A mobile-based aftercare intervention to increase self-esteem in inpatients diagnosed with depression: A randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: In this randomized controlled trial, we investigated the effectiveness, side effects and user satisfaction of the self-help smartphone app "MCT & More" among inpatients with a diagnosis of depression after their discharge from a psychiatric hospital over a period of 4 weeks. METHODS: A total of 159 inpatients were recruited in four German psychiatric hospitals three days before hospital discharge (intervention group: n = 79; treatment as usual: n = 80). Based on the vulnerability model (low self-esteem contributes to depression), self-esteem represented the primary outcome, quality of life and depressive symptoms the secondary outcomes. RESULTS: Intention-to-treat analyzes showed no statistical significance for the primary and secondary outcome parameters, except for the subscale self-competence in favor of the intervention group (with a small effect size of d = 0.35), in the context of an exploratory approach (post hoc). The more positive the attitude toward mobile-based interventions and the more positive the treatment expectations, the more frequently the app was used (r = .35, p = .008; r = .34, p = .009). CONCLUSION: Further symptom reduction could not be obtained. However, the results suggest that an effect on improvement in self-competence could be achieved by low-threshold aftercare programs. Future studies should include long-term assessments to examine the impact of mobile-based aftercare on relapse.Trial registration: DRKS00022559.

Impulse control under emotion processing: an fMRI investigation in borderline personality disorder compared to non-patients and cluster-C personality disorder patients.

Impulsivity is a characteristic syndromal and neurobehavioral feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Research suggests an important interaction between high negative emotions and low behavioral inhibition in BPD. However, knowledge about the generalizability across stimulus categories and diagnosis specificity is limited. We investigated neural correlates of hypothesized impaired response inhibition of BPD patients to negative, positive and erotic stimuli, by comparing them to non-patients and cluster-C personality disorder patients. During fMRI scanning, 53 BPD patients, 34 non-patients and 20 cluster-C personality disorder patients completed an affective go/no-go task, including social pictures. BPD patients showed more omission errors than non-patients, independent of the stimulus category. Furthermore, BPD patients showed higher activity in the inferior parietal lobule and frontal eye fields when inhibiting negative versus neutral stimuli. Activity of the inferior parietal lobule correlated positively with the BPD checklist subscale impulsivity. When inhibiting emotional stimuli, BPD patients showed an altered brain activity in the inferior parietal lobe and frontal eye fields, whereas previously shown dysfunctional prefrontal activity was not replicated. BPD patients showed a general responsivity across stimulus categories in the frontal eye fields, whereas effects in the inferior parietal lobe were specific for negative stimuli. Results of diagnosis specificity support a dimensional rather than a categorical differentiation between BPD and cluster-C patients during inhibition of social emotional stimuli. Supported by behavioral results, BPD patients showed no deficiencies in emotionally modulated response inhibition per se but the present findings rather hint at attentional difficulties for emotional information.

Association of Genetic Variation at AQP4 Locus with Vascular Depression.

Despite its substantial clinical importance, specific genetic variants associated with depression have not yet been identified. We sought to identify genetic variants associated with depression by (a) focusing on a more homogenous subsample (vascular depression) and (b) applying a three-stage approach. First, we contacted 730 participants with a confirmed atherosclerotic disease (coronary artery disease) from a population-based study population (German Myocardial Infarction Family Study IV) for psychiatric assessment with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview. Second, we genotyped these patients using genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays. Third, we characterized the SNP via in-silico analysis. The final sample consisted of 342 patients (78.3% male, age = 63.2 ± 9.9 years), 22.8% with a severe depressive disorder. Variant rs528732638 on chromosome 18q11.2 was a genome-wide significant variant and was associated with 3.6-fold increase in the odds of lifetime depression. The locus belongs to a linkage disequilibrium block showing expression quantitative trait loci effects on three putative cis-regulated genes, including the aquaporin 4 (AQP4) locus. AQP4 is already known to mediate the formation of ischemic edema in the brain and heart, increasing the size and extent of resulting lesions. Our findings indicate that AQP4 may also play a role in the etiopathology of vascular depression.

Mental Health and Psychosocial Functioning Over the Lifespan of German Patients Undergoing Cardiac Catheterization for Coronary Artery Disease.

