In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, randomized clinical trial, we studied the efficacy of long-term (1-year) oral treatment with acetyl-L-carnitine in 130 patients with a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. We employed 14 outcome measures to assess functional and cognitive impairment. After 1 year, both the treated and placebo groups worsened, but the treated group showed a slower rate of deterioration in 13 of the 14 outcome measures, reaching statistical significance for the Blessed Dementia Scale, logical intelligence, ideomotor and buccofacial apraxia, and selective attention. Adjusting for initial scores with analysis of covariance, the treated group showed better scores on all outcome measures, reaching statistical significance for the Blessed Dementia Scale, logical intelligence, verbal critical abilities, long-term verbal memory, and selective attention. The analysis for patients with good treatment compliance showed a greater drug benefit than for the overall sample. Reported adverse events were relatively mild, and there was no significant difference between the treated and placebo groups either in incidence or severity.

A preliminary study was carried out on a population of twenty-five consecutive and unselected patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy. A matched control group of subjects suffering from same pathology, but unoperated, was compared to experimental sample. A battery of neuropsychological tests, the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale and the Jachuck's Quality of Life Impairment Scale were administered one week before surgery, two weeks after (surgical sample only) and then eight months later. The research shows that carotid endarterectomy does not impair neuropsychological performances, but produces some improvement, reaching significant level in the case of Word Fluency 1 and Similarities tests; depressive scores remained substantially unchanged, while quality of life improved slightly.

In this study two rating scales, the Echelle d'Evaluation de Risque Suicidaire and the Pierce-modified form of the Suicide Intent Scale, were administered to a group of 43 persons admitted to the general hospital of Padua for suicide attempts. The purpose of our study was to verify whether these tools could be considered useful in the assessment of severity of the attempts. The rating scales showed good concordance in identifying the adjustment disorder group as less dangerous for the seriousness of the attempt.

In this study, the dexamethasone suppression test (DST) and 2 rating scales, the ‘Echelle d’Evaluation de Risque Suicidaire’ and the Pierce modified form of the Suicide Intent Scale, were administered to a group of 37 subjects admitted to the general hospital of Padua for suicide attempts. The purpose of our study was to verify if these tools could be considered useful in assessing the severity of the attempts. 10 subjects were DST-positive, but the test evidenced very low sensitivity and predictive value. The 2 rating scales demonstrated a good degree of concordance in identifying the adjustment disorder group as being at a lower risk for a serious attempt.