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CREA - AMG RESEARCH AND EVOLUTION CENTRE
CREA - AMG Research and Evolution Centre is a scientific research and cultural-scientifc evolution project for A.M.G. (Assistenza Minorati Gravi) of the Misericordia di Firenze.
News Archive
news
mTOR: A KEY GENE IN UNDERSTANDING THE GREATER PSYCHO-PHSYCIAL VULNERABILITY IN PEOPLE WITH INTELLECTUAL AND RELATIONAL DEVLEOPMENTAL DISORDERS - FIRST PART
In 2009, it was discovered that a substance of bacterial origin can significantly lengthen the duration of life of some mammals. also the reduction of the food intake seems to delay the aging acting on the same gene. An increasing number of research is indicating that TOR has a key role in some of the principle regulatory mechanisms of cell physiology and systems with which they communicate: nervous, endocrine, and immune.
Marco O. Bertelli
CORRELATION BETWEEN AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIORS AND PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS IN PEOPLE WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY
Recently, Dr. Tsiouris and his team of New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities have investigated the complex relationship between psychiatric disorders and aggression in people with intellectual disability.
Micaela Piva Merli e Marco Bertelli
PREVALENCE OF PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM: NEW RESULTS
Many studies indicate a high prevalence of psychiatric disorders in adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). More uncertain is the data with respect to children. A recent irish research found a particularly high rate of anxiety disorders and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Marco O. Bertelli
THE OXYTOCIN AS BASIS FOR FUTURE DRUGS AGAINST AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS
Increasingly evidences confirm that the neuropeptide oxytocin modulate cognitive social skills and consequent behaviours. this substance could be the basis for new pharmachlogical treatments for the relational development disorders.
Marco O. Bertelli
MATERNAL PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS SEEM TO TRIPLE THE RISK OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY IN CHILDREN: NEW EVIDENCE FOR A GENETIC BASIS COMMON TO PHENOTYPICALLY DIFFERENT NEUROPSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS
Children born to mothers suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder o major depression have a risk three times higer to develop intellectual disability compared with children born to mothers without a psychiatric disorder in clinical history.
Marco O. Bertelli e Micaela Piva Merli
COGNITIVE DYSFUNCTIONS AND PSYCHIATRIC SYMPTOMS IN THE MARSHALL-SMITH SYNDROME
In Marshall-Smith syndrome, recently associated with a mutation in the gene NFIX, intellectual disability is often linked to particular psychiatric problems and specific alterations of cognitive functions. Is it possible that there is a relationship between the cognitive phenotype and psychiatric symptoms?
Marco O. Bertelli
PARTICIPATION OF CREA IN ‘QUALITY OF LIFE SIRG ROUNDTABLE 2011’
On the 9th and 10th of November 2011 the annual gathering of researchers belonging to the special interest group on the Quality of Life of the International Association for Scientific Studies of Intellectual Disabilities will be held. The CREA site anticipates some content.
Micaela Piva Merli e Marco O. Bertelli
SCHIZOPHRENIA AND INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS: WHICH CONTIGUITY?
The progressive development of pathogenetic models of schizophrenia pertaining to neurodevelopment, is shedding new light on aspects of contiguity, already recognized in the past, with intellectual developmental disorders.
Marco O. Bertelli e Daniela Scuticchio
PSYCHIATRIC COMORBIDITY IN FRAGILE X SYNDROME: NEW ACQUISITIONS
The psychiatric-specific aspects of Fragile X syndrome have not yet been clarified, particularly in relation to age and genetic structure. The psychopathology of relatives who are carriers of the permutations is little known. The research group of Lidia Gabis of Central Weinburg of Israel has recently tried to bring new knowledge to this field.
Marco O. Bertelli
CIGARETTE SMOKE IN THE INTELLECTUALLY DISABLED: WHAT ARE THE RISKS FOR MENTAL HEALTH
Some epidemiological studies indicate that cigarette smoking is a frequent problem in people with intellectual disabilities. It may contribute to the emergence of psychiatric disorders and significantly restrict the drug treatments.
Marco O. Bertelli
AUTISM, SCHIZOPHRENIA AND INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES: AT A CROSSROADS ON SHORT ARM OF CHROMOSOME 16
It was recently discovered that variations in the number of copies of some sequences of the genome on the short arm of chromosome 16, already correlated with autism, are associated with the possibility of developing schizophrenia. In previous studies the deletion of a neighboring area was found to be an independent risk factor for the development of intellectual disabilities. Is it possible that there is a basic common epigenetic to the three conditions?
