Childhood Trauma in Mental Disorders (PDF)

peer-reviewed publications and a book chapter. Her research activity aims at improving our understanding of the core pathophysiological processes underlying risk, disease expression and resilience to mood disorders by integrating neuroimaging procedure with cognitive, genetic and developmental measures. She is particularly interested in investigating the relationship between clinical course and childhood traumatic experiences in mood disorders. Recently, she focused on brain alterations related to early traumatic experiences in patients with bipolar disorders. She is an active member of various Italian and International psychiatric associations and societies and member of the Editorial board of Bipolar Disorders and Frontiers in Psychiatry, section of Aging. She carries out clinical assistance activity since 2015 specifically focusing on pharmacological treatment, psychological and psychoeducational support to patients with bipolar disorders.

Federica Piras is a Research Fellow at the Fondazione Santa Lucia's Neuropsychiatry Laboratory, where she is responsible for neuropsychological test selection for cognitive impairment classification, and designing experimental research on psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. A speech pathologist (1989), experimental psychologist (2005) and Doctor of Philosophy in Cognitive Neuroscience (2009), her research interests span from the perception of temporal intervals (in healthy subjects and in psychiatric disorders) to neurocognitive rehabilitation and cognitive stimulation in brain-injured patients, and healthy and pathological aging. She completed her pre- and post-doctoral training at outstanding research facilities with world-renowned experts like Kia Nobre (the Brain & Cognition Lab, University of Oxford), Jennifer Coull (Laboratoire des Neurosciences Cognitives, Aix-Marseille Université) and Neils Birbaumer (Institute for Medical Psychology and Behavioural Neurobiology University Tübingen, winner of the "Albert Einstein" World Award of Science). Dr.Piras is actively involved in undergraduate teaching and PhD student supervision. She has contributed to four books, and published numerous peer-reviewed papers in high impact journals. She is an active member of the Timing Research Forum, an open academic society for promoting multidisciplinary research on timing and time perception, and is also part of ENIGMA (Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis) Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Consortium, which brings research groups from 16 different countries worldwide together to share neuroimaging and genetic databases. She has been involved in several EU and nationally funded research projects and is currently working on three Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) proposals



Gabriele Sani is Associate professor of Psychiatry at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, in Rome, Italy. In 2003 he was Visiting Scientist at McLean Hospital of the Harvard Medical School in Boston. He is author/co-author of more than 100 international, peer- reviewed publications, 17 book chapters and 2 books. His research activity mainly focuses on clinical aspects of mood disorders, with particular reference to bipolar disorder, temperament, rapid cycling, mixed states and specifically, agitated depression, drug treatment, the concept of comorbidity and suicide. Recently, he addressed his interest to childhood trauma and its role in the pathogenic mechanisms of psychiatric disorders. He is an active member of various Italian and International psychiatric associations and societies and he is Member of the Editorial board or Associate Editor of various peer-reviewed journals. He carried-out continuous clinical assistance activity from 2001 to 2019 at the Sant'Andrea Hospital in Rome. He is currently working at the Gemelli University Hospital in Rome, Italy (Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCSS). From 2001 onwards, he conducts regular clinical and research activity at the Lucio Bini Centre, Rome, which is renowned for the diagnosis and treatment of manic-depressive illness and was founded by Dr Athanasios Koukopoulos.