Gianluca Castelnuovo

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore | UNICATT · Department of Psychology

BACKGROUND Obesity is a chronic, relapsing disease resulting in global morbidity and mortality. Treatment continues to present significant challenges for healthcare providers. For adults, multicomponent lifestyle interventions—comprising diet, physical activity, and behavioral change strategies—are the mainstay of treatment for at least 6 to 12 mon...

Background/Objectives: the aim of the current cross-sectional study is to explore and compare the emotional and behavioural conditions of children and adolescents with short stature (i.e., familial short stature and constitutional delay of growth), idiopathic growth hormone deficiency (GHD), and normal height. Methods: Twenty-nine participants (15...

Background/Objectives: Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) is a rare, genetically determined neurodevelopmental disorder. Individuals with PWS face numerous challenges that significantly impact their psychological well-being and quality of life, ultimately limiting their personal and social functioning. This study aimed to evaluate the quality of life and...

In the published publication [...]

We appreciate the interest of Schluessel S [...]

Disgust is a powerful emotion, that evolved to protect us from contamination and diseases; it also cores to very human feelings, such as shame. In anorexia nervosa, most of the knowledge on disgust regards food. However, disgust can be elicited by varied drivers, including body-related self-disgust, which may be more central to this condition. Here...

Background Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a rare genetic neurodevelopmental disorder. Individuals with PWS face a range of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional challenges that require comprehensive and lifelong care, posing significant demands on their caregivers. The study is not only aimed to assess the psychological conditions of caregivers of a...

Background: Beyond memory deterioration, spatial disorientation may occur along the continuum of normal aging—dementia of Alzheimer’s type. The present study aims at detecting behavioral disorders of spatial cognition in prodromal Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and verifying the association between Apolipoprotein E-ε4 (ApoE-ε4) genotype and gait patterns...

Introduction Internet-based self-help interventions have the potential to help people address their emotional needs at relatively low costs. However, if the system does not offer optimal functions, it could reduce end-user adherence and satisfaction with treatment and compromise the effectiveness of the program. This study evaluated the usability o...

Objectives The main objective of the study is to investigate the short-term efficacy of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on the simultaneous modification of biological indicators of risk and psychological well-being in patients with coronary heart disease attending cardiac rehabilitation (CR). Design This was a two-arm randomised controlled...

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the relationship of selected clinical (i.e., body mass index, BMI) and psychological factors (i.e., anxiety, depression, and impulsiveness) with the quality of life (QoL) of elderly patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a single clinical center in Italy. Methods: A total of 238 patients of older age...

Background: Spatial navigation deficits are reported as early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) alongside episodic memory ones. The aim of the present study was to ascertain whether neuropsychological deficits of visuospatial long-term memory can predict behavioral alterations during the navigation of older adults in novel urban environments alo...

Background: Sarcopenic obesity (SO) is the combination of excess fat, skeletal muscle and muscular strength/function deficit. The ESPEN/EASO have proposed new diagnostic criteria, but the SO prevalence in patients with severe obesity remains to be established. The aim of this study was to establish the SO prevalence in a large cohort of inpatients...

Background: The current study aims to assess the psychological conditions of Italian adolescents with obesity seeking an in-hospital multidisciplinary body weight reduction program, by exploring their psychological adjustment, emotional states, and co-occurring eating disorder symptoms. Methods: The study involved ninety-two consecutive Italian ado...

The Italian version of the Repetitive Eating Questionnaire (Rep(Eat)-Q)

Background: Among the dysfunctional eating behaviors associated with excessive food intake, a construct that is gaining increasing attention is grazing—the constant, continuous, compulsive, and repetitive consumption of small/moderate amounts of food. Furthermore, in some cases, grazing seems to indicate a dependence on food and/or eating. Currentl...

The primary objective of this study is to assess the efficacy of a Virtual Reality (VR) intervention when compared to an integrated multimodal medically managed Inpatient Program (IP) in a cohort of 24 female patients diagnosed with Bulimia Nervosa (BN). Psychological measures (i.e., EDI-2) were assessed at three points: pre-treatment, post-treatme...

