Simone Cheli

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Verified

Simone verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• PhD
• Professor (Adjunct) at St. John's University

Background Schizotypal personality disorder is characterized by a pervasive pattern of maladaptive behavior that has been associated with the liability for schizophrenia. Little is known about effective psychosocial interventions. This pilot non-inferiority randomized controlled trial aimed to compare a novel form of psychotherapy tailored for this...

A prominent facet of schizotypy is the recurrence of odd cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. This paper aims to present an evolutionary interpretation of oddity as a risk-minimizing and uniqueness-maximizing strategy for facing the complexity of our hyper-affiliative species. I discuss this hypothesis by exploring the intertwined role of social sa...

Purpose Humans evolved within the mammalian line as a highly social species. Indeed, sociality has been a major driver of human social intelligence. From birth, social relationships have emotional and self‐regulating properties and operate through different body systems. This paper will explore how heart rate variability (HRV), an index of the vaga...

Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder is the most common personality disorder, with a prevalence of approximately 6.5% in the general population. However, little is known about the effective psychotherapy for this disorder. In this case series, we employed evolutionary systems therapy to support five adults diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive p...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of mindful compassion for perfectionism (MCP). MCP is an 8-week group intervention that integrates compassion-focused therapy and dynamic relational therapy and has been previously pilot-tested in a few case series. Seventy-two postgraduate students with clinically high perfectionis...

The aim of this paper is to trace a brief and partial ideological history of Italian psychology. The use of the term ideological wishes to highlight the inextinguishable link between a system of thoughts and values and the community or social group to which this system refers. In accordance with this perspective of cultural relativism, I propose to...

Despite an overall prevalence of about 4% and a possible association with well-studied conditions such as schizotypy, little is known about effective treatments for Cluster A personality disorders (PDs), that is, paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal PD. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to conduct a narrative synthesis of exist...

Savant Syndrome is a rare condition in which individuals display exceptional skills in one or more areas of functioning. Historically, the presence of these skills is reputed to be associ- ated with some disability, the most frequent (50%) of which is autism spectrum disorder. The prevalence in the general population is estimated at about 1%, with...

In this case study we present the course of the psychotherapy of Myriam, a 19‐year old female with a severe personality disorder and comorbid eating disorder. During the initial assessment she reported high levels of neuroticism that parallel the diagnosis of obsessive‐compulsive personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, and anorexia n...

Perfectionism measures developed in English-speaking populations have become frequently used in many non-English contexts, including in Italy. Establishing structural and measurement equivalence of instruments between Canadian and Italian samples is therefore important in establishing the validity of these concepts and instruments in Italian contex...

This study investigated the efficacy of psychotherapy during hospitalization on an acute psychiatric ward. A controlled trial was conducted to assess the effects of Metacognitive Reflection and Insight Therapy (MERIT) upon metacognition and psychiatric symptoms. Data from 40 inpatient women were analysed. Findings included significant interaction e...

Little is known about effective psychosocial treatments for paranoid personality disorder. This study explores the feasibility of a novel treatment, namely Evolutionary Systems Therapy, in supporting individuals diagnosed with paranoid personality disorder. Seven patients attended 10 months of individual therapy without receiving any psychopharmaco...

The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) is a dimensional framework for psychopathology advanced by a consortium of nosologists. In the HiTOP system, psychopathology is grouped hierarchically from super-spectra, spectra, and subfactors at the upper levels to homogeneous symptom components and maladaptive traits and their constituent sym...

The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) is a dimensional framework for psychopathology advanced by a consortium of nosologists. In the HiTOP system, psychopathology is grouped hierarchically from super-spectra, spectra, and subfactors at the upper levels to homogeneous symptom components and maladaptive traits and their constituent sym...

Objectives: Compassion-focused therapy (CFT) is an integrative, evolution-informed approach to mental health difficulties that has been growing rapidly in the last 30 years. This series of meta-analyses examined the overall efficacy of CFT on positive and negative mental health outcomes, in both clinical and nonclinical populations, compared to act...

Alla luce del ruolo importante che la tolleranza-propensione alla noia sembra avere in varie forme di psicopatologia negli adulti, gli autori si sono chiesti se lavorare su questa emozione in bambini con disturbi riferibili allo spettro esternalizzante, potesse incidere sulle prestazioni specifiche legate all'attenzione selettiva e sostenuta. Lo sc...

