Adaptation of a DBT Intervention to Reduce Self-harm in Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is characterized by instability that often leads to Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) and greater healthcare utilization. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is useful although its long duration and the need for specialized therapists make it difficult to implement in low-resources settings, so brief interventions can complement DBT. The objective of the present study was to undertake cultural adaptation of a Brief, Manualized Intervention to reduce NSSI in the Mexican population with BPD. An experimental design with a single-case pilot study with replicas was used with seven women with a BPD diagnosis. Five to six online sessions were implemented and emotional dysregulation, experiential avoidance and NSSI were measured weekly. NAP index was calculated to assess the effect of the intervention. Most participants showed a large effect size in reducing NSSI and a moderate effect size in reducing emotional dysregulation. Moderate and small effect sizes were obtained in experiential avoidance. The intervention adapted and validated seems to be useful and serve as an additional therapeutically tool to complement usual treatment of patients with BPD (AU)

Long-lasting effects of GABA infusion into the cerebral cortex of the rat.

In electrophysiological terms, experimental models of durable information storage in the brain include long-term potentiation (LTP), long-term depression, and kindling. Protein synthesis correlates with these enduring processes. We propose a fourth example of long-lasting information storage in the brain, which we call the GABA-withdrawal syndrome (GWS). In rats, withdrawal of a chronic intracortical infusion of GABA, a ubiquitous inhibitory neurotransmitter, induced epileptogenesis at the infusion site. This overt GWS lasted for days. Anisomycin, a protein synthesis inhibitor, prevented the appearance of GWS in vivo. Hippocampal and neocortical slices showed a similar post-GABA hyperexcitability in vitro and an enhanced susceptibility to LTP induction. One to four months after the epileptic behavior disappeared, systemic administration of a subconvulsant dose of pentylenetetrazol produced the reappearance of paroxysmal activity. The long-lasting effects of tonic GABAA receptor stimulation may be involved in long-term information storage processes at the cortical level, whereas the cessation of GABAA receptor stimulation may be involved in chronic pathological conditions, such as epilepsy. Furthermore, we propose that GWS may represent a common key factor in the addiction to GABAergic agents (for example, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, and ethanol). GWS represents a novel form of neurono-glial plasticity. The mechanisms of this phenomenon remain to be understood.

Response rates to six recruitment mailing formats and two messages about a nutrition program for women 50-79 years old.

Recruiting participants for large prevention trials is time consuming and costly. In order to test various recruitment techniques, we conducted two studies of response rates to recruitment mailings for the Women's Health Trial. The potential participants, 50- to 79-year-old women, were requested to return an enclosed postcard to learn more about the trial. In the first study, we sent at random either a short or a long message to a group of University of Miami personnel (N = 862) and a Dade County cohort (N = 2964). More university women responded to the short message than to the long message (22.4% vs 16.4%, p = 0.024). Similarly, more of the Dade County cohort replied to the short message than to the long one (12.1% vs 9.6%, p = 0.027). The long message listed details of the intervention (e.g., modifying recipes) that some women may have used to decide they were not interested in participating. In the second study, we examined response rates to two different ways of addressing the mailing, i.e., handwritten envelopes and machine-printed labels; we also evaluated three methods for delivering the short message: (1) formal invitation, (2) business letter with an inside name and address of the recipient, and (3) business letter without the recipient's name and address. Response rates were similar between the methods of addressing envelopes and among the three vehicles for the message, suggesting that the least costly method of mailing should be used.