Daniele La Barbera

Università degli Studi di Palermo | UNIPA · Department of experimental medicine and clinical neurosciences

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the quality of life (QoL), daily lifestyle, and mental health of people suffering from a mental disorder. This study aimed to investigate the effects of the prolongation of the COVID-19 emergency on QoL and lifestyles in a sample of 100 outpatients at the Psychiatry Unit in Palermo University Ho...

Background: Child maltreatment (CM) and migrant status are independently associated with psychosis. We examined prevalence of CM by migrant status and tested whether migrant status moderated the association between CM and first-episode psychosis (FEP). We further explored whether differences in CM exposure contributed to variations in the incidenc...

Several studies investigated the specific neural correlates of trans people, highlighting mixed results. This study aimed to investigate the presence of specific functional connectivity in trans men, compared to a homogeneous group of cisgender men and cisgender women. 42 participants (19 trans men, 11 cisgender men, and 12 cisgender women) underwe...

Cluster studies identified a subgroup of patients with psychosis whose premorbid adjustment deteriorates before the onset, which may reflect variation in genetic influence. However, other studies reported a complex relationship between distinctive patterns of cannabis use and cognitive and premorbid impairment that is worthy of consideration. We ex...

In the present study we analyzed how attitudes toward touch have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic in an Italian sample, through two different studies: in the first we contacted participants of the Italian validation study of the Touch Avoidance Questionnaire, asking them to take part in a follow-up study (N = 31, 64.5% women, age 42.58 ± 15.15)...

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS: Facial Emotion Recognition is a key domain of social cognition associated with psychotic disorders as a candidate intermediate phenotype. In this study, we set out to investigate global and specific facial emotion recognition deficits in first-episode psychosis, and whether polygenic liability to psychotic disorders is as...

On the eve of 4th May, the date when the lockdown was to end, people could stand it no more! The wait was not only hard, but also full of doubts about what level of freedom people could enjoy in their future. That caused a serious crisis which came after a previous, serious legitimacy crisis that the western political system, and not only Italian,...

Background and hypothesis Evidence suggests that childhood maltreatment (ie, childhood abuse and childhood neglect) affects educational attainment and cognition. However, the association between childhood maltreatment and Intelligence Quotient (IQ) seems stronger among controls compared to people with psychosis. We hypothesised that: the associatio...

Background: Schizophrenia (SZ), bipolar disorder (BD) and depression (D) run in families. This susceptibility is partly due to hundreds or thousands of common genetic variants, each conferring a fractional risk. The cumulative effects of the associated variants can be summarised as a polygenic risk score (PRS). Using data from the EUropean Network...

Background: In Italy since February 2020, the unexpected massive afflux of COVID-19 patients exposed healthcare professionals to high work-related stress, high time pressure and increased the risk of being infected. This is the first study that aimed to investigate the psychological impact of COVID-pandemic at the end of the peak, by identifying la...

Diagnostic categories do not completely reflect the heterogeneous expression of psychosis. Using data from the EU-GEI study, we evaluated the impact of schizophrenia polygenic risk score (SZ-PRS) and patterns of cannabis use on the transdiagnostic expression of psychosis. We analysed first-episode psychosis patients (FEP) and controls, generating t...

Scientific literature has shown that healthy lifestyles are implicated both in the risk reduction of several disorders and in the improvement of cognitive functions. The present study evaluated the association between lifestyle behaviors and academic performance in university students from twelve different degree courses at the University of Palerm...

Premorbid functioning and cognitive measures may reflect gradients of developmental impairment across diagnostic categories in psychosis. In this study, we sought to examine the associations of current cognition and premorbid adjustment with symptom dimensions in a large first episode psychosis (FEP) sample. We used data from the international EU-G...

Objective: Stereotyped beliefs about schizophrenia are well-established in the society and relatively common among healthcare professionals and students. The aim of this study was to investigate the opinions about the causes, treatment, and outcome of schizophrenia among healthcare students. Method: Undergraduate nursing and psychology students...

Background A history of childhood adversity is associated with psychotic disorder, with an increase in risk according to the number of exposures. However, it is not known why only some exposed individuals go on to develop psychosis. One possibility is pre-existing polygenic vulnerability. Here, we investigated, in the largest sample of first-episod...

Background: This study aimed to screen a wide range of emotional and behavioural variables emerging during the first COVID-19 pandemic-lockdown in a sample of parents and children, residents in the southern part of Italy, and explore which variables could predict children’s wellbeing. We hypothesised that difficulties in adapting routines to pandem...

We evaluated the association between healthy lifestyles and academic achievement in a sample of 373 adolescent Italian students. Specifically, we investigated on the association between use of illegal drugs, habits to practice a regular physical, typology of diet, levels of social support, levels of self-esteem, level of Internet use, perceived str...