Background: Gaining knowledge of the various reasons behind people's consumption of highly processed foods has the potential to enhance obesity prevention initiatives and open avenues to tailor treatment approaches for obesity and binge eating at a more personalized level. This contribution aimed to test the psychometric properties and factor struc...

Background The Three Factor Eating Questionnaire-Revised 18 (TFEQ-R-18) is an extensively used questionnaire to measure three transdiagnostic features of eating behavior: cognitive restraint, uncontrolled eating, and emotional eating. Objective This research aims to investigate the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the TFEQ-R-18 in...

Procedura per lo scoring del questionario TFEQ-R-18 italiano

Background: The ever-increasing spread of Internet-based systems for common mental disorders has generated the need for brief online screening methods. This study aims to test the psychometric properties of the Web Screening Questionnaire (WSQ) to examine its suitability for screening for common mental health problems among a community sample of It...

Background: This study aimed to examine whether dyadic coping (DC) is associated with relationship satisfaction (RS) among couples facing cardiac diseases. Furthermore, the moderating role of both partners' anxiety and depression was tested. Methods: One hundred cardiac patients (81.5% men) and their partners (81.5% women) completed a self-report q...

(1) Background: Spatial cognition (SC) is one of the earliest cognitive domains to be impaired in the course of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), resulting in spatial disorientation and becoming lost even in familiar surroundings as later dementia symptoms. To date, few studies have identified initial alterations of spatial navigation (SN) in the premorbid...

Food addiction (FA) and disordered eating behaviors related to obesity are gaining attention in clinical and research fields. The modified Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 (mYFAS2.0) is the gold standard questionnaire to measure FA, while another tool is the Measure of Eating Compulsivity 10 (MEC10). Discriminant validity is present when two measures...

Spatial navigation (SN) has been reported to be one of the first cognitive domains to be affected in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which occurs as a result of progressive neuropathology involving specific brain areas. Moreover, the epsilon 4 isoform of apolipoprotein-E (APOE-ε4) has been associated with both sporadic and familial late-onset AD, and pat...

Background: Cognitive remediation therapy (CRT) for anorexia nervosa (AN) is an intervention specifically focused on addressing cognitive difficulties associated with the eating disorder. This systematic review of systematic reviews and meta-analysis aimed to provide a summary of the existing literature examining the efficacy of CRT in improving th...

Introduction Childhood obesity is associated with poor psychological adjustment. Severely impacts the psychological adjustment of young patients. To assess the psychological functioning of children and adolescents, several questionnaires have been proposed so far. Although the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is one of the most well-u...

Background: Parent–child agreement regarding emotional and behavioral problems in adolescents with obesity was measured. Methods: One hundred Italian adolescents with obesity (36 males, 64 females, mean age ± SD: 15.3 ± 1.61 years, mean body mass index, BMI: 37.9 ± 5.48 kg/m2), hospitalized for a 3-week multidisciplinary body weight reduction progr...

In order to avoid that many senior citizens with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) could become chronic patients with a low level of functioning in many cognitive, behavioral and emotional domains, some technological solutions have been improved to better enhance less compromised healthy lifestyle, providing real-time clinically-based suggestions and...

Background: There is growing support for considering Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) as an effective approach to improving physical and psychological symptoms in eating disorders (ED), but additional evidence is needed. The current study aims to investigate the effectiveness of a DMT intervention for inpatients with ED during an in-hospital rehabilit...

Background: Orthorexia Nervosa (ON) is a condition characterized by an obsessive focus on healthy eating, inflexible dietary rules, and persistent preoccupations with food. Despite it has been recently the subject of increasingly relevant studies, little is known about the mechanisms that might foster ON symptoms. Objective: This study used a stru...

Background The evidence about facial emotion recognition in anorexia nervosa as the role of alexithymic traits on this emotional ability is conflicting and heterogeneous. Objective We assessed the capability of recognizing facial expressions of two primary emotions, fear, and anger, in the context of anorexia nervosa. Methods Women affected by an...

