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INTRODUCTION: In the past five years, researchers have increasingly turned to the study of mental health outcomes in LGBt populations. the present paper summarizes recent literature on the relationship between minority stress experienced by sexual minorities and mental health. eViDeNce acQUisitiON: PsyciNFO, PubMed, and the eBscO Psychology and Behavioral science collection were searched for papers concerning minority stress and mental health disparities in LGBt populations, published between 1 January 2014 and 30 June 2018. all collected papers were screened using the following criteria: study involving >50 individuals; written in english; focusing on clinical outcomes of depression, suicidality, and substance use in relation to experienced minority stress. eViDeNce sYNthesis: sixty-two papers were included in this review. Findings are reported under three main headings: studies primarily focused on depression, studies concerning suicidality and suicide attempts, and papers analyzing the correlation between substance use and minority stress in LGBt populations. the included studies supported the minority stress model as a framework to better explain disparities in mental health outcomes in sexual minority populations. higher rates of depression, suicidality, and substance use are reported in LGBt populations, as are the related minority stressors analyzed. cONcLUsiONs: sexual minorities still face numerous mental health disparities. research indicates that the levels of minority stressors positively predict mental health outcomes. Specific policies designed to support the civil rights of sexual minorities may help to overcome such inequalities.

The data on the Italian situation here discussed are sufficiently reliable to conclude that a link exists between the ongoing economic recession and health and mental health of Italians. Further research is needed to understand more in detail and with stronger reliability such link, to support primary and secondary preventive interventions and orient the development of effective sociopolitical interventions.

The economic crisis may have increased smoking, overweight and binge drinking in Italy (though data on the latter phenomenon are not conclusive), and reduced overall alcohol consumption.

International media has paid attention to the use of substances by healthy subjects to enhance cognitive performance. Medical students are liable to use cognitive enhancers (CE) with the aim of improving academic performance. The study explored use and attitudes toward the use of CE in Italian medical students. The authors anonymously surveyed 433 medical students of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia with an ad hoc 36-items questionnaire. CE were broadly defined as any substance taken with the purpose of improving cognitive functions, from readily available beverages and substances, such as coffee, tea, energy drinks, and supplements to prescription only medication, such as psychostimulants and modafinil. Response rate was 83.8% (n = 363). While the majority of the students (74.7%; n = 271) said that they had used substances to improve cognitive functions, only 2 students (0.6%) reported the use of prescription-only medications in the last 30 days. Main reasons for not taking prescription-only drugs were concerns about safety and side effects, reported by 83.3% of students (n = 295). A positive attitude toward use was held by 60.3% (n = 219) subjects. The surveyed Italian medical students used many substances as CE, but this did not seem to apply significantly to psychostimulants. A multivariable analysis showed that the following variables were related to the propensity to use substances as CE: male gender, self-reported memory impairment, concerns about worsening of cognitive performance, lifetime use of at least one illegal substance, use of any substance (both legal or illegal) in the last 30 days.

Purpose To analyze the association between unemployment and suicide in Italy during the years 1990-2014, with a peculiar focus on the Great Recession (GR) and the role played by social protection as buffering mechanism against the negative effect on health outcomes. Methods Fixed effects panel regressions were used to assess the association between changes in unemployment rate and suicide rates. Additional models investigated the role of active labor market programs (ALMPs) as possible moderators of the association. Analyses were carried out for both males and females, stratified by age and region. Results The negative time-trend displayed by suicide rate in Italy until 2007 was slowed down by changes in unemployment at the beginning of the GR, when this trend reversed and the rate of suicide started increasing. Male workers aged 25-64 and women aged 55-64 years were affected by both "normal" unemployment rate fluctuations as well as severe economic crises. Women aged 35-44 were only influenced by the latter. Men benefit from ALMPs mainly in Central Italy, while women did not benefit significantly from ALMPs. Conclusions In Italy, economic downturns were associated with increased suicides mainly among men, while severe economic crises were associated with increased suicides among both men and women. ALMPs showed to be effective in moderating the association between unemployment and suicide among men aged 45-54 only in Central Italy. The overall small effectiveness of such programs may be due to lack of sufficient funding.

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From the mid-1990s on, the suicide rate in Italy declined steadily, then apparently rising again after the onset of the Great Recession, along with a sharp increase in unemployment. The aim of this study is to test the association between the suicide rate and unemployment (i.e., the unemployment rate for males and females in the period 1977-2015 and the long-term unemployment rate in the period 1983-2012) in Italy, by means of co-integration techniques. The analysis was adjusted for public unemployment spending (referring to the period 1980-2012). The study identified a long-run relationship between the suicide rate and long-term unemployment. On the other hand, an association between the suicide and unemployment rate stemmed out, though statistically weaker. A 1% increase in long-term unemployment increases the suicide rate by 0.83%, with a long-term effect lasting up to eighteen years. Public unemployment spending (as percentage of the Italian Gross Domestic Product) may mitigate this association: when its annual growth rate is higher than 0.18%, no impact of unemployment on suicide in detectable. A decrease in the suicide rate is expected for higher amounts of social spending, which may be able to compensate for the reduced level of social integration resulting from unemployment, helping the individual to continue to integrate into society. A corollary of this is that austerity in times of economic recession may exacerbate the impact of the economic downturn on mental health. However, a specific ''flexicurity'' system (intended as a combination of high employment protection, job satisfaction and labour-market policies) may have a positive impact on health. 2001 [25], while Stuckler et al. collected data referring to mortality in 1970-2003 (including 2006) [12]. Our intention was to fill this gap, by extending the analysis, thus including the Great Recession and the subsequent years of severe economic crisis, as well as data concerning social protection measures. Methods Data collection From the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Statistics (https://data.oecd.org/) we extracted the following data for Italy: male and female suicide rates (for the period 1977-2015), male and female unemployment rates (1977-2015), long-term unemployment rate (1983-2012), public unemployment spending expressed as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (1980-2012). According to the OECD, "Long-term unemployment refers to people who have been unemployed for 12 months or more. The long-term unemployment rate shows the proportion of these long-term unemployed among all unemployed." [34] On the other hand, "Public unemployment spending is defined as expenditure on cash benefits for people to compensate for unemployment. This includes redundancy payments from public funds, as well as the payment of pensions to beneficiaries before they reach the standard pensionable age, if these payments are made because the beneficiaries are out of work or for other labour market policy reasons. This indicator is measure...