No abstract

No abstract

Jealousy appears to have clear adaptive functions across species: it emerges when an important social relationship with a valued social partner is threatened by third-party that is perceived as a rival. Dyads of dogs living together and their owners were tested adapting a procedure devised to study jealousy in young human siblings. Owners at first ignored both dogs while reading a magazine (Control episode), and then petted and praised one of the dogs while ignoring the other, and vice versa (Experimental episodes). We found several differences in the dogs' behavior between the Experimental episodes and the Control episode, even though only monitoring (gazing at the owner) was exhibited for a significantly greater amount of time in the Experimental episodes. Remarkable individual behavioral differences emerged, suggesting that the dogs' reactions could be influenced by the relationships that they establish with their owner and the companion dog. Overall, current results do not clearly support our prediction that the ignored dogs would exhibit more behaviors aimed at regaining the owner's attention when their owner directed attention and care to a companion dog, compared to the control situation. The great intra- and inter-dyad behavioral variability and the choice to test cohabiting dogs could have prevented the emergence of a clear jealous reaction. These findings do not exclude that dogs may exhibit a primordial form of jealousy in a realistic situation, but an additional research is needed to fully gauge which situations, if any, could trigger jealousy in dogs and to rule out alternative explanations.

The COVID-19 outbreak has taken a heavy toll on the mental well-being of healthcare workers. This study aims to describe a psychological screening program developed at a large University Hospital in Milan, Italy, and assess the psychological outcomes of employees and associated factors. A survey was electronically conducted among hospital employees between July and October 2020. Sociodemographic data, information about COVID-19 experience and three scales assessing anxiety (STAI-Y1), depression (HAM-D) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PCL-5) were collected. A total of 308 employees (80% women; mean age 45.1 years) responded: 16% physicians, 68% other healthcare professionals, and 16% administrative staff. Employees reported moderate/severe symptoms of anxiety (23%), depression (53%), and post-traumatic stress disorder (40%). At multivariate logistic regression analysis, having suffered a loss for COVID-19 in the personal context was independently associated with higher risk of moderate/severe anxiety (OR = 2.40; 95% CI 1.16–4.98), being female was associated with higher risk of moderate/severe depression (OR = 2.82; 95% CI 1.43–5.59), and having had a family member affected by COVID-19 was associated with higher risk of moderate/severe post-traumatic stress disorder (OR = 2.75; 95% CI 1.01–7.48). COVID-19 personal experience may have a profound impact on hospital workers’ mental health and should be considered in supportive interventions.

Purpose To explore the association between patient-centered communication, patients' satisfaction, and retention in care in assisted reproductive technology (ART) visits. Methods ART visits at eight Italian clinics were videotaped and coded using the Roter Interaction Analysis System, which includes a Patient-Centered Index (PCI), a summary Bpatient-centered communication^ratio. After the visit, patients completed a satisfaction questionnaire (SATQ). After 3 months, patients were asked about their retention in care. Spearman correlations and Mann-Whitney tests were used to test associations between the study variables; the open-ended item of SATQ was analyzed through content analysis.Results Eighty-five visits were videotaped (involving 28 gynecologists and 160 patients). PCI score (μ = 0.51 ± 0.28) revealed a more disease-oriented communication during the visit. Patients reported high levels of satisfaction with the visit and identified in the information provision or in the doctor's humanity or kindness the main reasons of satisfaction. At the follow-up, the majority of the couples declared to have followed the clinicians' recommendations and to have remained related to the ART center. No associations were found among the study variables, except for a lower male satisfaction among couples who declared to have changed ART clinic. Conclusions Contrary to what was expected, the style of physician-patient communication was not found to be associated with patient satisfaction and retention in care. However, patients were highly satisfied and engaged. The actual meaning of a communication that is Bpatient-centered^in the ART context might be wider, including the couples' need for information, as suggested by qualitative findings.

The present study investigated the role of pre-motion positivity in movement initiation and the reason why it is not reliably detectable in every study participant. Nineteen right-handed participants performed self-initiated simple movements of the right index finger and mouth while electroencephalography activity was recorded. Most of the participants showed a clear-cut pre-motion positivity with its characteristics varying as a function of the effector involved in the movement. The pre-motion positivity distribution was ipsilateral for finger movements and symmetrical for mouth movements. The results suggest that pre-motion positivity might represent a go-signal to initiate the movement and its occurrence might depend on movement initiation strategies.

No abstract

Work accidents can be traumatic events that might give rise to a variety of dysfunctional stress responses. An integrated assessment of stress responses after work‐related trauma is considered as a valuable approach in clinical practice. The purpose of the present study was to assess affective adjustment after work‐related accidents using a multidimensional assessment. Fourteen males who had experienced work‐related accidents and 13 male controls were assessed using self‐report instruments and the recording of skin conductance response and the startle reflex during the viewing of standardized trauma‐related and trauma‐unrelated pictures. Participants who underwent a work accident reported more severe maladjustment symptoms than controls, as indicated by higher Post‐traumatic stress disorder Symptom Scale (PSS) scores. Moreover, participants with higher PSS scores showed more severe depressive symptomatology and general psychopathology, and lower psychophysiological reactivity than participants with lower PSS scores. Long‐lasting maladjustment problems after work‐related accidents influence various affective domains even many years after the traumatic event. In those individuals who showed higher post‐stress symptoms, an integrated assessment highlights a lack of concordance between self‐reported symptoms and physiological activation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.