Frontiers in Psychology

Our medical research library holds 6 studies published in Frontiers in Psychology (2018–2024). Each entry links to the study's record on PubMed and, where there is one, to the publisher's page and a free full text. 5 have an abstract, the authors' own summary as PubMed records it: open "Abstract" to read it. For 1 study PubMed has no abstract for, we give the abstract printed in the article or, where there is none, a summary we wrote from it, each labeled as such.

About the journal

• Publisher: Frontiers Research Foundation
• Published: 2010 to the present, Switzerland
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1664-1078 (electronic)
• Its record in the NLM Catalog

2020s

• Confirmatory validation of a brief patient-reported outcome measure assessing psychological distress in caregivers of malignant mesothelioma patients: the Mesothelioma Psychological Distress Tool-Caregivers. A. Granieri, I.G. Franzoi, M.D. Sauta, et al. 2024;15:1444960. PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

  Abstract

  Objective: The diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma (MM) can be devastating for both patients and caregivers, who may experience intense suffering from a physical, psychological, and interpersonal perspective. Despite the extensive literature on caregiver distress, there is a lack of validated measures to provide evidence of psychological distress of caregivers of MM patients. Therefore, in a previous study we developed the Mesothelioma Psychological Distress Tool-Caregivers (MPDT-C) to evaluate the specific profile of psychological distress in this population. This paper describes the item selection, factor analysis, and psychometric evaluation of the revised MPDT-C.

  Methods: The analyses of this work first aimed to confirm the previous factorial structure. In the case of nonfit, it aimed to find an alternative structure and causes of nonfit in the model. Examination of the fit of the factorial model was conducted using a Bayesian approach.

  Results: The final version of the MPDT-C is a 7-item self-report questionnaire consisting of one factor (Burden for the caregiver).

  Conclusion: Having a short self-report questionnaire to assess the psychological distress experienced by caregivers of MM patients has several advantages. First, it is suited to epidemiological studies where multiple variables and measures are involved. Second, it is easy to administer and does not take much time to complete. Therefore, the MPDT-C can also be administered in clinical contexts, perhaps when MM patients attend follow-up medical evaluation. Lastly, short measures are less affected by cognitive fatigue, which is very common in a long battery of tests and could affect response reliability.

  Copyright © 2024 Granieri, Franzoi, Sauta, Marinaccio, Mensi, Rugarli, Migliore, Cozzi, Cavone, Vimercati, Grosso, Bertolotti, Raimondi, Innamorati and Bonafede.

• Rediscovering one's own voice in a brief psychoanalytic group intervention aimed at malignant mesothelioma patients and their families. I.G. Franzoi. 2024;15:1471057. PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

  Abstract

  Occupational and/or environmental exposure to asbestos can lead to clinical manifestation of a variety of diseases, including malignant mesothelioma (MM), a rare cancer with a particularly high incidence rate in areas with a long history of asbestos processing. This paper aims to describe brief psychoanalytic groups (BPGs), which is an intervention model aimed at MM patients and their families in the early stages of the disease, shortly after diagnosis. The BPG model comprises 12 weekly sessions of 1 h each, co-led by two psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapists who are trained in working with cancer patients and their families and in the specifics of the BPG setting. Reflections in this paper on the BPGs will attempt to trace the voice of the group in clinical material, paying attention to its horizontal unfolding as a melodic development over time and its vertical unfolding as a harmonic interweaving between the different individual voices, which, even when opposed to each other, can find a generative interlocking of meaning. In the BPG, then, it is possible to set in motion transformations that allow one to embrace the different and diverse affective colorations of experience, evolve toward a thinking that is capable of incorporating intense emotions related to death and grief, follow healthier paths of interaction on an intrapsychic and interpersonal level, and find traces of one's own vitality.

  Copyright © 2024 Franzoi.

• Preliminary validation of a brief PROM assessing psychological distress in patients with malignant mesothelioma: The mesothelioma psychological distress tool-Patients. F. Guglielmucci, M. Bonafede, D. Azzolina, et al. 2022;13:974982. PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

  Abstract

  Objective: Psychological suffering in malignant mesothelioma (MM) differs from that in other cancers because of its occupational etiology, and we aimed to develop specific patient-reported outcome measures to assess it.

  Methods: We used a multi-method prospective observational multicentric study (N = 149), and a preliminary questionnaire validation was performed through a Bayesian approach.

  Results: Item analysis showed a good internal consistency and reliability (Cronbach alpha = 0.79 [95% CI = 0.74-0.93]. Twenty of the 41 initial items were selected as posterior 95% highest density interval factor loading standardized effect size fell outside of the region of practical equivalence. Bayesian exploratory factor analysis showed a two-factor structure: (1) Trauma-related reactions (TR, 13 items) and (2) Claim for justice (CJ, 7 items), confirmed by the Bayesian confirmatory factor analysis. Latent factors were poorly correlated (Posterior median: 0.13; 95% CI = -0.079 to 0.323). The 90% root mean square error of approximation posterior median was 0.04 [90% CI = 0.03-0.58]; the 90% chi-square posterior median was 242 [90% CI = 209-287].

  Conclusion: Psychological suffering in MM patients implies negative cognitive, emotional, and somatic reactions related to the traumatic impact of the disease and the need to obtain justice through economic compensation. Our findings provide preliminary evidence that the Mesothelioma Psychological Distress Tool-Patients could be a promising and reliable instrument to assess MM patients' psychological distress.

  Copyright © 2022 Guglielmucci, Bonafede, Azzolina, Marinaccio, Franzoi, Migliore, Mensi, Chellini, Romeo, Grosso and Granieri.

