggested that some interpersonal social motivations (i.e., attachment and co-operation) may be associated with different levels of metacog-nitive functioning also within the therape...

The impact of recurrent traumatic experiences during childhood may impede the integration of mentalization abilities and lead to psychopathology. Recently, the Failure to Mentalize Trauma Questionnaire (FMTQ), a comprehensive 29-item self-report scale aimed at identifying deficits in mentalization arising from childhood trauma, was developed. Howev...

Background: Dysmorphic concern (DC) is a symptom affecting both clinical and non-clinical populations, with a severe impact on individuals' physical and psychological well-being. While Childhood trauma (CT) has been identified as a risk factor for DC, there is a lack of research on specific forms of CT, such as parental overcontrol. Therefore, the...

Climate change is an increasingly global issue that impacts individual well-being. Research has shown that adolescents are more at risk of experiencing climate anxiety, leading them to be more sensitive to the topic and to act in favor of the environment. The present study aimed at investigating the relationship between climate anxiety and the like...

Study objectives: Sleep and circadian rhythms disorders are frequent in the acute stroke. Sleep modifications are likely to contribute to the development of stroke-related delirium, a common neuropsychiatric complication of acute stroke. This systematic review aimed to clarify the association between sleep modifications and the occurrence of deliri...

Background: Over the past years, different studies provided preliminary evidence that Disorganized Attachment (DA) may have dysregulatory and disintegrative effects on both autonomic arousal regulation and brain connectivity. However, despite the clinical relevance of this construct, few studies have investigated the specific alterations underlying...

Prior research has suggested that the use of social media could be associated with psychopathology (e.g., depression and anxiety symptoms). To measure social anxiety associated with social media use, Alkis et al. (2017) developed the Social Anxiety Scale for Social Media Users (SAS-SMU). The aims of the present study were to investigate the factor...

Objective: Child maltreatment (CM) is a recognized public health problem, and epidemiologic data suggest that it is a widespread phenomenon, albeit with widely varying estimates. Indeed, CM as well as child abuse (CA) and neglect (CN) are complex phenomena that are difficult to study for several reasons, including terminological and definitional p...

Introduction Despite the well-established evidence supporting the restorative potential of nature exposure, the neurophysiological underpinnings of the restorative cognitive/emotional effect of nature are not yet fully understood. The main purpose of the current study was to investigate the association between exposure to nature and electroencephal...

People who make habitual use of an emotion regulation strategy such as cognitive reappraisal may be more sensitive to the emotion cues coming from a surrounding natural environment and, thus, get more benefits from virtual nature exposure such as enhanced subjective vitality. However, no previous study investigated the moderating role of cognitive...

Purpose Studies have shown significant associations of dissociative symptoms with both eating and addictive disorders; however, the different forms of dissociation have been relatively understudied in relation to food addiction (FA). The main aim of this study was to investigate the association of certain forms of dissociative experiences (i.e., ab...

Interactions between childhood trauma (CT) and dissociation can contribute to psychiatric disturbances. We explored this phenomenon in relation to behavioral addictions (BAs) in a sample (n = 633) of young adults (age: 18-34 years). Self-report measures investigating CT, dissociation, and symptoms related to gambling disorder, internet gaming disor...

Background There is an inverse association between cardiorespiratory fitness and general anxiety levels in adolescents. Obesity also is associated with a higher risk of anxiety in this population. However, little is known about the association between other health-related fitness elements with anxiety symptoms in this population. The authors explor...

Introduction Exploring the potential of exercise in the rehabilitation process of patients with Parkinson’s (PD) may be an interesting treatment perspective. Exercise-induced responses derived from neurotrophic elements appear to ameliorate the decline in neurodegeneration. Despite this understanding, the literature needs to be updated. Areas cov...

Self-disclosures and self-interventions are generally considered useful, although their role remains controversial. This is mainly due to the heterogeneity of research findings on this topic, characterized by the lack of a clear definition of self-disclosure and of systematic and effective methods to evaluate the short- and long-term effects of suc...

The aim of the current overview was to present the existing literature on the recent phenomenon of eSports. Using a multifaceted approach, we focused on its definitions, historical development, and classification, drawing attention to key disputes that exist between scholars. Furthermore, we investigated the debate on whether eSports should be cons...

