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Aims: The first purpose of this study was to assess the severity of dissociative experiences reported by adolescent inpatients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). The second purpose was to compare the severity of their dissociative symptoms to those reported by a sample of adult inpatients with BPD. The third purpose of this study was to assess a range of clinically meaningful predictors of the severity of dissociation in adolescents and adults with BPD., Methods: The Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) was administered to a total of 89 hospitalized girls and boys aged 13-17 with BPD and 290 adult inpatients with BPD. Predictors of the severity of dissociation in adolescents and adults with BPD were assessed using the Revised Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (a semi-structured interview), the NEO, and the SCID I., Results: Borderline adolescents and adults had non-significant differences on their overall DES scores and subscale scores. They also had a non-significant distribution of low, moderate, and high scores. In terms of multivariate predictors, neither temperament nor childhood adversity was a significant predictor of the severity of dissociative symptoms in adolescents. However, co-occurring eating disorders were found in multivariate analyses to be the only bivariate predictor to significantly predict this outcome. In adults with BPD, however, both the severity of childhood sexual abuse and co-occurring PTSD were significantly related to the severity of dissociative symptoms in multivariate analyses., Conclusions: Taken together, the results of this study suggest that the severity of dissociation is not significantly different in adolescents and adults with BPD. However, the etiological factors differ substantially., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is prevalent and affects mainly the youth population. It is prospectively associated with suicide attempts, making it a target for suicide prevention. Recently, several studies have investigated neural pathways of NSSI using neuroimaging. However, there is a lack of systematized appraisal of these findings. This systematic review aims to identify and summarize the main neuroimaging findings of NSSI in youth. We followed PRISMA statement guidelines and searched MEDLINE, APA PsycInfo, and Google Scholar databases for neuroimaging studies, irrespective of imaging modality, specifically investigating NSSI in samples with a mean age of up to 25 years old. Quality assessment was made using the Newcastle-Ottawa and Joanna Briggs Institute scales. The initial search retrieved 3030 articles; 21 met inclusion criteria, with a total of 938 subjects. Eighteen studies employed functional neuroimaging techniques such as resting-state and task-based fMRI (emotional, interpersonal exposure/social exclusion, pain, reward, and cognitive processing paradigms). Three studies reported on structural MRI. An association of NSSI behavior and altered emotional processing in cortico-limbic neurocircuitry was commonly reported. Additionally, alterations in potential circuits involving pain, reward, interpersonal, self-processing, and executive function control processes were identified. NSSI has complex and diverse neural underpinnings. Future longitudinal studies are needed to understand its developmental aspects better.

The use of pro re nata (PRN; as needed) psychotropic medication in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) has not been well characterized. This study had 3 purposes, which are as follows: (1) to describe the prevalence of PRN psychotropic medication use among patients with BPD and comparison subjects with other personality disorders (OPD) over 14 years of prospective follow-up, (2) to examine the rates reported by patients with BPD who ever recovered and never recovered, and (3) to examine the reasons for taking PRN medication reported by these patients. Overall, the prevalence of PRN psychotropic medication use was initially approximately 3 times higher among patients with BPD than comparison subjects with OPD, with a significant one-third decline in the use of PRN medication reported by patients with BPD over time. In analyses restricted to patients with BPD, patients with BPD who never recovered were approximately twice as likely to use PRN medication than patients with BPD who ever recovered over time. In reasons for use, the rates of PRN medication use to decrease agitation for both diagnostic groups declined significantly over time, whereas they remained significantly higher among patients with BPD. Likewise, patients with BPD who never recovered reported higher use of PRN medication to decrease agitation than patients with BPD who ever recovered over time. The results of this study indicate that PRN psychotropic medication is widely used for the treatment of patients with BPD, particularly those who have not achieved a recovery in both the symptomatic and psychosocial realms. They also suggest that patients with BPD use proportionally more PRN medication to decrease agitation than comparison subjects with OPD, with lower proportional use to reduce agitation found among recovered patients with BPD.

