MASTERCLASS FIAMMETTA COSCI

 

 

The masterclasses will provide details on pros and cons of diagnostic nosography currently available in psychosomatic medicine. Proposals on complementary tools which can be used to reach a comprehensive assessment of patients under the principles of the bio-psycho-social model will be formulated. Participants will be involved in the activities via the presentation of clinical cases to be discussed in the group.

 

 

 

 Around 30% of people with long-term physical health conditions (LTCs) experience comorbid anxiety and depression.  For many, comorbid anxiety and depression (or distress) is linked in part to difficulties adjusting to the challenges of the LTC. Based on the existing empirical literature,  Professor Moss Morris and colleagues have developed a transdiagnostic model of adjustment to LTCs (TMA-LTC)^1.  The model proposes that acute critical events or ongoing illness stressors can disrupt emotional equilibrium. Whether a person returns to equilibrium and achieves good psychological adjustment depends on a range of individual level cognitive and behavioural factors, as well as interpersonal, intrapersonal, environmental, and illness-specific contexts. This empirically and clinically informed model provides clinicians with a useful guide for assessment, formulation, and treatment in the context of psychological adjustment to LTCs.

 

The first half of the workshop will introduce the transdiagnostic theoretical model of adjustment to LTCs (TMA-LTC). The therapeutic approach developed based on this model will be presented, including a digital version of the therapy called COMPASS: Navigating your LTC, alongside the evidence-base for this therapy to date².  The second interactive half of the workshop will discuss how to include LTC challenges in the assessment process and the application of the TMA-LTC  to some case studies.  The distinguishing features of treating LTC-related distress compared to treating primary anxiety and/or depression will be highlighted. 

 

 

 

 

As the COVID-19 pandemic brought the global community to a standstill, western bioethics in the U.S. prepared for the inevitable and unfathomable: that there would be more patients needing critical care than resources to provide care for all. Outcomes-dominated and transparent crisis standards of care emerged in attempts to equitably allocate critical care resources in the most effective and efficient manner. Yet even in the first 90 days of the pandemic, major disparities emerged in the mortality from COVID-19 along racial lines in the United States. Using COVID-19 as both a starting point and a case example, this masterclass will bring learners through traditional and emerging approaches to bioethics with particular applicability to patients with co-occurring medical and psychiatric complexity.

 

In this session, learners will

 

 

 

This master class will address challenges and solutions in the design, testing and dissemination of psychological interventions in medical populations.  Based on the experience of a research team over more than  two decades with  patients with advanced and progressive disease and with those with acute and life-threatening disease and with their family caregivers, this seminar will consider questions related to the development of interventions, design and implementation of clinical trials,  process and outcome measurement, analytic approaches, cultural relevance and sensitivity,  and global dissemination.