Objective. The main objective of the present study is to use the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis to identify cut-off points for a self-report measure assessing parental style, i.e., the Measure of Parental Style (MOPS), that are able to discriminate individuals with disorganized internal working models (IWMs) of attachment wi...

Many researchers suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic may have more negative effects on women than men. Accordingly, we hypothesized that women would experience greater COVID-19 related distress and more psychopathological symptoms than men during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Italy. Moreover, we expected emotion regulation strategies (cognitive rea...

Suicide is a major public health problem, and it is urgent to investigate its underlying clinical and psychological concomitants. It has been suggested that low mentalization skills and problematic use of the internet (PUI) are factors that can play a role in suicidal behaviors. It is possible that poor mentalization skills contribute to leading to...

The influence of repeated lockdowns on mental health and social isolation is unknown. We conducted a longitudinal study of the influence of repeated mild lockdowns during two emergency declarations in Japan, in May 2020 and February 2021. The analyses included 7893 people who participated in all online surveys. During repeated mild lockdowns, menta...

Background Depression and anxiety belong to a family of mental disturbances that has increased significantly in recent years. The etiology of both disorders comprises multiple and complex factors, from genetic background to environmental influence. Since depression and anxiety present severe symptoms, they represent a greater clinical burden and gr...

Purpose Although the association between problematic use of the internet and eating disorders (EDs) in young adults has been previously established, its underlying mechanisms have not been completely clarified. It has been suggested that exposure to idealized very thin and toned body images (e.g., “thinspiration” and “fitspiration” trends) on socia...

The main aim of the study was to examine how brain network metrics change after retrieval of attachment memories in individuals with unresolved/disorganized (U/D) attachment-related state of mind and those with organized/resolved (O/R) state of mind. We focused on three main network metrics associated with integration and segregation: global (Eglob...

Need for Cognitive Closure (NCC) is a construct referring to the desire for predictability, unambiguity and firm answers to issues. Neuroscientific literature about NCC processes has mainly focused on task-related brain activity. According to the Triple Network model (TN), the main aim of the current study was to investigate resting state (RS) elec...

Introduction: Although the study of the Triple Network (TN) model has gained attention in the exploration of stress-related processes, the neurophysiological mechanisms of TN in relation to perceived stress have been relatively understudied in nonclinical samples so far. The main objective of the present study was to investigate, in a sample of un...

Introduction: In the last few decades, exercise has been explored as a potential tool to reduce symptoms experienced by patients with panic disorder (PD). This systematic review aims to assess the effects of regular exercise interventions on panic severity, global anxiety, and depression symptoms of these patients. Areas covered: A search was co...

Machine learning (ML) is a branch of artificial intelligence technology that has received considerable attention in recent years. It is a computational strategy to discover the regularities inherent in multidimensional data sets, allowing us to build predictive models focused on individual states. Therefore, it may help increase the efficiency and...

This chapter introduces quantitative electroencephalographic (QEEG) literature about normal and pathological sleep. It starts by introducing QEEG methods with a particular focus about power spectrum, functional connectivity analyses (i.e., coherence and phase synchronization), and source localization methods. It then illustrates the QEEG literature...

Emotion dysregulation (ED) can e considered a psychopathological transdiagnostic dimension, the presence of which should be reliably screened in clinical settings. The aim of the current study was to validate the Italian version of the Emotion Dysregulation Scale-short (EDS-s), a brief self-report tool assessing emotion dysregulation, in a non-clin...

One of the worrying concomitants of problematic use of Internet (PUI) is aggression. Although the mechanisms underlying such link have not been completely clarified, it has been suggested that problematic use of social media and online videogames (i.e., two common forms of PUI among young adults) lead to increased sleep disturbances which, in turn,...

Aims: We investigated the association among triple network electroencephalographic (EEG) functional connectivity, dissociative symptoms, and childhood trauma (CT) in a sample of university students. Sampling and methods: Seventy-six participants (30 males and 46 females; mean age 22.12 ± 2.35) completed self-report measures investigating dissoci...