When it comes to the issue of how to treat persons with prominent schizotypal traits, therapeutic options are scarce. Despite the finding that one out of ten persons in the general population present schizotypal traits, there are no evidence-based interventions tailored to these traits. In the past few years, an attempt has been made to implement a...

This chapter considers schizotypy from a cultural perspective. Specific attention is paid to the intersubjective dimension of human life and how diverse experiences such as the diagnosis of a severe mental disorder, belonging to a minority group, and religiously interpreted events can be better understood through this intersubjective point of view....

Schizotypy is commonly conceptualized as a pathological condition. Studies on brain structure and genetics suggest that schizotypy overlaps with schizophrenia across multiple behavioral and neurobiological domains. In this chapter, we approach schizotypy from an evolutionary point of view. Specifically, we argue that traits associated with the phen...

This timely volume explores the range of personality traits and psychosocial deficits which are associated with the broadly defined construct of schizotypy. Describing schizotypy as a phenomenon that can be located on a continuum ranging from sub-clinical states to severe disorders, the editors have brought together experts in this field to discuss...

Psychoticism is a multidimensional personality construct involving odd or eccentric behavior, quasi-psychotic experiences, mistrust, interpersonal detachment, and liability for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, as well as significant distress. Recent advances suggest it can be understood as a dimension that is continuously distributed in the popula...

In questo contributo mi propongo di riassumere i miei commenti al dibattito in corso sulla Consensus Conference sulle Terapie Psicologiche per Ansia e Depressione. Nell’ottica scientifica di implementazione delle linee guida avviate dall’Istituto Superiore di Sanità, ho scelto di impostare le mie riflessioni nel formato di una peer-review, andando...

Recent studies have suggested that one in ten persons diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder have extraordinary skills. This condition, often described as savant syndrome, may be associated with high psychosocial distress. The goal of this cases series is to present a novel form of therapy for adolescents diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder—le...

Background There is a growing interest in the early assessment and treatment of maladaptive forms of personality traits in adolescents, though little is known about effective interventions. This case series aims to present the adaption of a therapy specifically tailored on schizotypal traits to adolescents. The treatment – Evolutionary Systems Ther...

During large-scale disasters, social support, caring behaviours, and compassion are shown to protect against poor mental health outcomes. This multi-national study aimed to assess the fluctuations in compassion over time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Respondents (Time 1 n = 4156, Time 2 n = 980, Time 3 n = 825) from 23 countries completed online se...

Objective: This mixed-methods study aimed to explore the role of externalizing traits in moderating the relationship between COVID-19 risk perception and vaccine hesitancy in patients diagnosed with cancer. A community-based participatory approach - comprising a preliminary qualitative inquiry and a subsequent cross-sectional research - was used t...

The treatment of schizoid personality disorder (SZPD) is a poorly studied area of psychotherapy. Although the construct of a schizoid personality has been defined for the last century, no clinical guidelines or evidence-based practices have been developed specifically for the treatment of SZPD. The cases series presented in this paper aim to explor...

Background Recent studies have shown that nurses have been more affected by the COVID-19 pandemic than any other group of hospital workers in terms of anxiety, depression, and burnout. Several clinical studies had previously demonstrated the effectiveness of mindfulness and compassion interventions in reducing burnout and emotional distress amongst...

Background Compassion focused therapy (CFT) is an evolutionary informed, biopsychosocial approach to mental health problems and therapy. It suggests that evolved motives (e.g., for caring, cooperating, competing) are major sources for the organisation of psychophysiological processes which underpin mental health problems. Hence, evolved motives can...

The tendency to hide and mask suffering and one's perceived imperfections is one of the biggest obstacles in treating those with prominent perfectionistic traits. In this single case, we present an integrative form of psychotherapy for patients with recurrent strategies aimed at neither displaying nor disclosing their perfectionism. Emily was a 26‐...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Internationale Studien zeigen, dass die Maßnahmen zur Eindämmung der COVID-19-Pandemie verstärkt zu psychischen Auffälligkeiten bei Kindern und Jugendlichen führen können. Insgesamt gibt es zu diesem Themenbereich viele Studienaktivitäten, jedoch nur wenige repräsentative Untersuchungen für Deutschland. Ziel der Arbeit...

