Background: Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) manifest affective and behavioural symptoms causing personal distress, relationship difficulties, and reduced quality of life with global functioning impairment, mainly when the disease takes an unfavourable course. A substantial amount of healthcare costs is dedicated to addressing these issues. Many BPD patients receive medications, mostly those who do not respond to psychological interventions. Objective: Our aim was to assess the efficacy of the most used strategies of pharmacological interventions in BPD with a comprehensive overview of the field. Methods: We searched the PubMed database for papers focused on the most used psychotropic drugs for BPD. We included randomized controlled trials and open studies in adult patients with BPD, focusing on the efficacy and tolerability of single classes of drugs with respect to specific clinical presentations that may occur during the course of BPD. Results: Specific second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) and/or serotonergic antidepressants can be effective for different core symptoms of BPD, mainly including mood symptoms, anxiety, and impulse dyscontrol. Some atypical antipsychotics can also be effective for psychotic and dissociative symptoms. Specific antiepileptics can be useful in some cases in treating specific BPD symptoms, mainly including mood instability, impulsiveness, and anger. Conclusions: No medication is currently approved for BPD, and clinicians should carefully assess the benefits and risks of drug treatment. Further studies are needed to identify specific personalized treatment strategies, also considering the clinical heterogeneity and possible comorbidities of BPD.

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Introduction: Catatonia is a psychomotor syndrome that presents with severe symptoms which can lead to dangerous and lethal conditions if not diagnosed and treated properly. SARS-CoV-2 is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus that can occur in severe cases with acute pneumonia, ARDS, sepsis and septic shock. In these cases, ICU admission is necessary. Case Summary: A 59-year-old Caucasian man with septic shock and bilateral interstitial pneumonia from SARS-CoV-2 and schizotypal personality disorder presented with catatonic behaviour manifested by soporous state, response to intense painful stimuli with opening of the eyes, execution of simple verbal commands, maintenance of the same position, catalepsy, immobility, rigidity and mutism. At the same time, there were symptoms of septic shock and catatonic symptoms causing greater difficulty in the correct formulation of the diagnosis. During the course of his hospitalization, he was treated with asenapine 20 mg/day. The catatonia responded rapidly and significantly to the asenapine. Discussion: To date, the pathophysiology of catatonia is unclear and few guidelines are available for the treatment of catatonia. In the literature, studies have reported the efficacy of benzodiazepines such as lorazepam and diazepam, GABAA agonists such as zolpidem, NMDA receptor antagonists such as memantine, antidepressant SSRIs such as fluoxetine and paroxetine and antipsychotics such as olanzapine, clozapine and aripiprazole. We demonstrate that the antipsychotic asenapine is also effective in treating catatonic symptoms in psychiatric disorders. Conclusion: Asenapine produced a rapid and significant reduction in catatonic symptoms in our patient with schizotypal personality disorder.

Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is a psychological disorder involving body manipulation, self-inflicted hunger, and fear of gaining weight.We performed an overview of the existing literature in the field of AN, highlighting the main intrafamilial risk factors for anorexia. We searched the PubMed database by using keywords such as “anorexia” and “risk factors” and “family”. After appropriate selection, 16 scientific articles were identified. The main intrafamilial risk factors for AN identified include: increased family food intake, higher parental demands, emotional reactivity, sexual family taboos, low familial involvement, family discord, negative family history for Eating Disorders (ED), family history of psychiatric disorders, alcohol and drug abuse, having a sibling with AN, relational trauma. Some other risk factors identified relate to the mother: lack of maternal caresses, dysfunctional interaction during feeding (for IA), attachment insecurity, dependence. Further studies are needed, to identify better personalized intervention strategies for patients suffering from AN.