Purpose Pre-surgical psychosocial evaluation of bariatric surgery (BS) patients should identify psychiatric issues that could worsen after surgery and those requiring additional ongoing intervention. In this view, the use of reliable, appropriate and concise evaluating instruments is of critical importance. The aim of the present study was to inves...

Objectives We have investigated the psychotropic medications sales [(i.e., Benzodiazepines (BZDs), Mood Stabilizers (MSs), Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)] during the COrona VIrus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the period from March 2020 to February 2021 compared with the same period in the preceding year. Study design This wa...

Objectives Delirium is an acute fluctuating disorder of attention and awareness. It is associated with autonomic dysfunction and increased mortality. The primary endpoint of our study was to measure autonomic activity in acute stroke patients, by means of heart rate variability analysis, in order to identify autonomic modifications that can predisp...

Specific risk attitude and risky behavior had an important boost during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In this contribution, we hypothesize that access to nature during home confinement will decrease both the tendency to passive risk taking and alcohol intake. To do so, we interviewed through an online survey two samples of Itali...

Background Bariatric surgery is an effective treatment for the obesity epidemic, but the poor attendance and adherence rates of post-surgery recommendations threaten treatment effectiveness and health outcomes. Preoperatively, we investigated the unique contributions of clinical (e.g., medical and psychiatric comorbidities), sociodemographic (e.g.,...

The use of cannabidiol (CBD), the non-psychotropic compound derived from Cannabis sativa, for therapeutic purposes is growing exponentially by targeting the management of multiple medical disorders, including metabolism-related diseases. Nevertheless, substantial questions have emerged in concerning the potential metabolic disturbances in adulthood...

The mental and physical effects of repeated lockdowns are unknown. We conducted a longitudinal study of the influence of repeated mild lockdowns during two emergency declarations in Japan, in May 2020 and February 2021. The analyses included 7,893 people who participated in all online surveys. During repeated mild lockdowns, mental and physical sym...

The peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor alpha (PPARα) is a nuclear receptor that has been linked to the modulation of several physiological functions, including the sleep‐wake cycle. The PPARα recognizes as endogenous ligands the lipids oleoylethanolamide (OEA) and palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), which in turn, if systemically injected they exe...

Abstract Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate the association between food addiction severity (FA) and ADHD symptomatology. Furthermore, we investigated whether emotional distress, and the mentalization deficits could mediate this relationship. Methods Three hundred eighty-five Italian adults (307 women and 78 men) participated in t...

RationaleThe medical uses of cannabidiol (CBD), a constituent of the Cannabis sativa, have accelerated the legal and social acceptance for CBD-based medications but has also given the momentum for questioning whether the long-term use of CBD during the early years of life may induce adverse neurobiological effects in adulthood, including sleep dist...

Objective: High levels of perceived parental over-protection are hypothesized to be related to relational problems, psychological distress, and development of psychiatric symptoms. Here, the main aim was to extend previous findings investigating the unique contribution of parental over-protection in predicting affective vulnerability. Method: 29...

The Stroop effect is a well-documented phenomenon, demonstrating both interference and facilitation effects. Many versions of the Stroop task were created, according to the purposes of its applications, varying in numerous aspects. While many versions are developed to investigate the mechanisms of the effect itself, the Stroop effect is also consid...

The peroxisome proliferator activated receptors (PPARs) are a superfamily of well-recognized ligand-binding nuclear receptors comprising three isoforms: PPARα, PPARγ, and PPARβ/δ. In response to endogenous lipid messengers, PPARs trigger the transcription of genes related to a wider spectrum of physiological phenomena, including fatty acid oxidatio...

Twenty to thirty percent of patients experience weight regain at mid and long-term follow-up. Impaired cognitive functions are prevalent in people suffering from obesity and in those with binge eating disorder, thereby, affecting the weight-loss outcomes. The aim of our study was to investigate neurocognitive and psychopathological predictors of su...

Several studies have shown how COrona‐VIrus Disease‐19 (COVID‐19) and the consequent isolation and quarantine measures could affect physical and mental well‐being. Therefore, the increased request for support and assistance represents a critical challenge for clinicians requiring a reorganization of care systems. In this regard, online counselling...

