This study examined the relationship between quality of life (QOL) and dual diagnosis among patients in treatment for opioid dependence. The study sample includes 57 patients with opioid dependence alone (OD) and 41 with opioid dependence and a psychiatric axis-I disorder (DD), recruited in 2001 and 2004 at the Drug Addiction Services (SerT) of Bolzano and Pontedera (Italy). Participants were 73.5% males, with a mean age of 35.1 years (SD = 8.0). A comparison group of 45 healthy controls was also included. Assessments included a structured psychiatric interview (SCID) and a self-report quality of life assessment (WHOQOL-BREF). Patients with DD reported significantly (p < 0.05) poorer QOL in the physical and psychological domains as compared with patients with OD. Both groups of patients with and without DD showed significantly (p < 0.001) poorer QOL in the physical, psychological, and social domains with respect to healthy participants. The scores on the "relationship with environment" domain did not differ among OD, DD, and controls. The present study provides preliminary evidence that dual diagnosis is associated with poorer QOL and emphasizes the need to target treatment for the mental disorder concomitantly with the dependence problem in patients in treatment for opioid dependence.

The Paleozoic–Mesozoic transition is characterized by the most massive extinction of the Phanerozoic. Nevertheless, an impressive adaptive radiation of herbivorous insects occurred on gymnosperm-dominated floras not earlier than during the Middle to Late Triassic, penecontemporaneous with similar events worldwide, all which exhibit parallel expansions of generalized and mostly specialized insect herbivory on plants, expressed as insect damage on a various plant organs and tissues. The flora from Monte Agnello is distinctive, due to its preservation in subaerially deposited pyroclastic layers with exceptionally preserved details. Thus, the para-autochthonous assemblage provides insights into environmental disturbances, caused by volcanic activity, and how they profoundly affected the structure and composition of herbivory patterns. These diverse Middle Triassic biota supply extensive evidence for insect herbivore colonization, resulting in specific and complex herbivory patterns involving the frequency and diversity of 20 distinctive damage types (DTs). These DT patterns show that external foliage feeders, piercer-and-suckers, leaf miners, gallers, and oviposition culprits were intricately using almost all tissue types from the dominant host plants of voltzialean conifers (e.g., Voltzia), horsetails, ferns (e.g., Neuropteridium, Phlebopteris, Cladophlebis and Thaumatopteris), seed ferns (e.g., Scytophyllum), and cycadophytes (e.g., Bjuvia and Nilssonia).

Several fern remains are described from the para-autochthonous early late Ladinian flora of the Monte Agnello (Dolomites, N-Italy

&lt;p&gt;Due to the complex geodynamic framework and the excellent state of preservation of the stratigraphic relationships towards the host metamorphic and sedimentary rocks, the Permo-Triassic magmatic sequences of the Southern Alps (Italy) are intensely studied. Throughout the Southalpine domain, the main peaks of the volcano-plutonic activity are both pre- and post-dated by the emplacement of small volume of magmas with variable chemical affinity. These magmas, preserved as dykes and veins intruded into the plutonic bodies and/or the overlying volcanites, are powerful tools for tracing the evolution of the magma source and reconstructing the temporal evolution of the magmatic episode. Here, we present a detailed geochemical and geochronological study of phonolitic dykes (SiO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; from 56.8 to 57.8 wt.%; Na&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O + K&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O from 11.1 to 15.3 wt.%) cropping out near Predazzo (Southern Alps; Italy) and intruded into the basaltic to trachyandesitic Middle Triassic lavas. The phonolites are mostly aphyric with a porphyricity index &lt;10%. The main mineral phases are concentric-zoned clinopyroxene, ranging in composition from diopside-hedenbergite, to aegirine (Wo&lt;sub&gt;13-51&lt;/sub&gt;; En&lt;sub&gt;2-29&lt;/sub&gt;; Fs&lt;sub&gt;20-85&lt;/sub&gt;), K-feldspar and rare sodalite. Accessory phases are titanite, apatite and magnetite embedded in a aphyric matrix. Titanite has a highly variable U-Th concentration (U from 24 to 478 ppm and Th from 170 to 4328 ppm) and is characterized by a chondrite-normalized REE pattern with a convex-upward shape (La/Yb&lt;sub&gt;N&lt;/sub&gt; from 18.9 to 41.5) with enrichment in LREE and depletion in HREE. Thermometry through Zr-in-Titanite calculations (Hayden et al., 2008) indicate crystallisation temperatures between 860.3 and 942.8 &amp;#177; 57 &amp;#176;C. In-situ, U-Pb dating on titanite phenocrysts performed by laser ablation-inductively coupled-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) shows that the age of phonolite dykes is comprised between 240.4 &amp;#177; 3.2 Ma and 242.0 &amp;#177; 3.6 Ma, partially overlapping with the emplacement of the Middle-Triassic plutonic bodies of the Dolomites (238.190 &amp;#177; 0.050 - 238.075 &amp;#177; 0.087; Storck et al. 2019).&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;These results provide new insights into the timing of the Middle Triassic magmatic event in the Southern Alps, fostering the debates about the temporal and chemical evolution of the magmatism in between the Variscan orogeny and the opening of the Alpine Tethys.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;References:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Hayden, L. A., Watson, E. B., &amp; Wark, D. A. (2008). A thermobarometer for sphene (titanite). Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 155(4), 529-540.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Storck, J. C., Brack, P., Wotzlaw, J. F., &amp; Ulmer, P. (2019). Timing and evolution of Middle Triassic magmatism in the Southern Alps (northern Italy). Journal of the Geological Society, 176(2), 253-268.&lt;/p&gt;