Objective: To investigate the influence of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene variations on cognitive performance and clinical symptomatology in first-episode psychosis (FEP)., Methods: We performed BDNF val66met variant genotyping, cognitive testing (verbal fluency and digit spans) and assessments of symptom severity (as assessed with the PANSS) in a population-based sample of FEP patients (77 with schizophreniform psychosis and 53 with affective psychoses) and 191 neighboring healthy controls., Results: There was no difference in the proportion of Met allele carriers between FEP patients and controls, and no significant influence of BDNF genotype on cognitive test scores in either of the psychosis groups. A decreased severity of negative symptoms was found in FEP subjects that carried a Met allele, and this finding reached significance for the subgroup with affective psychoses (p < 0.01, ANOVA)., Conclusions: These results suggest that, in FEP, the BDNF gene Val66Met polymorphism does not exert a pervasive influence on cognitive functioning but may modulate the severity of negative symptoms.

Taurine, an important mediator of cellular volume regulation in the central nervous system, is accumulated into neurons and glia by means of a highly specific sodium-dependent membrane transporter. During hyperosmotic cell shrinkage, net cellular taurine content increases as taurine transporter activity is enhanced via elevated gene expression of the transporter protein. In hypo-osmotic conditions, taurine is rapidly lost from cells by means of taurine-conducting membrane channels. We reasoned that changes in taurine transporter activity also might accompany cell swelling to minimize re-accumulation of taurine from the extracellular space. Thus, we determined the kinetic and pharmacological characteristics of neuronal taurine transport and the response to osmotic swelling. Accumulation of radioactive taurine is strongly temperature dependent and occurs via saturable and non-saturable pathways. At concentrations of taurine expected in extracellular fluid in vivo, 98% of taurine accumulation would occur via the saturable pathway. This pathway obeys Michaelis-Menten kinetics with a Km of 30.0 +/- 8.8 microm (mean +/- SE) and Jmax of 2.1 +/- 0.2 nmol/mg protein min. The saturable pathway is dependent on extracellular sodium with an effective binding constant of 80.0 +/- 3.1 mm and a Hill coefficient of 2.1 +/- 0.1. This pathway is inhibited by structural analogues of taurine and by the anion channel inhibitors, 4,4'-diisothiocyanostilbene-2, 2'-disulfonic acid (DIDS) and 5-nitro-2-(3 phenylpropylamino) benzoic acid (NPPB). NPPB, but not DIDS, also reduces the ATP content of the cell cultures. Osmotic swelling at constant extracellular sodium concentration reduces the Jmax of the saturable transport pathway by approximately 48%, increases Kdiff for the non-saturable pathway by 77%, but has no effect on cellular ATP content. These changes in taurine transport occurring in swollen neurons in vivo would contribute to net reduction of taurine content and resulting volume regulation.

We showed that the training-induced, pressure-lowering effect correlates with decreased arteriole wall/lumen ratio and venule growth in the gracilis muscle. To investigate whether these beneficial changes are tissue-specific or occur in other muscles and tissues, we analyzed the effects of hypertension and training on microcirculatory profile of locomotor/nonlocomotor muscles and another nonmuscular tissue. Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and Wistar-Kyoto rats were submitted to low-intensity training (50% to 60% maximal exercise capacity, 13 weeks); age-matched control rats were kept sedentary. Trained and sedentary rats were instrumented for pressure and heart rate measurements at rest. Morphometric analyses (arterioles, capillaries, venules) were performed in all tissues. Training attenuated pressure and heart rate only in SHR. Arterioles (inner diameter <30 microm) were markedly hypertrophied in sedentary SHR, but wall/lumen ratio was equally reduced (approximately 30%) and normalized by training in locomotor (soleus, gastrocnemius, gracilis) and nonlocomotor skeletal muscles (temporalis) in the myocardium and diaphragm, without changes in the renal cortex. Training also increased venule density (approximately 2-fold) only in locomotor and nonlocomotor muscles of SHR. Capillary density was similarly increased in all exercised muscles of both groups, with no change in temporalis and kidneys. Data suggest that growth/proliferation of small venules and regression of hypertrophied arteriole wall/lumen ratio are generalized tissue-specific (skeletal muscle) and group-specific (SHR) adjustments to training to reduce local resistance and augment physical capacity of circulation, thus contributing to training-induced pressure-lowering effect. They are accompanied by remodeling of myocardium (cardiac output) and diaphragm arterioles (ventilatory adjustments), stressing the importance of training as a nonpharmacological therapy to control pressure levels in hypertension.