Background: Psychological problems are common in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and are associated with poor outcome. However, data on the prevalence of distinct mental disorders and their relevance to patients' functioning in daily life are scarce. Method: In this retrospective study, a total of 514 German patients with CAD as diagnosed by cardiac catheterization were assessed using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview 5.0.0 (M.I.N.I.) and psychosocial functioning was evaluated using the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale. Results: Twenty-nine percent of the participants suffered from at least one mental disorder after the onset of their CAD (mean time since onset = 10.86 years, SD = 8.15). In comparison to the period before onset of CAD, elevated prevalence rates were found for severe depressive episodes, agoraphobia, dysthymia, panic disorder, and hypochondria. Predictors of mental disorders after the onset of CAD were female gender, younger age at onset of CAD as well as mental disorders and low GAF scores before onset. GAF scores decreased after the onset of CAD, recovered only partially, and were influenced by mental disorders before onset in women but not in men. Conclusions: Mental disorders-especially depression and agoraphobia-are frequent in patients with CAD, with women, patients with a younger age at onset of CAD and patients with any history of mental disorders especially at risk. Regardless of whether patients meet any specific diagnostic criteria, psychosocial functioning is markedly impaired after the onset of CAD, underscoring the need for specific mental health programs for this patient population. Future research, ideally using a prospective design, is necessary to confirm these findings and to further the knowledge of prevalence rates of mental disorders and of modifiable risk factors for the development of mental disorders in patients with CAD.

Utilization of Mental Health Care, Treatment Patterns, and Course of Psychosocial Functioning in Northern German Coronary Artery Disease Patients with Depressive and/or Anxiety Disorders.

BACKGROUND: Comorbid mental disorders in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) are common and associated with adverse somatic outcomes. However, data on utilization rates of mental health care and treatment efficiency are scarce and inconsistent, which we tried to remedy with the present preliminary study on Northern German CAD patients. METHOD: A total of 514 German CAD patients, as diagnosed by cardiac catheterization, were assessed using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview and the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale. RESULTS: Global utilization of mental health care since onset of CAD was 21.0%. Depressive disorders, younger age, and lower GAF at onset of CAD were associated with higher utilization rates, while anxiety disorders and gender were not. Lower GAF at onset of CAD, female gender, and psychotherapy was positively associated with higher gains in GAF, while younger age and anxiety disorders were negatively associated. CONCLUSION: The majority of CAD patients with comorbid depression reported to have received mental health treatment and seemed to have benefited from it. However, we found preliminary evidence of insufficiencies in the diagnosis and treatment of anxiety disorders in CAD patients. Further studies, preferably prospective and with representative samples, are needed to corroborate or falsify these findings and explore possible further mediators of health-care utilization by CAD patients such as race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.

Always on guard: emotion regulation in women with borderline personality disorder compared to nonpatient controls and patients with cluster-C personality disorder.

BACKGROUND: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by emotion dysregulation; however, it is unclear whether this is restricted to negative emotional stimuli or to what degree this is specific to BPD. We investigated neural correlates of hypothesized increased emotional sensitivity and impaired emotion regulation in patients with BPD. METHODS: During functional MRI (fMRI) scanning, patients with BPD, nonpatient controls and patients with cluster-C personality disorder completed an emotion regulation task, including negative, positive and erotic social pictures. RESULTS: We included 55 patients with BPD, 42 nonpatient controls and 24 patients with cluster-C personality disorder in our analyses. Passive viewing of negative stimuli resulted in greater activity in the anterior insula, temporoparietal junction and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in patients with BPD than in nonpatient controls. The increased activity in the anterior insula and temporoparietal junction was also present when patients with BPD viewed positive stimuli. During regulation of negative stimuli compared with passive viewing, nonpatient controls showed greater activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, middle temporal gyrus and bilateral inferior parietal lobule. Patients with BPD did not show this increase in activity. LIMITATIONS: Findings cannot be generalized to men, and patients represented a heterogeneous group regarding comorbid diagnoses and medication. CONCLUSION: When looking at emotional stimuli, patients with BPD showed a unique pattern of activity, suggesting an increase in brain activity involved in emotion generation. In the case of negative stimuli this is accompanied by increased activity in regulation areas. In contrast, increase of regulation processes seems absent when patients with BPD are explicitly instructed to regulate. Results of diagnosis specificity support a dimensional rather than a dichotomous differentiation between BPD and cluster-C personality disorder regarding emotional sensitivity and emotional regulation of social stimuli.