Schizophrenia (SZ), Bipolar Disorder (BD) and Depression (D) run in families. This susceptibility is partly due to hundreds or thousands of common genetic variants, each conferring a fractional risk. The cumulative effects of the associated variants can be summarised as a polygenic risk score (PRS). Using data from the EUGEI case-control study, we...

This is the second of two papers concerning our study into an integrated approach to psychotic disorders conducted at the University Psychiatry Unit of Palermo's Polyclinic over approximately 15 years; this paper concentrates on the clinical phenomena. The study aimed to find the best possible treatment and to improve the prognosis of this patient...

This is the first of two papers concerning our study into an integrated approach to psychotic disorders, conducted at the University of Palermo's Psychiatry Unit Polyclinic over approximately 15 years. Here we will explore and reflect upon the acute psychotic condition mainly from a theoretical and conceptual perspective, while in the second paper...

Background: Perceived discrimination is associated with worse mental health. Few studies have assessed whether perceived discrimination (i) is associated with the risk of psychotic disorders and (ii) contributes to an increased risk among minority ethnic groups relative to the ethnic majority. Methods: We used data from the European Network of N...

The association between childhood adversity (CA) and psychosis has been extensively investigated in recent years. An increasing body of research has also focused on the mediating or moderating role of biological and psychological mechanisms, as well as other risk factors that might account for the link between CA and psychosis. We conducted a syste...

Background Cognitive impairment is considered a core feature of psychotic disorders. Deficits in cognition, metacognition and social cognition have been reported to be correlated, and indeed predictors, of functional outcome or level of disability. Psychotic patients tend to present lower IQ and show impairment in specific cognitive domains, and in...

Background A symptom dimension approach may best examine the heterogeneous expression of psychosis. However, whether and how premorbid predisposition and cognitive factors explain phenotypes variation is still debated. This study aimed to test the predictive value of combined cognition and premorbid adjustment on transdiagnostic symptom dimensions...

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Dissociative Symptoms Scale (DSS) among Italian adults from outpatient and community samples. The DSS is a self-report measure of clinically relevant dissociation in adults. An Italian translation of the DSS was administered with measures of lifetime traumatic experiences, psychoform dissoc...

Abstract Objective This randomized controlled trial examined the efficacy of adding a fasting‐mimicking diet to a structured psychotherapy protocol for treating depression. Design Of 20 patients with depression, 10 were randomly assigned to psychotherapy and dieting (i.e., experimental group) and the other 10 to psychotherapy only (i.e., control...

Background The ‘jumping to conclusions’ (JTC) bias is associated with both psychosis and general cognition but their relationship is unclear. In this study, we set out to clarify the relationship between the JTC bias, IQ, psychosis and polygenic liability to schizophrenia and IQ. Methods A total of 817 first episode psychosis patients and 1294 pop...

Background Daily use of high-potency cannabis has been reported to carry a high risk for developing a psychotic disorder. However, the evidence is mixed on whether any pattern of cannabis use is associated with a particular symptomatology in first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients. Method We analysed data from 901 FEP patients and 1235 controls rec...

Introduction Burnout is present at a high rate in emergency medicine. The ambulance driver-rescuers, who furnish first aid to the victims, are the non-medical part of the Italian 118-service staff. There is a lack of research on burnout risk in Italian Emergency Medical Services and, particularly, for this category of workers. The two Italian studi...

Purpose The EUropean Network of National Schizophrenia Networks Studying Gene–Environment Interactions (EU-GEI) study contains an unparalleled wealth of comprehensive data that allows for testing hypotheses about (1) variations in incidence within and between countries, including by urbanicity and minority ethnic groups; and (2) the role of multipl...

Background Diagnostic categories within the psychosis spectrum are widely used in clinical practice, however psychosis may occur on a continuum. Therefore, we explored whether the continuous distribution of psychotic symptoms across categories is a function of genetic as well as environmental risk factors, such as polygenic risk scores (PRSs) and c...

Previous studies on obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) showed impairments in executive domains, particularly in cognitive inhibition. In this perspective, the use of virtual reality showed huge potential in the assessment of executive functions; however, unfortunately, to date, no study on the assessment of these patients took advantage of the use...

Tinnitus is often in comorbidity with anxiety and depression, and several authors have proposed a reduced efficiency of the top-down executive control in its perception. This single-group study describes a novel application of the metacognitive therapy (MCT), which works on a top-down engagement of proactive attentional control mechanisms on a grou...

Psychotic patients with a lifetime history of cannabis use generally show better cognitive functioning than other psychotic patients. Some authors suggest that cannabis-using patients may have been less cognitively impaired and less socially withdrawn in their premorbid life. Using a dataset comprising 948 patients with first-episode psychosis (FEP...

