Efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation on psychosocial functioning in Borderline Personality Disorder: a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Follow-up studies revealed that subjects with borderline personality disorder (BPD) present high rates of clinical remission, although psychosocial functioning often remains impaired. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of a cognitive rehabilitation intervention versus a psychoeducational program on psychosocial functioning in subjects with BPD. METHODS: A multicenter, randomized, and positive-controlled clinical trial was conducted. Seventy outpatients with BPD were randomized to cognitive rehabilitation or psychoeducational group interventions. Participants were evaluated after completion of the intervention period (16 weeks) and after the follow-up period (6 months). Psychosocial functioning, clinical and neuropsychological outcomes were evaluated. RESULTS: No main effects of group or group x time were observed on functionality but a significant effect of time was found. Post-hoc analyses showed that only cognitive rehabilitation increased psychosocial functioning significantly at endpoint. Psychoeducation showed a significant enhancement of depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Cognitive rehabilitation and psychoeducational interventions appeared to show good efficacy in improving disabilities in daily life in subjects with BPD. These interventions are easily implemented in mental health settings and have the advantage of improving general functioning and clinical symptoms. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov:NCT02033044. Registered 9 January 2014 ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12888-015-0640-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Subwavelength integrated photonics

In the late nineteenth century, Heinrich Hertz demonstrated that the electromagnetic properties of materials are intimately related to their structure at the subwavelength scale by using wire grids with centimetre spacing to manipulate metre-long radio waves. More recently, the availability of nanometre-scale fabrication techniques has inspired scientists to investigate subwavelength-structured metamaterials with engineered optical properties at much shorter wavelengths, in the infrared and visible regions of the spectrum. Here we review how optical metamaterials are expected to enhance the performance of the next generation of integrated photonic devices, and explore some of the challenges encountered in the transition from concept demonstration to viable technology