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Background Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by impairments in emotion regulation, impulse control, and interpersonal and social functioning along with a deficit in emotional awareness and empathy. In this study, we investigated whether functional connectivity (FC) within the default mode network (DMN) is affected by 1-year psychodynamic psychotherapy in patients with BPD. Methods Nine BPD patients filled out the demography, Interpersonal Reactive Index (IRI), Toronto Alexithymia Scale 20 (TAS 20), the Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST), and the Borderline Evaluation Severity over Time (BEST) questionnaire. The BPD group (9F) and the control group (9F) had a mean ± SD age of 28.2 ± 5.3 years and 30.4 ± 6.1 years, respectively. BPD subjects underwent longitudinal resting-state fMRI before psychodynamic psychotherapy and then every 4 months for a year after initiating psychotherapy. FC in DMN was characterized by calculating the nodal degree, a measure of centrality in the graph theory. Results The results indicated that patients with BPD present with aberrant DMN connectivity compared to healthy controls. Over a year of psychotherapy, the patients with BPD showed both FC changes (decreasing nodal degree in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and increasing in other cingulate cortex regions) and behavioral improvement in their symptoms and substance use. There was also a significant positive association between the decreased nodal degree in regions of the dorsal cingulate cortex and a decrease in the score of the TAS-20 indicating difficulty in identifying feelings after psychotherapy. Conclusion In BPD, there is altered FC within the DMN and disruption in self-processing and emotion regulation. Psychotherapy may modify the DMN connectivity and that modification is associated with positive changes in BPD emotional symptoms.

Introduction Migration of medical professionals has been rapidly increasing in the past decades and it strongly affects origin and destination countries. Objectives We aimed to explore the extent and the reasons of migration among psychiatric trainees and early career psychiatrists in Iran. Methods Our semi-structured 61-items questionnaire inquired participants’ demographics, experiences of short-term mobility (from 3 months to 1 year), long-term migration (more than 1 year) and attitudes towards migration (current and future plans). Results A total of 184 responses were received. Most (73.4 %) participants were female, and within the age range of 25–65 (Mean: 34.9). Only 15.2 % had a short-term mobility experience, mostly due to academic reasons (35.7 %). Most (75 %) stated that this short-term mobility experience influenced them in favor of migration. The majority (83.7 %) had ‘ever’ considered leaving Iran, and more than half (57.3 %) stated they ‘strongly agree’ or ‘agree’ to leaving the country ‘now’ (at the time of the study). The main reason to migrate from Iran was first political, followed by work, financial, social, religious, academic, and cultural reasons, and the least ranked were personal reasons. In relation to their 5-year plans, 67.3 % saw themselves in the country they currently live in, Iran. The main features reported for an attractive job were ‘pleasant work environment’ (97.3 %), ‘good welfare and social security’ (96.7 %) and ‘high salary ‘(96.2 %). Conclusions This study calls for more support of psychiatric trainees and early career psychiatrists in Iran. Improvements in the political context, work conditions and finances might lower the rate of migratory intention and brain drain.

The objective of the cross-sectional study reported here was to compare the quality of life of patients with an appropriate stoma site and with that of patients with an inappropriate stoma site. Two groups of patients with permanent intestinal stomas were assessed, 174 patients with appropriate stoma sites and 174 patients with inappropriate stoma sites. We used the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the EORTC QLQ-CR38, which evaluate 26 quality of life (QoL) scales. Data analysis was performed with SPSS software. From a total of 9 functional scales, 3 scales in patients with an appropriate stoma site were significantly higher than in patients with an inappropriate stoma site: sexual enjoyment (71.2% vs. 63.2%; p = 0.02), physical functioning (74.3% vs. 68.2%; p = 0.005), and role functioning (74.3% vs. 64.4%; p