More than Just a Brain Disorder: A Five-Point Manifesto for Psychological Care for People with Huntington’s Disease

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a rare and complex condition where affected individuals, family members, caregivers, and clinicians face a number of both long-term and fluctuating challenges. The predominant biomedical framework adopted in HD to date has traditionally viewed it as a brain disorder first and foremost. As a consequence, one of the most challenging aspects of the condition—psychological difficulties and their care—is often not given the emphasis it deserves in everyday clinical practice. Here, we propose a manifesto outlining five points to address the quality, effectiveness, availability, and accessibility of psychological care in HD. These include (1) Listening to People with HD, (2) Reformulating Difficulties Psychologically, (3) Exploring New Interventions, (4) Increasing Psychological Provision, and (5) Learning from Other Conditions. As the search for a cure continues, we hope that this manifesto will create a new impetus towards refining the current approach to psychological difficulties in HD and ultimately improve the quality of life of the tens of thousands of families affected by HD worldwide.

The Global Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Individuals' and Couples' Sexuality

The COVID-19 pandemic and its related restrictions significantly impacted individuals' health, wellbeing, and security. Isolation, limitation of movement, social distancing, and forced cohabiting have had a strong influence on all areas of people's lives as well as on their sexuality. Investigating how the COVID-19 outbreak and its consequences impacted people's sexuality was the primary aim of this review. Particularly, we focused on: (1) the variables associated with the improvement or the deterioration of individuals' and couples' lives during the pandemic; (2) the use of sex as a coping strategy; (3) the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on LGBT people. Results have shown that the worsening of sexual life seems to be related to couples' conflict, emotions and psychological difficulties, being female, being single or away from the partner, being a health care worker, and having children. Moreover, a detrimental effect on sexuality was associated with stress, forced cohabitation, routine, anxiety and worry about the job and the pandemic, feeling partner distance, being unhappy with their partner, and lack of privacy. On the other hand, improvements in sexuality were associated with living happily with a partner, being happy and satisfied with a partner, feeling less stressed and more bored, having more free time, having fewer recreation opportunities, and having minor workload. During the pandemic, there was an increase in using sex toys, pornography consumption, masturbating, and trying sexual experimentations. Among LGBT people, an increase was found in the number of casual sexual partners potentially due to the perceived lower likelihood of transmission through sex. Moreover, the increase in sexual activity may have represented a coping strategy to quarantine-related distress.

Removal of Breaking Rules Haze, Hand in Hand to Rebuild Confidence: A Case Study of College Counselors’ Student Management

College students are more likely to develop psychological difficulties as a result of a lack of preparation, job counselling, and family, economic strain, which will affect their studies and lives throughout the school period. In order to assist students in overcoming obstacles and rebuilding confidence, the author analyses a case of a student disciplinary event in the hopes of discovering a solution and therefore improving job efficiency.

Therapeutic interventions employed when working with maltreated children

A number of effective treatments are available for children and young people who have developed various forms of psychological difficulties as a consequence of traumatic experiences. The aim of this paper is to review the therapeutic approaches employed when working with children who have been exposed to various forms of abuse and neglect during their childhood. This paper provides relevant information to psychotherapists and counsellors on new trends in therapy, as well as techniques and possibilities in interventions in this field, not only with respect to traumatised children, but also family members and other caregivers involved in the child’s life. Furthermore, this paper reviews the therapeutic interventions used to treat emotionally, sexually, and physically abused children, neglected children, children who have witnessed domestic violence, and children who have been exposed to multiple forms of abuse.

Mental Health, Alcohol and Substance Use of Refugee Youth

This study aims to explore the prevalence of alcohol and substance use among young refugees along with the indicators of experienced psychological difficulties. It is based on a sample of 184 children and adolescents aged 11–18 years old, residing at two refugee centers in the Republic of Serbia. Out of 184 participants, the majority was male (N = 155; 84.29%). More than a half of participants (53.3%) displayed significant symptoms of PTSD. 50% consume energy drinks, 28% use tobacco; 13% use alcohol; 4.6% use marijuana; 1.7% use LSD, amphetamines, glue, tranquilizers and cocaine. Female respondents were more frequently expressing emotional difficulties (p < 0.05) while male participants were more frequent users of alcohol or substances (p < 0.01). Younger children were more frequently expressing symptoms of hyperactivity and prosocial behavior, while they were less frequently using substances. There is also a significant negative correlation between the years of education and individual proneness to substance use. Furthermore, those who resided in a greater number of refugee camps were found to experience greater levels of emotional and behavioral difficulties and face a greater risk of physical abuse. The burden of migration increases proneness to substance use, as a consequence of scarce coping resources and the stress of adjusting. Migrants are vulnerable to substance use, since some of them have commonly witnessed and/or personally experienced pre-and post-migration stress and trauma, including loss of homes and livelihoods, violence, torture and family separation. Preventive programs need to focus on the problem of alcohol and substance use among this vulnerable population.

