Article Highlights

Thanks to the works of distinguished philosophers and thinkers, there is no doubt that since ancient times, humanity has begun to focus on important questions and elaborate complex hypotheses regarding the concepts of free will and freedom of choice. Apparently, the questions seem to change over time, as they are expressed in different forms both in the ancient epics (such as the "Epic of Gilgamesh") and in modern and recent academic studies of quantum physics or neuroscience. However, the question if "mankind is truly free and able to choose freely?" remains constant throughout millennia and, in all probability, seems to be destined to remain unanswered and generate further speculation in the future. In a certain sense, the answers that were provided over the centuries also seem to provide a portrait of the many societies (and their relative vices as well as virtues) that have followed one to another. Starting from the results obtained after at least a decade intensively devoted to the study of the effects of the Internet, social networks and new technologies on psychopathology, Donatella Marazziti (2022) (pp. 277-279) attempts to provide answers to the aforementioned questions in the brilliant editorial that opens this autumn issue of Clinical Neuropsychiatry. However, if it is true that it is not the truth that sets us free but the doubt, Professor Marazziti is able to boldly hit this goal by inviting readers and colleagues to answer further questions that, sharply, reflect the current society in which we are living (or surviving). After all – according to a very personal opinion of mine that is dictated by the current historical moment – I fear that we cannot feel completely sure that we are able to distinguish whether we are actually living or surviving. Unfortunately, we are facing both with a conflict that, needless to deny, concerns us, a strictly related economic recession, and with the COVID-19 pandemic that (despite superhuman efforts) only seems to be slowly diminishing. On the other hand, if the intensive care units are now no longer overcrowded with pneumonia cases, a new epidemic has already presented itself to forcefully knock on the doors of family doctors and specialists, namely the cognitive deficits related to COVID-19. Sachdev and Shabbir (2022) (pp. 328-334), recognizing the importance of this new clinical burden, present a careful review of the literature aimed at shedding more light on the association between COVID-19 infection and the development of cognitive deficits, as well as at providing further points of speculation to better understand the underlying etiology and pathogenesis of this clinical consequence. Researching the etiological cause and describing the development of pathology is difficult, however it is no less simple to identify a treatment and understand the response mechanisms. For biological processes that still partly continue to be elusive, even the placebo and nocebo effects are able to elicit concrete and easily identifiable responses in humans. Fabrizio Benedetti, the undisputed leader in the field of research on the placebo effect, and his coworkers (2022) (pp. 298-306) present a study conducted on 378 healthy adults (whose prenatal maternal plasma cortisol level was measured during the three trimesters of pregnancy) aimed determining whether prenatal hyperactivity of hypothalamus-pitui tary-adrenal system (HPA) might influence nocebo effect in adults while, at the same time, at underlying the importance of clinicians-patients communication in perceiving symptoms such as pain. Abnormal and prolonged responses of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis appear to be closely linked also with another symptomatic dimension that is transversal to numerous psychic disorders, that is rumination. Rumination may be defined as repetitive and unwanted past-centered negative thinking and described as a dynamic process that fluctuates over time (within hours and/or days). Although rumination is an extremely widespread and represented symptom, its investigation is usually conducted by the means of experiencing sampling methodology (ESM), a technique with measurements in everyday life.