Social role dysfunction and coping in borderline personality disorder.

Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) often experience deficits in social role functioning, which encompasses the ability to adhere to socially defined rules and norms of behaviour. Additionally, research suggests that coping styles influence the way individuals with BPD manage stress and that symptom presentation and functioning in individuals with BPD vary across genders. This study sought to explore these variables via moderated mediation, investigating the mediating influence of coping styles on the association between BPD symptoms and social role dysfunction and if these associations were further moderated by gender. Participants (N = 233) were outpatients attending a programme for personality dysfunction. Participants completed measures of BPD symptoms, coping styles and social role dysfunction. Moderated mediation indicated that for women, emotion-oriented coping and social diversion-oriented coping mediated the association between BPD symptoms and social dysfunction. While BPD symptoms were positively associated with emotion coping, which was positively associated with social role dysfunction, BPD symptoms were negatively associated with social diversion coping, which was negatively associated with social role dysfunction. For men, coping did not mediate the association between BPD symptoms and social role dysfunction. Our findings may indicate that social support and a healthy social network may play an important part in the ongoing social role functioning of women with BPD. From this, potential early therapeutic interventions targeting safe social engagement in times of stress may decrease the pervasive and persistent nature of social dysfunction in BPD. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Predicting a Drug's Membrane Permeability: A Computational Model Validated With in Vitro Permeability Assay Data.

Membrane permeability is a key property to consider during the drug design process, and particularly vital when dealing with small molecules that have intracellular targets as their efficacy highly depends on their ability to cross the membrane. In this work, we describe the use of umbrella sampling molecular dynamics (MD) computational modeling to comprehensively assess the passive permeability profile of a range of compounds through a lipid bilayer. The model was initially calibrated through in vitro validation studies employing a parallel artificial membrane permeability assay (PAMPA). The model was subsequently evaluated for its quantitative prediction of permeability profiles for a series of custom synthesized and closely related compounds. The results exhibited substantially improved agreement with the PAMPA data, relative to alternative existing methods. Our work introduces a computational model that underwent progressive molding and fine-tuning as a result of its synergistic collaboration with numerous in vitro PAMPA permeability assays. The presented computational model introduces itself as a useful, predictive tool for permeability prediction.