• Commentary: SARS-CoV-2 and Asbestos Exposure: Can Our Experience With Mesothelioma Patients Help Us Understand the Psychological Consequences of COVID-19 and Develop Interventions?. D. Di Basilio, J. Shigemura, F. Guglielmucci. 2021;12:720160. Comment PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

  Summary

  This commentary responded to a 2020 article by Granieri and colleagues that had highlighted similarities between COVID-19 and malignant mesothelioma (MM). The authors argued that, despite relevant similarities, the differences between the two conditions outweighed the similarities. These differences included aetiology, infection pattern, chronological course, physical symptoms and prognosis. They noted that because asbestos exposure is usually connected to industrial activity, MM can be characterised as an occupational disease for which responsibility can be traced to companies. They added that MM patients often feel betrayed by their employers, with anger and claims for compensation. By contrast, they described COVID-19 as a pandemic of probable zoonotic origin with no identifiable culprit. They stated that in MM, fears of an "aerial contagion" and of infecting or being infected by others are found mainly among people living in contaminated sites. COVID-19, they argued, also involved social restrictions and what they called "institutional betrayal" by governments and institutions. They proposed an "Ecological Response to Complex Trauma" (ERCT) model with three concentric levels (individual, community and societal), each with its own mental representations and risk and protective factors. They also discussed social media as both helpful and harmful. They conceptualised MM as a two-level traumatic event affecting patients and families, for which group therapy could be beneficial. They described COVID-19 as a social catastrophe requiring multi-level, trauma-informed interventions, including telehealth, attention to vulnerable groups, trauma-informed communication, and health literacy built into education.

  PubMed has no abstract for this study, and the article doesn't print one. We wrote this summary from the full article with the help of AI. It is not the authors' wording.

• SARS-CoV-2 and Asbestos Exposure: Can Our Experience With Mesothelioma Patients Help Us Understand the Psychological Consequences of COVID-19 and Develop Interventions?. A. Granieri, M. Bonafede, A. Marinaccio, et al. 2020;11:584320. Review PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

  Abstract

  Since its emergence, the novel coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) has had enormous physical, social, and psychological impacts worldwide. The aim of this article was to identify elements of our knowledge on asbestos exposure and malignant mesothelioma (MM) that can provide insight into the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and be used to develop adequate interventions. Although the etiology of Covid-19 and MM differs, their psychological impacts have common characteristics: in both diseases, there is a feeling of being exposed through aerial contagion to an "invisible killer" without boundaries that can strike even the strongest individuals. In both cases, affected persons can experience personality dysfunction, anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic symptoms; helplessness, hopelessness, and projection of destructive thoughts onto external forces often emerge, while defense mechanisms such as denial, splitting, repression, and reduced emotional expression are used by individuals to contain their overwhelming anxieties. We believe that in both diseases, an integrated multidimensional intervention offered by hospitals and other public health services is the most effective approach to alleviating patients' and caregivers' psychological distress. In particular, we emphasize that in the context of both MM and COVID-19, Brief Psychoanalytic Group therapy can help patients and caregivers attribute meaning to the significant changes in their lives related to the experience of the disease and identify adaptive strategies and more realistic relational modalities to deal with what has happened to them. We also highlight the importance of developing a surveillance system that includes individual anamnestic evaluation of occupational risk factors for COVID-19 disease.

  Copyright © 2020 Granieri, Bonafede, Marinaccio, Iavarone, Marsili and Franzoi.

2010s

• "The Less I Think About It, the Better I Feel": A Thematic Analysis of the Subjective Experience of Malignant Mesothelioma Patients and Their Caregivers. F. Guglielmucci, I.G. Franzoi, M. Bonafede, et al. 2018;9:205. PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

  Abstract

  Aim: A cancer diagnosis-and in particular a Malignant Mesothelioma (MM) one-breaks the somatopsychic balance of the individual, compromising the quality of residual life and giving rise to many negative emotions difficult to integrate and to elaborate (such as depression, fears, anxieties, hopelessness, guilt, shame, and rage). Several national and international guidelines acknowledged the importance of evaluating psychological and socio-relational features in MM patients and their caregiver. However, only few studies have investigated the subjective experience of MM patients and even less research has focused on the caregivers' experience. Thus, the aim of the present study is to investigate the lived experience of both MM patients and their caregivers, providing an in-depth comprehension of the psychological sequelae of the disease. Materials and Methods: Within a psychoanalytically-informed conceptual framework, open-ended interviews were conducted with 10 MM patients and 9 caregivers. Thematic analysis was employed: interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded in order to identify the main recurring themes across the narratives. Results: We detected four different themes: (1) bodily symptoms and embodied emotions; (2) living in or near a National Priority Contaminated Site (NCPS); (3) "nothing is like it was" (that is, the impact of the diagnosis on everyday life, the changes it causes in the family relationships, the things that are still possible to do, the mourning process); (4) "what will become of us?" (that is, worries about the impact of the diagnosis on the beloved ones, death and legacy). Discussion: MM patients and caregivers seem to be stuck in a concrete mental functioning focused on symptoms and they find it difficult to openly think and talk about the affective and emotional consequences of the diagnosis. Alongside this, they express the need to find new and less conflictual ways to stay together and talk to each other during the period of active treatments for the illness (i.e., chemotherapy, radiotherapy, etc) and the end-of-life. The results of this study have important implications for the clinical management of MM and can help develop multi-professional specialist interventions addressed to both patients and caregivers.

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