Background Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by an inability to regulate emotional responses. The amygdala is important in learning about the valence (goodness and badness) of stimuli and has been reported to function abnormally in BPD. Methods Event-related functional MRI (fMRI) was employed in three groups: unmedicated BPD (n=33) and schizotypal personality disorder (SPD;n=28) participants and healthy controls (n=32) during a task involving an intermixed series of unpleasant, neutral, and pleasant pictures each presented twice within their respective trial block/run. The amygdala was hand-traced on each participant’s structural-MRI scan which was co-registered to their BOLD-scan. Amygdala responses were examined with a mixed-model MANOVA with repeated measures. Results Compared with both control groups, BPD patients showed greater amygdala activation, particularly to the repeated emotional but not neutral pictures and a prolonged return to baseline for the overall BOLD response averaged across all pictures. Despite amygdala overactivation, BPD patients showed a blunted response on the self-report ratings of emotional but not neutral pictures. Fewer dissociative symptoms in both patient groups were associated with greater amygdala activation to repeated unpleasant pictures. Conclusions The increased amygdala response to the repeated emotional pictures observed in BPD was not observed in SPD patients suggesting diagnostic specificity. This BPD-related abnormality is consistent with the well-documented clinical feature of high sensitivity to emotional stimuli with unusually strong and long-lasting reactions. The finding of a mismatch between physiological and self-report measures of emotion reactivity in BPD patients suggests they may benefit from treatments which help them recognize emotions.

Tobacco and alcohol use continues to be associated with negative health outcomes among adolescents and young adults. New technologies such as text messaging can increase access to substance use interventions and have now been established as an evidence-based, recommended approach towards substance use prevention. This review presents results from a meta-analysis examining the effectiveness of text message interventions for tobacco and alcohol cessation within adolescent and young adult populations. Results from 14 studies with effect sizes are ranging from -0.25 to 0.54. Combining the effect sizes across studies yielded a summary effect size of 0.25, indicating that in general, text interventions have a positive effect on reducing substance use behaviors. Results are discussed in the context of prevention opportunities and recommendations for future text messaging intervention research.

Mindfulness and self-compassion are reported to have a preventive effects on depression and anxiety disorders. In the present study, we aimed to assess the effect of mindful self-compassion intervention on preventing postpartum depression in a group of symptomatic pregnant women. Participants were screened and assigned to the intervention and control groups randomly. A 6-week Internet-based Mindful Self-Compassion Program was used to train the participants. Multiple scales were used to assess depressive and anxiety symptoms, mindfulness, self-compassion, and mother and infant well-being. All assessments were performed at three time points: baseline, 3 months, and 1 year postpartum. Compared with the control group, the intervention group showed significant improvement in depressive and anxiety behaviors. In addition, the intervention group became more mindful and self-compassionate at 3 months and 1 year postpartum. More importantly, both mothers and infants experienced substantial improvement in well-being. Our findings indicate that mindful self-compassion intervention is effective in preventing postpartum depression and promoting mother and infant well-being.

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is recognized as the most common genetic cause of intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Although symptoms of ASD are frequently observed in patients with FXS, researchers have not yet clearly determined whether the symptoms in patients with FXS differ from the symptoms in patients without ASD or nonsyndromic ASD. Behavioral similarities and differences between FXS and ASD are important to improve our understanding of the causes and correlations of ASD with FXS. Based on the evidence presented in this review, individuals with FXS and comorbid ASD have more severe behavioral problems than individuals with FXS alone. However, patients with FXS and comorbid ASD exhibit less severe impairments in the social and communication symptoms than patients with nonsyndromic ASD. Individuals with FXS also present with anxiety and seizures in addition to comorbid ASD symptoms, and differences in these conditions are noted in patients with FXS and ASD. This review also discusses the role of fragile X mental retardation 1 protein (FMRP) in FXS and ASD phenotypes.

A virtual-reality setup was used to investigate the relationship between perceived body ownership and subjective anxiety, as assessed by an anxiety inventory (SA-I). A pilot study confirmed that synchrony between the participant’s real hand movements and the movements of a virtual effector induced perceived ownership illusions. The illusions were comparable for virtual human hands and virtual cat claws, even though the overall acceptance was greater for human hands. In Experiment 1, participants used the virtual effector to collect coins and avoid knives descending on a screen before anxiety was measured. The level of anxiety increased with synchrony and was higher for human hands than for cat claws, but these two effects were independent. Experiment 2 separated effects of coin catching and knife avoiding by means of a between-participant design. The outcome of Experiment 1 was replicated in the knife-avoiding task but not in the coin-catching task, in which anxiety levels were low and not systematically affected by the type of virtual effector. Taken altogether, our findings suggest that subjective anxiety and ownership are strongly related.