Marco O. Bertelli
DOWN SYNDROME: IMPORTANT EVIDENCE IN THE FULFILLMENT OF THE COMPLETE GENETIC MAP
For many years scholars have worked to understand which genes may be responsible for the clinical manifestations of Down syndrome and to improve the conditions and life expectancy of the individuals who are affected.
Micaela Piva Merli
INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY AND EPILEPSY
The comorbidity with organic pathology in Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (PwID) is much higher than in the general population and is known as PwID frequently present a history of epilepsy problems, the diagnosis however can be difficult and, in about 25% of the cases, are subject to error.
Micaela Piva Merli
SPORTS ACTIVITIES ADDRESSED WITH THE INTELLECTUALLY DISABLED
As of Monday, June 6, 2011, the cycle of sports dedicated to people with intellectual disabilities begins. The project is a collaboration between A.M.G. and the Provincial Committee of Florence A.I.C.S. (Italian Culture and Sports Association).
Micaela Piva Merli
AGING AND QUALITY OF LIFE: MODELS OF INTERGRATED INTERVENTION FOR PEOPLE WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES AND/OR BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS
This was the title of the conference which was held on Wednesday, April 13 in the 20-21 classroom teaching pole at the University of Udine. During the meeting the results of the national research project aimed to develop a computerized evaluation system that would allow one to investigate the cognitive impairment and lifestyles of older people with intellectual developmental disorders.
Micaela Piva Merli e Marco Bertelli
AUTISM: NEWS ON PHARMACO-EPI-GENETICS
The etiological origin and the possibility of pharmacological intervention of autism represent two areas of great scientific interest and on which research has not yet provided conclusive results. However, as already highlighted by CREA in many publications on this site, there are more and more frequent studies that place in genetics some important causal and therapeutic principles.
Micaela Piva Merli e Marco O. Bertelli
INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY, AUTISM AND SCHIZOPHRENIA: NEUROCOGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS
The evolution of neuroscientific knowledge seems to indicate a pathogenetic area common in intellectual disabilities, autism and schizophrenia. All genetic vulnerability and gene-environment interaction may play a decisive role in the formation of circuits for memory and other cognitive functions.
Marco O. Bertelli
BENJAMIN: AN ANCIENT HISTORY OF RESPECT AND INCLUSION OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY
In Sierra De Atapuerca, near Burgos (North-Central Spain), a skull of a youth affected with synostosis lambdoidea and a severe intellectual disability was found. The findings show that he was helped to live as any other member of the group.
Marco O. Bertelli
INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY: EPIDEMIOLOGY
Marco O. Bertelli
V.A.I.P.E.D.D. – Voluntary service and augmentative interaction with parents and experts on developmental delay (V.O.I.A.G.E.R.S.)
Micaela Piva Merli
PUM 2: THE PROTEIN OF INTELLECTUAL ABILITY
An international study group, led by John Vessey of the Center for Research on the Brain of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Vienna, identified a homolgue of Pum named Pum 2, that is found in the somato-dendrites of the hippocampal neurons of mammals.
Marco Bertelli
Specific Learning Disorders and Borderline Intelligence
The literature demonstrates the extreme complexity of the relation between Specific Learning Disorders and Intelligence. The main difficulty is in the construction of the definitions. In fact, the scientific community identifies important limitations in the way in which it now defines and evaluates learning disorders and intelligence.
Marco Bertelli, Daniela Scuticchio, Michele Rossi e Annamaria Bianco
The Dysfunction of the Ways of Expression of Pain as a Cause of Problem Behaviours in Patients with Autism
Marco Bertelli, Annamaria Bianco
MULTIDISCIPLINARITY, LIFE-SPAN AND QUALITY OF LIFE
In the field of Intellectual Disability (ID), in which it is impossible to think of recovery as a return to a functional capacity similar to the majority of people, the problem with diagnostic intervention and therapy is that it is strongly linked, more so than other medical conditions, to the improvement of Quality of Life (QoL).
Marco Bertelli
EPIDEMIOLOGY OF COMORBIDITY IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES
The prevalence of psychiatric disorders in the population with Intellectual Disability varies considerably between different studies; however, all studies consistently report a much higher prevalence than in the normal population. Furthermore, individuals that receive a precise diagnosis of a mental disorder represent only a small part of all disabled people that come in contact with a psychiatrist. Like anyone else, a person with Intellectual Disability can present with emotional, behavioral, interpersonal or adaptive problems that do not constitute a real psychiatric disorder, yet they can still benefit from seeing specialist.
Marco Bertelli, Daniela Scuticchio