Despite the increasing importance of innovative medications and bariatric surgery for the treatment of obesity, lifestyle interventions (diet and physical activity) remain the first-line therapy for this disease. The use of digital devices in healthcare aims to respond to the patient's needs, in order to make obesity treatment more accessible, so o...

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to the occurrence of psychological disturbances, such as depressive and anxiety symptomatology, thereby significantly impacting individuals' lifestyles by disrupting sleep patterns. This study aimed to elucidate the interconnections between emotion regulation, depression, anxiety, and daytime sleepin...

Background Monitoring workplace violence (WPV) against health care workers (HCWs) through incident reporting is crucial to drive prevention, but the actual implementation is spotty and experiences underreporting. Objective This study aims to introduce a systematic WPV surveillance in 2 public referral hospitals in Italy and assess underreporting,...

Objective Individuals with fibromyalgia report alarming levels of suicidal ideation, and comorbidity with other chronic health conditions such as obesity - a risk factor for suicidal ideation per se- could further complicate the clinical picture. The aim of this study is to determine, in a sample of women with fibromyalgia and comorbid obesity, the...

Background Positive changes in weight gain and eating pathology were reported after inpatient treatments for anorexia nervosa (AN). However, changes in the physical body do not always mirror changes in the imagined body. Here, the effect of a treatment focused on body image (BI) was described. Methods This retrospective observational study had a q...

Objective This scoping review aims to provide an accessible summary of available evidence on the efficacy of psychological couple-based interventions among patients with heart disease and their partners focusing on specific aspects and strategies by assessing different emotional and physical cardiac-related outcome measures. Methods A literature s...

Executive attention as a frontal domain ability that is effective in potentially blocking distracting information, reconciling conflicts among simultaneous attentional demands, and regulating impulsive behavior may be impaired in individuals with obesity and cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study aimed (i) to explore the presence of selected cogn...

Objectives: A two-arm parallel randomised controlled trial was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of a group acceptance-based treatment (ABT) in improving pain acceptance, pain catastrophising, kinesiophobia, pain intensity and physical functioning compared to treatment as usual in patients with fibromyalgia (FM) and comorbid obesity. Methods: F...

Although fatigue is a frequently occurring symptom in young patients with obesity, relatively few studies have assessed their perception of fatigue and its impact on their quality of life so far. Comparisons between the reports of fatigue in children/adolescents with obesity and their parents were assessed using the Pediatric Quality of Life Invent...

The aim of this study was to identify how previously existing burnout and its changes during the pandemic contributed to PTSD symptoms and psychological distress in a cohort of 388 healthcare workers (HCWs). Each HCW was surveyed in Sep 2019 (before COVID-19) and again in Dec 2020-Jan 2021 (during the pandemic) to assess burnout (MBI); and in the s...

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic caused several psychological consequences for the general population. In particular, long-term and persistent psychopathological detriments were observed in those who were infected by acute forms of the virus and need specialistic care in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) has shown pro...

Objective: The general objective of the current study was to investigate the efficacy of a novel self-help virtual therapeutic experience (specifically, the COVID Feel Good intervention) in lowering the psychological burden experienced during the COVID-19 lockdowns in four European countries. Methods: We focused on participants recruited from Ju...

Aging is a complex process associated with an impairment in functional capacity and low health-related quality of life (HRQoL) due to a high frequency of chronic diseases in the elderly population. Regular physical activity (PA) may limit some physiological effects of sedentary lifestyle and increase life expectancy. An observational was conducted...

Objective. The present study employs a profile analysis to identify and compare psychological features and core eating disorder (ED) symptoms in clinical samples of patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) and binge eating disorder (BED) and the general population (GP). Methods. A sample comprising 421 participants (142 patients with AN; 139 patients wi...