Evidence for early parental death as a risk factor for psychosis in offspring is inconclusive. We analyzed data from a six-country, case-control study to examine the associations of early parental death, type of death (maternal, paternal, both), and child’s age at death with psychosis, both overall and by ethnic group. In fully adjusted multivariab...

Aims: Cognitive impairment is a possible indicator of neurodevelopmental impairment, but not all psychotic patients are cognitively compromised. It has been suggested that heavy cannabis use may precipitate psychosis in those who show no such compromise. This study compares two samples of patients with first-episode psychosis and their respective...

Background The “jumping to conclusions” (JTC) bias is associated with both psychosis and general cognition but their relationship is unclear. In this study, we set out to clarify the relationship between the JTC bias, IQ, psychosis and polygenic liability to schizophrenia and IQ. Methods 817 FEP patients and 1294 population-based controls complete...

Background Psychotic patients tend to require less evidence to make decisions compared to general population. This bias named Jumping to Conclusions (JTC) has been found at First Episode Psychosis (FEP) in schizophrenia patients and associated with proneness to psychotic-like experiences in the general population. Interesting findings showed also s...

Background Facial emotion recognition (FER) is a key component of social cognition which has been found consistently impaired in schizophrenia. Deficits in global facial affect recognition have been also found in First Episode Psychosis (FEP) with the same severity as at further stages, especially for anger recognition. Literature to date has shown...

Dental procedural pain and anxiety are issues that affect a conspicuous part of the population, leading to a decrease of dental care frequency. The problem affects the patient as well as the dentist, who often has to face a certain resistance by the patients while doing the necessary procedures. The aim of the study is to demonstrate that is possib...

Educational robotics is an innovative learning tool that offers students the opportunities to develop higher-order thinking skills. This research aims to verify the effectiveness of educational robotics on the mental processes of planning and problem solving. Robotics education involved in a curricular laboratory (10 meetings, two hours each, once...

Objective: The evidence is mixed on whether cannabis use is associated with a particular symptomatology in first episode psychosis (FEP) patients. The authors set out to investigate a) patterns of association between cannabis use and transdiagnostic symptom dimensions; b) whether the extent of use of cannabis contributes to the variation in clinica...

Purpose of Review This systematic review aimed to investigate the relation between cannabis use and dissociation. Recent Findings Four analytical and 14 descriptive cross-sectional studies were included. There is no variation in the rates of cannabis use among individuals with dissociative experiences compared with the general population. In addit...

Background: Cannabis use is associated with increased risk of later psychotic disorder but whether it affects incidence of the disorder remains unclear. We aimed to identify patterns of cannabis use with the strongest effect on odds of psychotic disorder across Europe and explore whether differences in such patterns contribute to variations in the...

Objectives: Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug globally and its use has been linked to an increased risk for psychotic disorders. An association between cannabis consumption and psychotic symptoms was consistently reported by several studies. This case-control study aimed to widen the current findings about the impact of cannabis exposur...

Riassunto Introduzione: La cannabis è una delle sostanze più comunemente utilizzate da pazienti che accedono ai servizi psichiatrici per un primo episodio psicotico. Scopo del presente studio è stato indagare gli effetti più comuni dell'uso di cannabis, la loro relazione con sintomi psicotici e le caratteristiche del consumo. Metodi: Sono stati rec...

Background The value of the nosological distinction between non-affective and affective psychosis has frequently been challenged. We aimed to investigate the transdiagnostic dimensional structure and associated characteristics of psychopathology at First Episode Psychosis (FEP). Regardless of diagnostic categories, we expected that positive symptom...

Background Jumping to conclusions (JTC) is a well-established reasoning and data gathering bias found in patients with psychosis even at illness onset (First Episode Psychosis, FEP). Preliminary work in this field focused primarily on the association with delusions, although jumping to conclusions has also been found in non-deluded schizophrenia pa...

Background Patients presenting to psychiatric services with their first episode of psychosis (FEP) report higher rates of previous cannabis use than the general population (Donoghue et al., 2011; Myles, Myles and Large, 2016). Evidence suggested that patients suffering from psychosis with a history of cannabis use have an earlier age of onset of ps...

Background Children who later develop Schizophrenia on average are more likely to present with lower IQ; this has been considered evidence for the neurodevelopmental theory of schizophrenia. Though, recent studies have shown that first episode psychosis patients with a history of cannabis use have significantly higher premorbid and current IQ compa...

Pathological gambling is an emerging and increasing phenomenon in Western counties. This work is aimed at reviewing the existing literature on this topic, paying special attention to its development, course and outcome in adolescence. We will explore epidemiological data, the instruments for the diagnostic and clinical assessment, the course and th...

