Stage-specific interventions for emotion dysregulation disorders in adolescents

Since most of the early signs of psychological distress are nonspecific and often under the threshold of a diagnosable disorder, especially in early adolescence, a dimensional and transdiagnostic approach is needed to guide early interventions. In this review, we focus on the transdiagnostic mechanism of emotion dysregulation hypothesised to underlie a group of psychopathologies that we named “emotion dysregulation disorders”. Some promising interventions useful at different stages of the evolution of such disorders (from subclinical to clinical ones) are briefly presented. Among them, we propose cognitive-behavioural therapies, mindfulness-based interventions, and mentalisation-based treatment. The mindfulness-based interventions are an essential part of our ongoing study on the effects of an 8-week regular practice of mindfulness on non-clinical adolescents between 13 and 15 years old. We finally conclude with a proposition for a potential clinical staging model for emotion dysregulation disorders

Molecular phylogeny of Galanthus (Amaryllidaceae) of Anatolia inferred from multiple nuclear and chloroplast DNA regions

Anatolia hosts 14 of the 22 taxa of genus Galanthus L. The phylogenetic relationships of Galanthus species were explored using DNA sequence data from both nuclear and chloroplast DNA of 70 specimens covering all subdivisions of Galanthus present in Turkey. Our data showed that species of the same geography clustered together phylogenetically, in contrast to the presently recognized taxonomy based on morphological characters. The 5.8S rRNA sequence data by itself is sufficiently informative for constructing phylogenetic trees. Our data confirm the identity of Galanthus koenenianus as a new taxon, well separated from G. alpinus; both are clustered within subseries Viridifolii, rather than within subseries Glaucaefolii in contrast to previous suggestions, but in accordance with their geographical occurrence. G. trojanus also forms a distinct branch within subseries Glaucaefolii. G. krasnovii diverged out of all other Galanthus taxa as a separate branch in all phylogenetic trees. Samples collected based on morphological characters as G. nivalis were clearly different from G. nivalis based on the sequence data in GenBank. Sequencing data also revealed that the G. xvalentinei from locus classicus (ISTF; SYZB 3008) significantly differed from all other Galanthus specimens distributed in Thrace known as G. xvalentinei

Does drug compliance change in asthmatic patients during pregnancy?

BACKGROUND: Pregnant women with asthma are recommended to maintain optimal therapeutic management during pregnancy. Uncontrolled, symptomatic asthma may increase the risk of adverse peri-natal outcomes; thus adequate regular anti-asthmatic treatment must be given to provide optimal asthma control during pregnancy. However, doubts about the safety of asthmatic drugs can affect pregnant asthmatic patients’ drug compliance. The aim of this study was to assess behavioral differences in drug compliance among pregnant asthmatic patients. METHODS: Thirty two asthmatic and 121 healthy pregnant women were enrolled in the study. Structured face-to-face interviews were conducted after delivery. The interviews included disease characteristics, drug compliance and patients’ own perspective for asthma status prior to and during pregnancy. In addition, medical and pregnancy history, pregnancy complications and outcomes, and newborn characteristics were recorded. RESULTS: In our study group the rates of hospitalization, emergency room visits and systemic steroid use in the year before pregnancy were 13%, 46.9% and 18.8%, respectively. The rate of regular asthma medication use was only 32% at that period and increased to 44% during pregnancy. However, hospitalization, emergency room visits, systemic steroid usage rates remained unchanged and according to patients’ own evaluations, 44% of asthmatics pointed out that their asthma had worsened during pregnancy. No statistically significant difference was detected in terms of pregnancy/labour complication between asthmatic and non-asthmatics. CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to some previous studies, in our study regular use of asthma drugs increased during pregnancy. The uncontrolled condition of their asthma before and during pregnancy and the idea that their asthma worsened during pregnancy might force the patients to use medication more regularly

Maladaptive emotion regulation traits predict altered corticolimbic recovery from psychosocial stress

Background: Adaptive recovery from stress promotes healthy cognitive affective functioning, whereas maladaptive recovery is linked to poor psychological outcomes. Neural regions, like the anterior cingulate and hippocampus, play critical roles in psychosocial stress responding and serve as hubs in the corticolimbic neural system. To date, however, it is unknown how cognitive emotion regulation traits (cER), adaptive and maladaptive, influence corticolimbic stress recovery. Here, we examined acute psychosocial stress neural recovery, accounting for cER. Methods: Functional neuroimaging data were collected while forty-seven healthy participants performed blocks of challenging, time-sensitive, mental calculations. Participants immediately received performance feedback (positive/negative/neutral) and their ranking, relative to fictional peers. Participants rested for 90 seconds after each feedback, allowing for a neural stress recovery period. Collected before scanning, cER scores were correlated with neural activity during each recovery condition. Results: Negative feedback recovery yielded increased activity within the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and amygdala, but this effect was ultimately explained by maladaptive cER (M-cER), like rumination. Isolating positive after-effects (i.e. positive > negative recovery) yielded a significant positive correlation between M-cER and the anterior cingulate, anterior insula, hippocampus, and striatum. Conclusions: We provide first evidence of M-cER to predict altered neural recovery from positive stress within corticolimbic regions. Positive feedback may be potentially threatening to individuals with poor stress regulation. Identifying positive stress-induced activation patterns in corticolimbic neural networks linked to M-cER creates the possibility to identify these neural responses as risk factors for social-emotional dysregulation subsequent to rewarding social information, often witnessed in affective disorders, like depression

Identifying Disease-Specific Neural Reactivity to Psychosocial Stress in Borderline Personality Disorder

Background: Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) typically present emotion dysregulation (ED) when faced with adversity. However, it is argued that altered stress response may be more influenced by ED than BPD-specific traits. Here, we investigated this issue with functional magnetic resonance imaging using another ED condition as clinical control, i.e., bipolar disorder (BD), and controlling for ED traits. Methods: We recruited 17 patients with BD, 24 patients with BPD, and 32 healthy control (HC) subjects. We adapted a functional magnetic resonance imaging-compatible psychosocial stressor task (Montreal Imaging Stress Task) in which participants are placed under time pressure when performing mental calculations and then receive immediate performance feedback (positive, negative, and neutral). ED traits were measured via self-report questionnaires targeting cognitive emotion dysregulation, affective lability, and trait anger and anxiety. Results: Relative to patients with BD and HC subjects, patients with BPD exhibited overactive corticolimbic reactivity across all conditions, particularly in self-monitoring and emotion regulation regions such as the orbitofrontal cortex and anterior insula, even when controlling for ED. Conversely, patients with BD exhibited hypoactive corticolimbic reactivity to all feedback conditions compared with patients with BPD and HC subjects, even after controlling for ED. HC subjects exhibited significantly lower amygdala/hippocampus activity compared with both clinical groups, although this did not survive when controlling for ED. Conclusions: This study provides new insight into BPD-specific neural stress responding, suggesting hyperactive self- and emotion-regulatory neural psychosocial stress responding, independent of ED traits. The findings also highlight the importance of considering BPD as a diagnostic profile distinguishable from other ED disorder clinical groups.</p