Always on guard: emotion regulation in women with borderline personality disorder compared to nonpatient controls and patients with cluster-C personality disorder.

BACKGROUND: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by emotion dysregulation; however, it is unclear whether this is restricted to negative emotional stimuli or to what degree this is specific to BPD. We investigated neural correlates of hypothesized increased emotional sensitivity and impaired emotion regulation in patients with BPD. METHODS: During fMRI scanning, patients with BPD, nonpatient controls and patients with cluster-C personality disorder completed an emotion regulation task, including negative, positive and erotic social pictures. RESULTS: We included 55 patients with BPD, 42 nonpatient controls and 24 patients with cluster-C personality disorder in our analyses. Passive viewing of negative stimuli resulted in greater activity in the anterior insula, temporoparietal junction and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in patients with BPD than in nonpatient controls. The increased activity in the anterior insula and temporoparietal junction was also present when patients with BPD viewed positive stimuli. During regulation of negative stimuli compared with passive viewing, nonpatient controls showed greater activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, middle temporal gyrus and bilateral inferior parietal lobule. Patients with BPD did not show this increase in activity. LIMITATIONS: Findings cannot be generalized to men, and patients represented a heterogeneous group regarding comorbid diagnoses and medication. CONCLUSION: When looking at emotional stimuli, patients with BPD showed a unique pattern of activity, suggesting an increase in brain activity involved in emotion generation. In the case of negative stimuli this is accompanied by increased activity in regulation areas. In contrast, increase of regulation processes seems absent when patients with BPD are explicitly instructed to regulate. Results of diagnosis specificity support a dimensional rather than a dichotomous differentiation between BPD and cluster-C personality disorder regarding emotional sensitivity and emotional regulation of social stimuli.

Deficient amygdala-prefrontal intrinsic connectivity after effortful emotion regulation in borderline personality disorder.

Emotion instability in borderline personality disorder (BPD) has been associated with an impaired fronto-limbic inhibitory network. However, functional connectivity (FC) underlying altered emotion regulation in BPD has yet to be established. Here, we used resting-state fMRI to investigate enduring effects of effortful emotion regulation on the amygdala intrinsic FC in BPD. In this multicenter study, resting-state fMRI was acquired before and after an emotion regulation task in 48 BPD patients and 39 non-patient comparison individuals. The bilateral amygdalae were used as a seed in the whole-brain FC analysis and two-way mixed ANOVA to test whether BPD patients exhibited weaker post-task increase in the amygdala intrinsic FC with the prefrontal cortex (PFC), compared to non-patients. Subsequently, we explored whether the results are common for personality disorders characterized by emotional problems, using additional data of 21 cluster-C personality disorder patients. In contrast to non-patients, BPD patients failed to show increased post-task amygdala resting-state FC with the medial, dorsolateral, ventrolateral PFC, and superior temporal gyrus, but surprisingly exhibited decreased FC with the posterior cingulate cortex and increased FC with the superior parietal lobule. In BPD patients, the emotion regulation task failed to increase resting-state amygdala FC with brain regions essential for effortful emotion regulation, which suggests: (a) altered cognitive control typically used to indirectly alleviate distress by reinterpreting the meaning of emotional stimuli; (b) impaired direct regulation of emotional responses, which might be common for personality disorders;

Metacognition-augmented cognitive remediation training reduces jumping to conclusions and overconfidence but not neurocognitive deficits in psychosis.

The majority of patients with schizophrenia display neurocognitive deficits (e.g., memory impairment) as well as inflated cognitive biases (e.g., jumping to conclusions). Both cognitive domains are implicated in the pathogenesis of the disorder and are known to compromise functional outcome. At present, there is a dearth of effective treatment options. A total of 90 patients with schizophrenia were recruited online (a diagnosis of schizophrenia had been confirmed in a large subgroup during a previous hospital admission). Subsequent to a baseline assessment encompassing psychopathology, self-reported cognition as well as objective memory and reasoning tests, patients were randomized to one of three conditions: standard cognitive remediation (mybraintraining), metacognition-augmented cognition remediation (CR) condition (variant of mybraintraining which encouraged patients to reduce speed of decision-making and attenuate response confidence when participants made high-confidence judgements and hasty incorrect decisions) and a waitlist control group. Patients were retested after 6 weeks and again 3 months after the second assessment. Groups did not differ on psychopathology and neurocognitive parameters at any timepoint. However, at follow-up the metacognitive-augmented CR group displayed a significant reduction on jumping to conclusions and overconfidence. Treatment adherence correlated with a reduction of depression; gains in the training exercises from the standard mybraintraining condition were correlated with improved objective memory performance. The study suggests that metacognition-augmented CR may ameliorate cognitive biases but not neurocognition. The study ties in well with prior research showing that neurocognitive dysfunctions are rather resistant to change; the failure to detect significant improvement of CR or metacognition-augmented CR on psychopathology and neurocognition over time may partly be attributed to a number of methodological limitations of our study (low psychopathology and chronicity of participants, low "dosage," narrow range of tests, self-report psychopathology scales).