BACKGROUND Monitoring workplace violence (WPV) against health care workers (HCWs) through incident reporting is crucial to drive prevention, but the actual implementation is spotty and experiences underreporting. OBJECTIVE This study aims to introduce a systematic WPV surveillance in 2 public referral hospitals in Italy and assess underreporting,...

Objective This study examined the utility of a biopsychosocial model to explain both higher body mass index (BMI) and disordered eating. The study was designed to examine the predictors of higher BMI and a number of measures of disordered eating (dietary restraint, drive for muscularity, drive for thinness, binge eating, and compensatory behaviour)...

This study aimed to validate and investigate the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Measure of Eating Compulsivity-10 (MEC10-IT) in a sample of inpatients with severe obesity (Study 1), and to test the measurement invariance of the measure across non-clinical and clinical samples (Study 2). In the first study, a confirmatory fact...

Questionnaire

Objective The Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) has increasingly become a primary therapeutic option for longer-waiting heart transplant lists. Although survival rates are growing, the device requires complex home care. Therefore, the presence of a caregiver trained in the LVAD management is important for the success of the therapy. The LVAD le...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.818659.].

Eating disorders (i.e., food addiction and binge eating) are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality and are considered one of the most common underlying causes of weight loss failure. Despite ongoing efforts to better understand dysregulated eating, the core phenomenon of the mechanisms underlying the perception of food properties and the p...

Oxidative stress (OS) contributes to cerebral biochemical impairment and is defined as the imbalance between reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the antioxidant potential of neuronal cells pertaining brain activity. [...]

BACKGROUND Internet-based self-help interventions have the potential to help people address their emotional needs at relatively low costs. However, if the system does not offer optimal functions, it could reduce end-users' adherence and satisfaction with the treatment, therefore possibly compromising the effectiveness of the program OBJECTIVE This...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.947346.].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.947296.].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.705364.].

In the recent years, discoveries in neuroscience have greatly impacted upon the need to modify therapeutic practice starting from the evidence showing some cerebral mechanisms capable of coping with mental health crisis and traumatic events of the individual's life history by redesigning the narrative plot and the person's sense of the Self. The em...

Background The rising incidence of chronic diseases among the population, further exacerbated by the phenomenon of aging, is a primary concern and a serious challenge for the healthcare systems worldwide. Among the wide realm of health digital technologies, the rise of Digital Therapeutics (DTx), which are medical devices able to deliver evidence-b...

Chronic stress may represent one of the most important factors that negatively affects the health and performance of athletes. Finding a way to introduce psychological strategies to manage stress in everyday training routines is challenging, particularly in junior teams. We also must consider that a stress management intervention should be regarded...

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to test the psychometric properties and factorial structure of the Addiction-like Eating Behaviors Scale (AEBS) in an Italian sample of adults with severe obesity seeking treatment for weight reduction and the general population, and to examine the measurement invariance of the tool by comparing a clinical...

Purpose: This post hoc study aimed to assess the hypothesis that subjects with obesity could underestimate their body size. Methods: Data from a previous study with different aims were used to compare 22 female inpatients with obesity with 21 healthy-weight women in the size estimation accuracy of their shoulders, waist, and hips circumferences...

Evidence relative to facial emotion recognition and the role played by alexithymia in fibromyalgia syndrome is rare and heterogeneous. In this work, we investigated this ability in fibromyalgia investigating the implicit behaviour in the facial emotion recognition task, focusing on fear and anger. Twenty women with fibromyalgia and twenty healthy w...

Introduction Obesity represents one of the most serious problems of public health affecting elderly populations in an increasingly relevant way. The aim of the current study was to assess the effects of a 3-week in-hospital multidisciplinary body weight reduction program (BWRP) in a sample of elderly patients with obesity on reducing body mass inde...

Background: The pleasantness of the gentle, slow, namely affective, touch experienced in interpersonal interactions motivates social closeness. In anorexia nervosa (AN), independent evidence suggests lower pleasantness of affective touch, as well as social withdrawal. We aim to probe both the experience of affective touch and its possible associat...