Health consequences of differences in emotional processing and reactivity following the 1997 earthquake in Central Italy

Linguistic measures of the referential process in psychodynamic treatment: the English and Italian versions

The referential process is defined in the context of Bucci's multiple code theory as the process by which nonverbal experience is connected to language. The English computerized measures of the referential process, which have been applied in psychotherapy research, include the Weighted Referential Activity Dictionary (WRAD), and measures of Reflection, Affect and Disfluency. This paper presents the development of the Italian version of the IWRAD by modeling Italian texts scored by judges, and shows the application of the IWRAD and other Italian measures in three psychodynamic treatments evaluated for personality change using the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP-200). Clinical predictions based on applications of the English measures were supported.

Postoperative course after papilloma resection: effects of written disclosure of the experience in subjects with different alexithymia levels

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the investigation was to assess the effects on postoperative course after bladder papilloma resection of a technique for the written disclosure of traumatic events in interaction with individual differences in alexithymia.

METHODS

Forty subjects were administered a general questionnaire and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) the second day after admittance. Twenty subjects were asked to write for 3 days, 20 minutes a day, about their experience of being in the hospital, following instructions developed by J. W. Pennebaker and coworkers. The postoperative course was assessed objectively by the duration of stay in hospital and subjectively by subjects completing the Symptom Check List 90 (SCL-90) the day before leaving the hospital.

RESULTS

Subjects who wrote stayed fewer days in hospital and had lower SCL-90 scores. The same effect was shown by low alexithymia levels. Study of interactions showed that the effect of writing was apparent only in subjects high in alexithymia, whereas subjects low in alexithymia showed a favorable course independent of writing.

CONCLUSIONS

Writing about one's thoughts and feelings about being in hospital for a surgical operation has beneficial effects on postoperative course. This holds particularly true for high alexithymic subjects, who obtain through writing the same outcome as low alexithymic subjects.