Intima-media thickness in women with borderline personality disorder.

OBJECTIVE: Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) may have a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease caused by altered endocrine, metabolic, and inflammatory parameters. Increased intima-media thickness (IMT) is considered an early marker of atherosclerosis and is associated with most cardiovascular risk factors. METHODS: The mean IMT of the common carotid arteries was assessed by B-mode ultrasound in 47 women with BPD and 28 age-matched healthy women. Mean (standard deviation) age for BPD participants was 31.2 (10.4) years and 31.9 (11.0) years for the comparison group. In addition, Adult Treatment Panel III criteria for metabolic syndrome and markers of inflammation were measured. The patients were characterized by applying DSM-IV criteria and obtaining self-reports of adverse childhood experiences. RESULTS: Women with BPD had a significantly higher IMT than healthy women (mean [standard deviation] = 0.41 [0.11] versus 0.34 [0.11] mm, p = .02). In linear regression analysis, IMT was significantly associated with BPD even when adjusting for body mass index (ß = 0.27, p = .04) and physical activity (ß = 0.29, p = .02). CONCLUSIONS: The data suggest that women with BPD are at increased risk of developing subsequent cardiovascular disease.

Larger than life: overestimation of object size is moderated by personal relevance in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Along with other cognitive biases overestimation of threat (OET) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The present study investigated whether OET would not only manifest in cognitive distortions but, also in overestimations of the object size of disorder-related visual objects. METHODS: A total of 65 participants with OCD and 55 healthy controls who were recruited via OCD online forums underwent an incidental learning paradigm consisting of two blocks. In Block 1, participants were asked to rate the valence and the personal relevance for individual OCD concerns of 40 pictures which varied in size. Differences in size, however, were not explicitly communicated to the participants. Stimuli were selected from four categories: 1. neutral, 2. fear-related but OCD-unrelated, 3. washing (OCD-related), and 4. checking (OCD-related). In Block 2, participants were asked to recollect the original size of each stimulus (depicted as a small thumbnail) on a seven point scale. RESULTS: Whereas few group differences emerged for pre-defined OCD items, OCD-relevant items (individual judgments) were judged as significantly larger by patients with OCD relative to controls. The opposite pattern emerged for neutral items. LIMITATIONS: The sample was recruited via online forums and had probable but not externally validated diagnoses of OCD. No psychiatric control group was recruited. CONCLUSIONS: The present study indicates that OET may extend to neuropsychological tasks. Further research is needed to pinpoint whether OET occurs at the level of encoding suggesting a perceptual bias and/or occurs at the level of retrieval suggesting a memory bias.

A check on the memory deficit hypothesis of obsessive-compulsive checking.

A number of recent studies have challenged the hypothesis that patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) display global memory deficits. An alleviated form of the memory deficit hypothesis posits that OCD patients share deficits to vividly recall memory episodes. According to the latter view, checking rituals can be understood as counter-productive coping strategies to "enrich" memory episodes in order to make them more distinctive. A source memory task was administered to 27 OCD (17 checkers) and 51 healthy participants. Along with confidence judgments, a remember-know procedure was employed to assess whether OCD patients display problems with conscious/vivid recollection. Patients with or without checking compulsions did not exhibit differences to controls on source memory accuracy and meta-memory. Patients forgot more self-generated items, which, however, was related to comorbid depressive but not OCD symptoms. Findings challenge the ubiquity of memory deficits in OCD. To account for the inconclusive pattern of results in the literature, it is suggested that patients mistrust their memories and adopt checking rituals only when perceived responsibility is inflated.