Background The use of social media is popular in the health and the beauty industry, with an increasing number of brands using web platforms to promote their products. Among the recently-emerged trends, “fitspiration” (also abbreviated as “fitspo”) has raised health concerns. Evidence suggested that fitspiration contents, although originally concei...

Introduction Triple Network Model (TNM), which considers the dynamic interaction between Default Mode (DMN), Salience (SN), and Central Executive (CEN) networks, explains clinical features in mental disorders from a neurophysiological perspective. Some studies highlight the increased connectivity in TNM in adults with Borderline Personality Disorde...

More than 500 molecules have been identified as components of Cannabis sativa (C. sativa), of which the most studied is Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ⁹-THC). Several studies have suggested that Δ⁹-THC exerts diverse biological effects, ranging from fragmentation of DNA to behavioral disruptions. Currently, it is accepted that most of the pharmacologica...

Social distancing and confinement at home during the first wave of Covid-19 have been essential to helping governments to flatten the infection curve but raised concerns on possible negative consequences such as prolonged isolation or sedentary lifestyles. In this scenario, gardening activities have been identified as a plausible tool to buffer the...

The sleep-wake cycle is a complex composition of specific physiological and behavioral characteristics. In addition, neuroanatomical, neurochemical and molecular systems exerts influences in the modulation of the sleep-wake cycle. Moreover, homeostatic and circadian mechanisms interact to control the waking or sleeping states. As many other behavio...

Purpose To examine the structural validity, measurement invariance, reliability, and some other psychometrical properties of the Italian version of the Yale Food Addiction Scale 2 (I-YFAS 2.0) in patients with severe obesity and the general population. Methods 704 participants—400 inpatients with severe obesity and 304 participants enrolled from t...

Background Delirium is a neuropsychiatric disorder of attention and awareness that develops over a short time and fluctuates in severity. While delirium has been extensively studied in Intensive Care Units, the incidence of delirium in stroke units and its predictors in stroke patients need further investigation. The endpoints of our study were inc...

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 47 million of people display mental health disorders Worldwide. In addition, epidemiological studies have shown that the extension of life expectancy and the increase in aged population will significantly impact in the prevalence of several mental impairments. Although there are strategies for preve...

Purpose To explore electroencephalographic (EEG) alterations in young women with different eating disorder (ED) psychopathology levels. Methods Thirty-seven young women completed general and ED psychopathology (i.e., the ED Examination Questionnaire; EDE-Q) measures. EEG power spectra data were investigated in two conditions: (a) 5 min of resting...

PurposeDemanding lifestyle characterized by extended working hours, shift work schedules as well as excessive use of mobile gadgets leads to the disruption of the circadian and homeostatic factors affecting the sleep quality of individuals. As consequence, subjects complain of suffering several sleep disorders some of them characterized by inducing...

Background: Several scholars hypothesize that one of the most negative impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis would concern the increase of prevalence and severity of both substances and behavioral addiction. Despite the general concerns about the increase of prevalence and severity of addictions related to the COVID-19 emergency...

Background: Alcohol is one of the most widely used drugs among adolescents and young people, and problematic alcohol use (PAU) is related to significant long-term biological, clinical, and psychosocial sequelae. Although preliminary reports have linked deficits in mentalization to increased vulnerability to addiction, no studies have specifically e...

Physical exercise is seen as the main ally for health promotion, preventing and protecting the organism from several diseases. According to WHO, there is a tendency of constant growth in the elderly population in the coming years. The regular practice of exercises by the elderly becomes relevant to minimize the deleterious effects of the aging proc...

Physical exercise is seen as the main ally for health promotion, preventing and protecting the organism from several diseases. According to WHO, there is a tendency of constant growth in the elderly population in the coming years. The regular practice of exercises by the elderly becomes relevant to minimize the deleterious effects of the aging proc...

Background: From the beginning of March 2020, lockdown regimens prevented patients with obesity from receiving bariatric surgery. Surgical emergencies and oncological procedures were the only operations allowed in public hospitals. Consequently, patients with morbid obesity were put in a standby situation. With the aim at exploring the viewpoint of...