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Insecure attachment has been described as mediating the relationship between childhood trauma and dysfunctional personality traits in different mental disorders. Despite the role insecure attachment and childhood trauma have independently demonstrated to play as determinants of borderline personality disorder, less is known about the mediating mechanisms explaining these associations. For the first time, we assessed adult attachment, childhood trauma and dimensional personality pathology in a sample of outpatients with borderline personality disorder and tested whether the association between childhood trauma and personality dysfunction was at least partially attributable to insecure attachment. The results showed that attachment anxiety fully mediated the relationship between specific types of trauma (emotional abuse and physical neglect) and emotional dysregulation. Further, emotional abuse was both directly associated with dissocial behaviour and indirectly via attachment anxiety (partial mediation). Emotional abuse has been described as an essential environmental factor for the development of borderline personality disorder and emotional dysregulation, on its part, as the core feature of the condition. Our results indicate that attachment anxiety explains the link between these central aspects of borderline personality disorder. Our findings are consistent with previous research and current etiological understanding of the condition and provide support for recommending a careful assessment of childhood traumatic experiences and adult attachment style to gain a more comprehensive insight into the symptoms and its heterogeneity. As a secondary aim, we assessed the effect parental mental illness may have in these mediation models, but no significant influence on childhood trauma, attachment or personality was found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arrue A, Gómez FM, Giralt MT. Effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (‘Ecstasy’) on the jaw-opening reflex and on the α 2 -adrenoceptors which regulate this reflex in the anesthetized rat. Eur J Oral Sci 2004; 112: 127–133. © Eur J Oral Sci, 2004 Bruxism, principally jaw clenching, is frequently observed in users of the recreational drug 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). It has been suggested that during bruxism a reduction of the activity of oral protective reflexes occurs. In this study we investigated the effects of intravenously administered MDMA on the digastric electromyographic responses elicited by orofacial electrical stimulation in the rat. We also assessed the effects of either the administration of a single dose (20 mg kg−1, s.c.) or repeated doses of MDMA (same dose, twice a day, for 4 d) on the jaw-opening reflex (JOR) and on the sensitivity of the α2-adrenoceptors which, in an inhibitory way, regulate it. Increasing doses of MDMA (1–29440 µg kg−1) induced an incomplete inhibition of JOR and 50% inhibition (ED50) at 2550 µg kg−1; maximal inhibition was 88%. The repeated treatment with MDMA led to an enhancement of the inhibition of JOR induced by the α2-agonist, clonidine (ED50 was reduced by 77%), indicating an increased sensitivity of the α2-adrenoceptors. This study shows that the intravenous administration of MDMA reduces the JOR while repeated doses of the drug enhance the inhibitory noradrenergic mechanisms which regulate the reflex. The results also allow speculation that a reduction of JOR may underlie the occurrence of episodes of bruxism in MDMA users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the effect of stress on striatal dopamine metabolism by the expression of non-functional masticatory activity in rats. Inducement of central noradrenergic neurotransmission through stress; Involvement of striatal dopaminergic neurotransmission in oral movements in rats; Application of tail pinch as stressor.