Objectives The COVID-19 pandemic is having an unprecedented detrimental impact on mental health in people around the world. It is important therefore to explore factors that may buffer or accentuate the risk of mental health problems in this context. Given that compassion has numerous benefits for mental health, emotion regulation, and social rel...

The diagnosis of cancer often prompts people to reconsider their existential meaning and their life history. The multicultural and multifaith complexity of our societies often hinders this process and requires the development of interventions that are as sensitive and unbiased as possible. This chapter advocates the usefulness of compassion-focused...

Background International and national oncology societies had released recommendations in favor of COVID-19 vaccination in cancer patients. In the context of the national vaccination campaign targeting the so called extremely vulnerable, we aimed to assess the safety and efficacy of the mRNA vaccines in a cohort of 623 patients. Methods Between Mar...

Background Patients with comorbidity are at higher risk of deteriorating COVID-19, but they need to access healthcare services regularly for their primary disease. This study aimed to investigate whether patients restricted healthcare utilization due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to understand the relations between restriction of healthcare utilizat...

This study aimed at pilot-testing a new screening tool for assessing risk perception of and hesitancy about anti-COVID-19 in patients diagnosed with cancer. We recruited consecutive cancer patients (n = 356) who were either in treatment or follow-up. All the participants completed several measures of risk perception, confidence in safeguards, treat...

Background: We explored the role of criticism of self and of others, and metacognitive abilities in hearing voices that may refer to god or a divine presence, and qualitatively compared differences and similarities between persons who were diagnosed with psychosis and those who were not. Methods: We recruited two samples of persons who heard divin...

Background Historically social connection has been an important way through which humans have coped with large-scale threatening events. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns have deprived people of major sources of social support and coping, with others representing threats. Hence, a major stressor during the pandemic has been a sense...

The aim of this research is to present the linguistic and psychometric validation in Italian of the procedure developed by Paul H. Lysaker to assess metacognition. In two different studies we confirm the reliability of Metacognitive Assessment Scale-Abbreviated (MAS-A) and of clinical and non-clinical version of Indiana Psychiatric Illness Intervie...

Metacognition among those reporting psychotic symptoms is associated with a distortion in the way they understand their own and others’ mental states. Recent advances suggest that distortion in the form of self-criticism may activate a threat response and fuel symptom expression. At high level of self-criticism metacognition may reduce its protecti...

Growing awareness that many who are diagnosed with schizophrenia recover has spurred the development of new psychosocial approaches to treatment. These new approaches include forms of individual and group psychotherapy whose focus extends beyond reducing symptoms and improving skills to subjective outcomes related to sense of self. This paper intro...

Objective: To explore the role of personality traits in moderating the relation between COVID-19 risk perception and treatment adherence, and between risk perception and psychosocial distress in patients diagnosed with cancer. Methods: An online survey (n= 1281) was conducted worldwide in seven countries (Austria, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Spain,...

The objective of this pilot-study is to report the preliminary results of a specifically designed therapy for gifted students enrolled in highly competitive PhD programs. We outlined a case series design (n=7), with initial, final, and 1-month follow-up assessments. Inclusion criteria were: to be a student in an international PhD program; to be def...

Paranoid personality disorder (PPD) is a severe condition, lacking specialized and empirically supported treatment. To provide the clinician with insights into how to treat this condition, we present a case study of a 61‐year‐old man with severe PPD who presented with ideas of persecution, emotionally charged hostility, and comorbid antisocial pers...

Research using the integrated model of metacognition has suggested that the construct of metacognition could quantify the spectrum of activities that, if impaired, might cause many of the subjective disturbances found in psychosis. Research on social cognition and mentalizing in psychosis, however, has also pointed to underlying deficits in how per...

Background The COVID‐19 pandemic is a massive global health crisis with damaging consequences to mental health and social relationships. Exploring factors that may heighten or buffer the risk of mental health problems in this context is thus critical. Whilst compassion may be a protective factor, in contrast fears of compassion increase vulnerabili...

