Implementation of a Mobile DBT App and Its Impact on Suicidality in Transitional Age Youth with Borderline Personality Disorder: A Qualitative Study.

Contemporary performance and accessibility are features that enable mobile devices to be increasingly beneficial in the context of optimizing the treatment of psychiatric disorders. Smartphones have the potential to effectively support psychotherapeutic interventions among adolescents and young adults who require them. In the present study, the use and subjective influence of a smartphone app with content from dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) was investigated among transitional age youth (TAY) with borderline personality disorder, focusing on suicidality and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), in a natural setting. A longitudinal qualitative approach was used by means of individual semi-structured interviews, where participants were asked about their experiences and associated emotions before and after a testing period of 30 days. A total of 13 TAY with a diagnosed borderline personality disorder between the ages of 18 and 23 were included. Six overarching themes were identified through qualitative text analysis: (1) experiences with DBT skills, (2) phenomenon of self-harm, (3) feelings connected with self-harm, (4) dealing with disorder-specific symptoms, (5) prevention of self-harm, and (6) attitude toward skills apps. In general, the provision of an app with DBT content achieved a positive response among participants. Despite a small change in the perception of suicidality and NSSI, participants could imagine its benefits by integrating their use of the app as a supportive measure for personal psychotherapy sessions.

Associations between workplace characteristics and 'outness' in LGBTI workers in Austria.

OBJECTIVES: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) individuals are often subjected to negative attitudes in the workplace, which may lead to non-disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identities. We aimed to determine the prevalence of workplace disclosure of sexual or gender identity (ie, 'outness'; being 'out') and to examine its associations with workplace characteristics in LGBTI workers in Austria. METHODS: This cross-sectional study analysed sociodemographic, work-related and well-being-related data from self-identifying gender and/or sexual minority participants elicited by an online questionnaire between February and June 2017. From the initial 1268 respondents, 1177 (93%) provided complete data and were included in the subsequent analyses. RESULTS: The largest proportion of the sample were 26-35 years old (39.1%), cisgender gay men (40.0%) in full-time employment (63.9%). Overall, 51.7% of the sample were 'out' at the workplace. Being bisexual (OR=0.46, 95% CI 0.27 to 0.81), the provision of antidiscrimination guidelines in the workplace (OR=0.53, 95% CI 0.32 to 0.90), living alone (OR=0.50, 95% CI 0.32 to 0.79) and in shared households (OR=0.49, 95% CI 0.25 to 0.96) were associated with a decreased likelihood of being 'out' at work.Factors associated with being 'out' at work were being middle aged (36-45 years old; OR=1.74, 95% CI 1.07 to 2.85), having been in employment for >10 years (OR=2.03, 95% CI 1.08 to 3.81), an LGBTI-friendly work environment (OR 1.61, 95% CI 1.36 to 1.91), labour-management antidiscrimination contract (OR=2.02, 95% CI 1.23 to 3.32) and work council protections (OR=1.56, 95% CI 1.04 to 2.36). CONCLUSIONS: Instating antidiscrimination protections might facilitate 'outness' of LGBTI workers and lead to a better promotion of diversity in the workplace.

Altered mental number line in amblyopia--reduced pseudoneglect corresponds to a decreased bias in number estimation.

Amblyopic subjects show a wide range of changes within the visual system, starting from deficits in simple perceptual processing up to changes of higher functions of the visual dorsal pathway. Recent studies suggest that subjects with amblyopia also demonstrate alterations in visuo-spatial attention. In contrast to normal sighted subjects, who demonstrate a leftward bias ("pseudoneglect") during physical line-bisection, amblyopic subjects show a rightward bias ("minineglect"). Numerous studies have provided considerable evidence that humans represent numbers on a mental number line oriented from left to right, partly analogous to a physical line. In the present study, we investigated whether number representation is also changed in amblyopic subjects. Participants were asked to vocally name the numerical midpoint of two acoustically presented numbers without calculating. Supporting other studies, two control groups of normal sighted participants (each with n=14, group 1 matched for age and gender, group 2 matched for eyedness and education) underestimated the mean number, analogous to a leftward bias ("pseudoneglect"). Interestingly, amblyopic subjects (n=14) estimate the mean numbers less biased. These results support the assumption, that amblyopia also influences higher cognitive processes like number processing. Surprisingly, amblyopia seems to induce a more balanced number processing in contrast to healthy participants.