Download Free Audio of On March 13th, 2020, in execution of the Law Decre... - Woord

Read Aloud the Text Content

This audio was created by Woord's Text to Speech service by content creators from all around the world.


Text Content or SSML code:

On March 13th, 2020, in execution of the Law Decree fourteen of 2020 regarding the reorganization of National Health Care related to COVID nineteen emergency, Public Health administration of Lazio Regional District established the abeyance of all non-urgent outpatient healthcare services. In the Psychiatric Day Hospital of Polyclinic “AGOSTINO jeMELLee” in Rome, psychotherapeutic group treatments, conducted by psychotherapists of the Hospital Psychology unit, were immediately suspended. As indicated by the National Institute of Health in 2020 in the ISS COVID-19 Report, n. 12/20, containing guidelines for telemedicine assistance services during COVID-19 health emergency, people suffering from psychiatric pafthologies were to be included amongst those to whom to direct the telemedicine services. It was then been agreed with the directors of Hospital Psychology Unit, Psychiatric Day Hospital and Polyclinic jeMELLee Foundation, that the psychotherapists would have carried on their work via remote working. The present work describes the results of remote support and online group psychotherapy set in motion during COVID nineteen emergency for outpatients with Binge Eating Disorder. Aim of the present work is to evaluate online support and group psychotherapy for outpatients with Binge Eating Disorder during lockdown due to COVID-19 emergency. 20 outpatients with Binge Eating Disorder, treated by psychotherapists of Hospital Psychology Unit, received remote support by phone calls and online group psychotherapy from March to May 2020. During the first two weeks, patients were supported via phone calls. From the third week on, they took part to online group psychotherapy sessions, held every week at the same day and time. Pre-post remote administration of Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation - Outcome and the Questionnaire of Eating Behaviours was used to evaluate outcomes. CORE-OM items belong to four main domains: Wellbeing, Problems, Functioning and Risk. Besides, Total score and Total/Risk score are calculated. SCA items are divided into three subscales: Dietary Restraint, Compensatory Behaviours and Binge Eating. Data were analyzed by Student’s t-test for paired samples. Not all the patients adhered to the online group session proposal; 5 refused, however maintaining a connection with the operators via chats, and/or weekly phone calls. Tables 1 and 2 show that no significant difference was found between pre and post scores on all subscales of the two questionnaires, thus indicating stability of symptomatology. Lockdown was a highly stressful period, in which many people lost control on eating behaviours and those with Binge Eating Disorder were expected to have an exacerbation of symptoms. The experience deserving particular attention is the creation of online therapeutic groups. Online psychotherapy is still a rather uncharted territory, which also suffers from prejudicial expectations, often nurtured more by the therapists than by the patients. The provided service, and the continuance of it, have proven effective in respect to the laid down goals for support, prevention and containment of possible worsening of patients’ conditions, as shown by stability of all kind of symptoms evaluated by the two questionnaires. The therapeutic relationship has been preserved and the therapeutic alliance has been strengthened, patients have reported to have appreciated the activities set in place and have tangibly shown to have benefitted from them.