Psychological Treatment Models for Survivors of Critical Illness

There is consensus that being critically ill contributes to the development of both new and worsening cognitive and psychological difficulties that impact functioning across multiple domains, including educational, social, and employment settings. Psychologists have become more aware of the scope and magnitude of these problems in recent years and are increasingly engaged in the provision of clinical services to this underserved medical cohort, both as individual providers and as key members of interdisciplinary teams. This chapter reviews key issues related to the needs of ICU survivors with postintensive care syndrome, discusses current outpatient treatment models, and offers a series of suggestions to help optimize the cognitive, mental, and functional health and quality of life of individuals after critical illness.

The Unemployed Main Character in the Fiction of Kunut Hamsun and Najeeb Mahfouz: A Comparative Study in the Light of Sustainable Development

The Norwegian novelist Kunut Hamsun published his novel Hunger in 1921. The novel was translated into English by George Egerton. In this novel, Hamsun introduces the character of Andereas Tangen, a journalist who has a good life but starts to lose his living, and his essays begin to be refused. He becomes unemployed and suffers poverty, hunger, and homelessness for some time. By the end of the novel, he finds a job on a ship that is sailing from his town Christiania to fetch coal. During the 1930s the Egyptian novelist and short story writer Nageeb Mahfouz wrote his collection of short stories (Hams Eel- Gnoon) The Whisper of Madness. Among this collection, he published his short story (Al- Goo) The Hunger. In this short story, the main character, Ibrahim Hanafy has been working in a factory until he cuts his arm in an accident and loses his job. He becomes unemployed and he, with his family, suffers hunger and many social and psychological difficulties. He hates his life, tries to commit suicide but is saved coincidently by the son of the factory's owner. The man promises Ibrahim to find him a job. This paper aims to show that the unemployed main character in Hamsun's and Mahfouz's works is unable either to love a partner or to have a friend and if he is married, he is unable to keep his marriage relation. Another aim of the paper is to shed light on the negative relations of the unemployed character on one side with his god and with the government of his country on the other side. The third aim of the paper is to emphasize that unemployment, in Hamsun's and Mahfouz's works, leads the once good character to try to commit suicide. Thus the paper comes into three parts: the first part deals with Tangen’s failure to have a love relation or enjoy a friendship. This part also tackles Hanafy’s disability to protect his love for his wife. The second part introduces Tangen’s criticism of his god and of the government in his country. In the third part, the paper discusses the once good characters, becoming unemployed, thinking of death as a solution, and may try to commit suicide. The paper depends on the theory of needs' priority and the method of social and psychological analysis in tackling its topic.

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Impact on Families’ Mental Health: The Role Played by Parenting Stress, Parents’ Past Trauma, and Resilience

International research has evidenced the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on families, and the key role played by parenting stress levels. Although significant associations with parents’ past trauma and resilience have been shown, this study aimed to explore their complex interplay on the relationship between parents’ peritraumatic distress due to COVID-19, parenting stress, and children’s psychopathological difficulties. We recruited 353 parents with children aged two to 16 years via an online survey during the Italian second wave of COVID-19. Parents’ peritraumatic distress due to COVID-19, parenting stress, past trauma and resilience, and children’s psychological difficulties were assessed through self-report and report-form questionnaires. Parents’ past traumas significantly predicted peritraumatic distress due to COVID-19 and children’s psychological difficulties. The relationship between past traumas and children’s psychological difficulties was serial mediated by parents’ peritraumatic distress and parenting stress. Direct and total effects of parent’s resilience on parent’s peritraumatic distress were not significant, but there were significant indirect effects via parenting stress and via parents’ peritraumatic distress and parenting stress, indicating inconsistent mediation. This study evidenced the key risk and protective role played by, respectively, parents’ past traumas exposure and resilience on the relationship between parents’ psychological difficulties due to COVID-19, parenting stress, and children’s psychological difficulties, with important clinical implications.

How Does Psychological Distress Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Internet Addiction and Instagram Addiction in Emerging Adults?

International research has underlined a worrying increase in Internet and Instagram addiction among emerging adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the role played by alexithymia and psychological distress due to COVID-19 has been evidenced, no study has explored their complex relationship in predicting emerging adults’ Internet and Instagram addiction. The present study aimed to verify whether peritraumatic distress due to the COVID-19 pandemic mediated the relationship between emerging adults’ alexithymia and their Internet/Instagram addiction, in a sample composed of n = 400 Italian emerging adults. Results showed that females had higher peritraumatic distress due to COVID-19 than males, whereas males had higher externally oriented thinking and higher levels of Internet addiction than females. Emerging adults’ psychological distress due to COVID-19 significantly mediated the effect of alexithymia on Internet and Instagram addiction. Our findings supported the presence of a dynamic relationship between individual vulnerabilities and the co-occurrence of other psychological difficulties in predicting emerging adults’ Internet and Instagram addiction during the pandemic, with important clinical implications.