The Global Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Individuals' and Couples' Sexuality

The COVID-19 pandemic and its related restrictions significantly impacted individuals' health, wellbeing, and security. Isolation, limitation of movement, social distancing, and forced cohabiting have had a strong influence on all areas of people's lives as well as on their sexuality. Investigating how the COVID-19 outbreak and its consequences impacted people's sexuality was the primary aim of this review. Particularly, we focused on: (1) the variables associated with the improvement or the deterioration of individuals' and couples' lives during the pandemic; (2) the use of sex as a coping strategy; (3) the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on LGBT people. Results have shown that the worsening of sexual life seems to be related to couples' conflict, emotions and psychological difficulties, being female, being single or away from the partner, being a health care worker, and having children. Moreover, a detrimental effect on sexuality was associated with stress, forced cohabitation, routine, anxiety and worry about the job and the pandemic, feeling partner distance, being unhappy with their partner, and lack of privacy. On the other hand, improvements in sexuality were associated with living happily with a partner, being happy and satisfied with a partner, feeling less stressed and more bored, having more free time, having fewer recreation opportunities, and having minor workload. During the pandemic, there was an increase in using sex toys, pornography consumption, masturbating, and trying sexual experimentations. Among LGBT people, an increase was found in the number of casual sexual partners potentially due to the perceived lower likelihood of transmission through sex. Moreover, the increase in sexual activity may have represented a coping strategy to quarantine-related distress.

The Vicious Cycle: Problematic Family Relations, Substance Abuse, and Crime in Adolescence: A Narrative Review

Despite the copiousness of studies on the risky behaviors of adolescents, we cannot establish with certainty the leading aspects involved in teens' substance abuse and criminal actions. This review aims to explore the interplay among the family system, substance abuse, and criminal behavior. An analysis of the main results of the 61 articles published between 2010 and 2020 shows that adolescents whose parents are justice-involved and often absent from home are more likely to perceive lower cohesion, support, and poor family communication. These factors can involve them in criminal acts and substance abuse. Moreover, these conducts are often linked to a form of uneasiness and a search of autonomy. Indeed, risky behaviors could have more than one meaning. Our findings also suggest that the most diffused drug-related crimes in adolescence are economic crimes, weapon carrying, robberies, dealing, and drug possession. Considering these results, future clinical implications might be based on multidimensional approaches, focusing more on the family context to promote interventions for at-risk adolescents.

Perception of Cyberbullying in Adolescence: A Brief Evaluation Among Italian Students

Cyberbullying is associated with the expansion of digital devices and the Internet. In Italy and other European and non-European countries, the phenomenon is growing. Young people who suffer from cyberbullying develop psychopathological symptoms of anxiety, depression, and social phobia that can lead to extreme acts, such as suicide. The pressure, the sense of isolation, and helplessness experienced by cyber-victims also affect their family and the school context. Cyberbullying is acted through digital tools, it is often anonymous, and aims to destroy and psychologically humiliate the victim. There are various forms of cyberbullying that involve different reactions and consequences. However, few studies have focused on adolescents' perception of cyberbullying. Youths often engage in aggressive behaviors, ignoring the feelings and reactions of the victims. Based on these considerations, our article aims to provide a general overview of the spread of the phenomenon and to understand the various types of cyberbullying and its consequences on victims. We will also illustrate a brief evaluation conducted in Italian schools investigating the perception of cyberbullying in a sample of 600 Italian adolescents (11-14 years old). Our work aims to investigate the cognition and the personal perception of youths about cyberbullying and its consequences and to promote educational interventions within and outside the context of school.

Medical and Health Care Professionals' Sexuality Education: State of the Art and Recommendations

Sexuality is considered an important aspect of holistic care, but research has shown that it is often not considered, as it should be, in health services. Addressing clients' sexuality requires a multidisciplinary approach and is not the responsibility of a single professional. The literature underlines that university students or those working in hospitals and other health care facilities are not adequately prepared to meet patients' needs regarding sexuality. The objective of this study was, therefore, to review the scientific literature addressing training courses for health professionals in sexuality between 2000 and 2020. Several studies have shown enhancement in health care professionals' ability to deal with patients' sexuality issues after participating in sexuality education programs, regardless of the course load and modality, even if the long-term effects have still to be proved. Health care professionals therefore require education in the area of sexuality, regardless of their discipline. According to the articles reviewed, in order to improve the performance and comfort level of health care professionals to deal with patients' sexuality, investments in training are necessary. Further evaluations of interdisciplinary sexuality education programmes should use larger samples and explore the differences across disciplines.

Self-Serving Bias in the Implicit and Explicit Evaluation of Partners and Exes as Parents: A Pilot Study

The quality of partners' relationship can be influenced by the reciprocal respect of the other's parenting role, especially when the couple breaks up. This study is aimed at investigating the implicit versus explicit self-serving biases in the evaluation of partners and exes as parents (or potential parents), exploring sex differences and possible relationships with dyadic cohesion. Two Implicit Association Tests and two semantic differentials, comparing each respondent with current partners and last significant exes, and also a scale measuring dyadic cohesion were administered to 108 participants (40 men; M age = 28.1 yr., SD = 8.7). As expected, participants assessed themselves as better than others on both IAT and self-report evaluations, with larger effects toward exes than toward partners and on implicit than explicit measures. Women devalued exes, but not partners, more than men. Dyadic cohesion scores were negatively correlated with the explicit evaluations of partners but not with implicit ones. Theoretical interpretations in terms of self-serving bias were discussed.

The endocannabinoid system: a putative role in neurodegenerative diseases

BACKGROUND

Following the characterization of the chemical structure of D9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive constituent of marijuana, researchers have moved on with scientific valuable explorations.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this review is to highlight the role of endocannabinoid system in neurodegenerative diseases.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The article is a critical analysis of the most recent data currently present in scientific literature on the subject; a qualitative synthesis of only the most significant articles has been performed.

RESULTS

In central nervous system, endocannabinoids show a neuromodulatory function, often of retrograde type. This way, they play an important role in synaptic plasticity and in cognitive, motor, sensory and affective processes. In addition, in some acute or chronic pathologies of central nervous system, such as neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory diseases, endocannabinoids can perform a pro-homeostatic and neuroprotective function, through the activation of CB1 and CB2 receptors. Scientific evidence shows that an hypofunction or a dysregulation of the endocannabinoid system may be responsible for some of the symptoms of diseases such as multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntington's, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.

CONCLUSIONS

The important role played by endocannabinoid system promises interesting developments, in particular to evaluate the effectiveness of new drugs in both psychiatry and neurology.