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Similar Brain Changes Seen in Those with ADHD and Emotional Instability Disorders
We can call them sibling conditions, since they both involve partly overlapping underlying brain mechanisms, and therefore attention should be paid to both dimensions during diagnosis Similar Brain Changes Seen in Those with ADHD and Emotional Instability Disorders By Traci Pedersen Clinical observation has long shown that individuals with attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often have emotional problems, such as chaotic emotional responses, anxiety and depression. Yet the link between ADHD and impaired emotional regulation has not been identified, even though theories have proposed that both conditions are rooted in a dysfunction in how the brain processes information. Now a new Swedish study finds that the brains of people with ADHD…
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Borderline Personality Disorder: Treatment Resistance Reconsidered
A major longitudinal study of BPD and other personality disorders with 16 years of follow-up showed that virtually all subjects with BPD achieve sustained remission for at least 2 years, and 78% sustain remission for 8 years. Borderline Personality Disorder: Treatment Resistance Reconsidered November 27, 2017 | Special Reports, Borderline Personality, Psychopharmacology By Lois W. Choi-kain, MD, Ethan I. Glasserman, and Ellen F. Finch The concept of treatment resistance deserves reconsideration. Originally formulated in psychoanalytic terms, resistance in treatment referred to the inevitable ways patients unconsciously express their psychology in terms of defense mechanisms and transference enactment. This form of resistance provides a window into the patient’s problems; therefore, it…
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Cats Again Get a Bad Rap in Toxoplasmosis Coverage
A study linking the disease to a psychiatric disorder marked by aggression didn’t include cats — but you’d never know it from the headlines. Cats Again Get a Bad Rap in Toxoplasmosis Coverage s.e. smith | Apr 20th 2016 Toxoplasmosis is back. A new study led by researchers from the University of Chicago links the disease with Intermittent Explosive Disorder, in which patients experience outbursts of extreme anger. Headlines such as “Could germ from cat poop trigger rage disorder in people?” and “Cats Might Be the Reason Some People Are So Terrible” are circulating, but this is not in fact a study about cats. It’s a study about toxoplasmosis and…
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Borderline or Bipolar: Objective Data Support a Difference
When euthymic bipolar patients played (ostensibly with another person, though the actual partner was a computer), they made choices very like control patients, choosing to cooperate almost 75% of the time. But patients with BPD cooperated only about 50% of the time (ANOVA difference, P = .03). Borderline or Bipolar: Objective Data Support a Difference News | April 12, 2016 | Bipolar Disorder, Borderline Personality, DSM-5 By James Phelps, MD When a patient presents with episodes of depression, irritability, and emotional lability (especially tears and anger, with rapid changes), might he or she have borderline personality disorder (BPD)? Or could it be rapid cycling bipolar disorder (BD)? Although there are…
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Research confirms emotional dysregulation behind borderline personality disorder
Our results indicate that abnormal functioning of dorsolateral prefrontal and limbic brain regions might underlie disturbed emotion processing in BPD. Research confirms emotional dysregulation behind borderline personality disorder Schulze L, et al. Biol Psychiatry. 2016;doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2015.03.027. Recent findings showed dysfunctional dorsolateral prefrontal and limbic brain regions are a significant feature of borderline personality disorder, consistent with the concept that the disorder is an emotional dysregulation disorder. “Taken together, neuroimaging studies suggest that dysfunctional frontolimbic brain regions underlie the ‘emotional turmoil’ in patients with [borderline personality disorder (BPD)]. To further advance the neuroanatomical basis of disturbed emotion processing in BPD, the present study utilized a coordinate- and image-based meta-analytic approach to summarize…
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Self-Injury: Raising the Profile of a Dangerous Behavior
“By applying one type of pain,” he says, “they get rid of a different type of pain,” Self-Injury: Raising the Profile of a Dangerous Behavior A Rutgers researcher appeals to the medical community for better treatment tools and insurance coverage By Rob Forman Self-injury so often occurs in private, an important reason why solid statistics are hard to come by. But researchers estimate between 10 and 40 percent of adolescents, and up to 10 percent of adults, harm themselves physically – usually by cutting or burning their skin. Yet, the condition – known as nonsuicidal self-injury – is not officially recognized by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) as a mental…