The chapter focuses on premorbid intellectual quotient (IQ) in cannabis users, one of the most controversial topics in studies on the harmful effects of cannabis use on cognition. We critically reviewed the literature in order to propose a model that would be able to summarize the complex relationship between premorbid IQ and cannabis use, in deter...

Chronic pain is a notable issue of public healthcare, causing enormous direct and indirect costs, and a reduction of the quality of life in the affected patients. In this study, we have used Virtual Reality (VR) as a method to reduce stress, anxiety and pain in patients affected by chronic pain. We examined two cohorts of patients: an experimental...

This paper describes the use of robotic kits as tools in developing mathematical and metacognitive skills, as the planning, reasoning and problem solving capabilities in young students. A sample of 30 students involved in an extracurricular laboratory based on robotics activities (10 meetings; three hours each, once a week). Quantitative and qualit...

Cardiac and other invasive surgical procedures cause significant anxiety and stress to patients and their family members. In this study Virtual Reality (VR) was used as a method to reduce stress, anxiety and pain in patients undergoing surgical procedures. This study compared a cohort of patients in the interval prior to and successive to the surge...

Purpose: The incidence of psychotic disorders varies in different geographical areas. As there have been no reports from Southern Italy, this study aimed to determine the incidence rate of first-episode psychosis in Palermo, Sicily. Methods: All patients, aged 18-65 years, presenting with a first episode of psychosis (FEP) (ICD-10 F20-29, F30-33...

Cognitive dysfunction is regarded as a core feature of schizophrenia. Patients with schizophrenia showed poor performance on tasks that require vigilance or sustained attention. The study aimed at developing a Virtual Reality cognitive training to improve the selective, divided and sustained attention. Two clinical samples of patients with schizoph...

Introduction A number of authors have hypothesized that psychotic patients who consume cannabis constitute a differentiated subgroup of patients that have better cognitive and social skills, necessary to engage in illegal drug consumption, than non-using patients. Objectives Given that the prevalence, and patterns, of cannabis use are culturally d...

Introduction: Given the centrality of insight in promoting change, the relevance of measures for assessing this construct has become increasingly clear. This paper describes a new self-report measure for assessing some of the characteristics of insight, the insight orientation scale (IOS). Aims: In study 1, we evaluated the factor structure and the...

Despite the advances of medicine and surgery, burn traumas still represent a significant cause of impairment and disability, which exert a significant impact on quality of life and are related to several psychopathological outcomes, such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. This narrative non-systematic review aims at outlining the mai...

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of alexithymia and defence mechanisms on the quality of life of patients affected by breast cancer at different stages of the disease. Methods: A convenience sample of 110 patients with breast cancer was involved in the study: 41 were receiving adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery, 29 had...

Neuropsychological disorders are common in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) patients. Executive functions, verbal fluency and verbal memory, shifting attention from one aspect of stimuli to others, mental flexibility, engaging in executive planning and decision making, are the most involved cognitive domains. We focus on two aspects of neuropsyc...

Aim: Several studies have suggested that lifetime cannabis consumption and childhood abuse synergistically contribute to the risk for psychotic disorders. This study aimed to extend existing findings regarding an additive interaction between childhood abuse and lifetime cannabis use by investigating the moderating role of type and frequency of can...

Introduction: Given the centrality of insight in promoting change, the relevance of measures for assessing this construct has become increasingly clear. This paper describes a new self-report measure for assessing some of the characteristics of insight, the insight orientation scale (IOS). Aims: In study 1, we evaluated the factor structure and the...

Introduction: Given the centrality of insight in promoting change, the relevance of measures for assessing this construct has become increasingly clear. This paper describes a new self-report measure for assessing some of the characteristics of insight, the insight orientation scale (IOS). Aims: In study 1, we evaluated the factor structure and...

Introduction Given the centrality of insight in promoting change, the relevance of measures for assessing this construct has become increasingly clear. This paper describes a new self-report measure for assessing some of the characteristics of insight, the insight orientation scale (IOS). Aims In study 1, we evaluated the factor structure and the...

Paul Bebbington's recent Special Article provides an excellent synthesis of recent advances in psychosocial research on psychosis. However, we doubt that a model based solely on social epidemiology and cognitive theory can totally describe psychosis, and to be fair, Bebbington does not suggest that it does. A complete model must also incorporate wh...

Introduction A large body of literature has demonstrated that people affected by psychotic disorders show deficits in working memory, in Emotion Recognition (ER) and in data-gathering to reach a decision (Jumping To Conclusions – JTC). Aims To investigate a possible correlation between working memory, JTC and ER in FEP. Methods 41 patients and 89...