Perfectionism is considered a multidimensional and transdiagnostic personality style that can occur in severe forms of personality disorders. The aim of this study is to explore the acceptability and the feasibility of an integrative mindful compassion group intervention for patients who were diagnosed with personality disorders and reported promin...

Despite the high prevalence and the recurrence of severe psychopathological outcomes, perfectionistic and overcontrolled personality traits have received very little attention from scholars and public health services. Recently, authors such as Paul Hewitt, Thomas Lynch and Paul Gilbert have fostered the development of psychometric and conceptual to...

Objective: The Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale is a 45-item scale that investigates the relevance of perfectionistic personality traits. Consistent with the dynamic-relational model developed by Paul Hewitt and colleagues, three interpersonal styles are assumed: self-oriented, other-oriented, socially prescribed perfectionism. In several studi...

Objective: The Perfectionistic Cognitions Inventory is a tool aimed at assessing perfectionistic automatic rumination. The questionnaire investigates the intrapersonal cognitive component of perfectionism by giving a general index of severity con rmed by the unifactorial structure of the original version and the Italian validation we present here....

Objective: The Interview for Perfectionistic Behavior is a structured interview that is aimed to o ering the clinician an idiographic tool for assessing perfectionism. It investigates through 51 items the three components of the dynamic-relational model of perfectionism (traits; self-presentation strategies; automatic ruminations), allowing to rate...

Objective: The Perfectionistic Self-Presentation Scale is a self-report questionnaire consisting of 27 items with response on a 7-point Likert scale. The aim is to investigate the interpersonal components of perfectionism as de ned by Paul Hewitt and colleagues. The aim of the present study was to con rm the predictive validity of the scale in a la...

Objective: The Distress Overtolerance Scale is a scale whose purpose is to measure a person's ability to tolerate adverse psychological states. It assumes the existence of two sub-components: one generically linked to the ability of subjects to tolerate negative situations despite these in uencing their well-being; one related to the tendency of pe...

Objective Burnout may represent a significant source of distress in health care professionals. Many studies have reported its negative effect on career satisfaction and personal life. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relation between burnout and life satisfaction in a large sample of Italian oncologists. Methods An online survey...

The resistance of negative symptoms to pharmacologic treatment has spurred interest in understanding the psychological factors that contribute to their formation and persistence. However, little is understood about the psychological processes that reinforce and sustain the negative symptoms domain of diminished expression. Prior research has shown...

Psychotherapy for obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), where perfectionism is a defining criterion, is understudied. Despite a high prevalence few evidence-based treatments are available for the presentation. Here we describe the course of a 6-month program of meta-cognitive interpersonal therapy with an OCPD patient with prominent per...

Aim To pilot-test the effectiveness of a online compassion-focused crisis intervention for persons who were diagnosed with brief psychotic disorder and were still at high risk for a psychotic episode at the Italian announcement of lockdown on March 9th, 2020. Methods Six patients who, at the moment of the lockdown, were treated through different p...

Objective: The aim of this study was to pilot test a novel assessment and treatment plan for patients with a schizotypal personality disorder by integrating the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.) alternative model of personality disorders, metacognitively oriented psychotherapies, and recovery approaches. Method: I r...

Background The resistance of negative symptoms to pharmacologic treatment has spurred interest in understanding the psychological factors that contribute to their formation and persistence. However, little is understood about the psychological processes that reinforce and sustain the negative symptoms domain of diminished expression. Prior research...

Changes in migratory flows and the constant and unstoppable process of cultural hybridization of our society forces therapists to define and develop interventions specifically aimed at people with recent or significant migration history. The aim of this article is to outline some principles based on a constructivist perspective that may support suc...

I mutamenti nei flussi migratori e il costante ed inarrestabile processo di ibridazione culturale della nostra società impone ai clinici la definizione e lo sviluppo di interventi specificamente rivolti a persone con storia di recente o rilevante migrazione. L’obiettivo del presente articolo è quello di delineare alcuni principi fondati sulla prosp...

Palliative care may be considered a frontier of research in psycho-oncology. Although a few standardized protocols have been developed, the available studies are frequently biased. Ethical concerns, sampling and methodological biases, and unstructured delivery settings have affected the quality of clinical research. The aim of this chapter is to su...

