Abstract in English:

OBJECTIVES. We describe a school program based on a student manual for promoting mental health and preventing mental illness. METHODS. A preliminary version of the manual was assessed for face validity by two focus groups. The final version was evaluated for acceptability among 253 students in 10 high schools and 1 middle school in Italy. RESULTS. The manual included 18 chapters (or "units") which address skills for enabling students to cope with their daily lives: communication skills, problem-solving, assertive skills, negotiation, stress management, anger management and conflict resolution. The manual was found to have been acceptable by high school students. CONCLUSIONS. The effectiveness of the manual in actually promoting mental health and preventing mental illness is currently being evaluated.

Abstract in English:

The history of treatment of childhood leukemia is a meaningful model of ethical, bioethical and organizational repercussions of medical progress. Specifically, it has provided precious indications and very useful tools to cope with several of the more important problems of modern medicine: the value of controlled randomized studies; the risks of intense medicalization impairing the quality of care; the importance of a valid doctor-patient relationship; the psycho-emotive involvement of the pediatric staff; and last but not least, the need of an unrelenting effort of humanization of the procedures and environments, hand in hand with the frequent adjustments of the protocols according to scientific and technological progress. Finally, the authors comment upon the first cures (1962-1966) observed in the Pediatrics Clinic of the Sapienza University of Rome.