Il libro che qui presentiamo al pubblico italiano rappresenta a nostro avviso uno strumento che coniuga due pregi assai rari: una coerenza espositiva e scientifica, nonché una fruibilità e trasferibilità pratica. "Mindful Compassion" (Gilbert e Choden 2013) si prefigge infatti l'ambizioso (e riteniamo raggiunto) obiettivo di integrare in maniera op...

Cognitivismo Clinico, 16(1) Obiettivo del presente contributo è quello di condurre una review narrativa e meta-sintesi degli studi esistenti sui costrutti di bizzarrie e schizotipia secondo una prospettiva evoluzionistica. La schizotipia rappresenta a seconda degli autori uno spectrum o taxon comprendente fenomeni diversi che vanno da esperienze b...

Schizotypal personality disorder represents a broad range of maladaptive behaviour, which has been linked to both personality disorder and schizophrenia spectrum disorders; however, to date, little effort has been devoted to developing psychosocial treatment approaches to address it. In response, we conducted two case studies exploring the effects...

Introduction In Italy, long-term outcomes of esophageal atresia (EA) are poorly understood. The Italian Association ‘Family with Esophageal Atresia’ (F.AT.E.) and Tages Onlus, and some Italian pediatric centers of reference for AE, collaborated to define the first work about long-term outcomes and quality of life (QoL) in a cohort of Italian adults...

The raising of alternative models of personality disorder together with a trauma/dissociation paradigm may represent a turning point for the understanding of the schizotypal personality disorder. Accumulating evidence on this complex phenomenon urges for further research: little is known about the disease trajectories and therapeutic options are sc...

There is an increasing base of evidence that mindfulness-based interventions are effective in reducing stress in nurses. Little is known about the potential effect of mindfulness in fostering nursing education. The present article reports the preliminary data of a pilot study aimed to introduce a mindfulness-based education program for nursing stud...

Objective Fear of recurrence is a crucial issue in cancer care. On the one hand, the increase of cancer survival rates and complexity of care is exposing patients to this type of fear. On the other hand, it is a distressing and recurrent psychosocial risk that affects quality of life and adherence to follow‐up. Patients should have access to targe...

The present paper is devoted to the description of a model that may support the theoretical integration and the clinical advance of current psychotherapy. On one hand, it reports a narrative review of the common trends of the so‐called Third Wave of Cognitive‐Behavioural Therapy and other modern approaches. On the other hand, it defines epistemolog...

Gli interventi su persone con recente o comunque rilevante storia di migrazione rappresentano un ambito di implementation science in cui dobbiamo coniugare una conoscenza approfondita delle linee guida esistenti con un’attenzione specifica al contesto culturale di provenienza. Se da un lato questo richiede saper rendere flessibile ed adattabile il...

Radical Constructivism is an epistemological position stating that knowledge is an agent’s active and dynamic construction, and its own value is established by its viability in the agent’s world of experience rather than in comparison to an external reality. The concept of Radical Constructivism was coined by Ernst von Glasersfeld (Munich, Germany,...

The unprecedented wave of refugee migration from Africa and the Middle East to Europe presents major challenges to European health professionals and to society at large. A recent workshop which took place in Syracuse, Sicily, brought together physicians, nurses and psychologists and managers of governmental agencies from Italy, Lebanon, Israel, Ira...

The continuous waves of refugees from Africa and the Middle East to Europe present major inter­cultural challenges to European health professionals and to society at large. A recent workshop in Sicily brought together local physicians, nurses, psychologists and managers of governmental agencies, along with representatives from Lebanon, Israel, Iraq...

The present paper is devoted to the description of a model that may support the theoretical integration and the clinical advance of current psychotherapy. On the one hand, it reports an extensive review of the common trends of the so-called Third Wave of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and other modern approaches. On the other hand, it defines a few e...

The continuous waves of refugees from Africa and the Middle East to Europe present major inter¬cultural challenges to European health professionals and to society at large. A recent workshop in Sicily brought together local physicians, nurses, psychologists and managers of governmental agencies, along with representatives from Lebanon, Israel, Iraq...

The aim of this study is to propose an integration of the epistemological traditions of constructivism and systemics, and of the contemporary theorizations of physics and complex system models. All these theoretical viewpoints subsume a revolutionary construction of truth and reality, that supports and expands the concept of emergence. I hypothesis...

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