Treating Symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder Through Narrative Therapy and Naltrexone

Abstract

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is characterized by instability in interpersonal relationships, volatile perceptions of self-image and affects, and marked impulsivity, presenting in various contexts. Current BPD treatments are individual-centered, coping skills based, with a reduced emphasis on identifying etiology and systemic components. Narrative therapy focuses on deconstructing and reauthoring personal stories. A clinical case study shows narrative therapy to be efficacious, however, sometimes psychotherapeutic interventions alone are inadequate in managing these symptoms. Medication can serve as a useful adjunct in addressing self-injurious behaviors, suicidal ideation, and dissociation. Researchers further discuss the integration of naltrexone into treatment of BPD symptoms.     

Emotionally-focused therapy and treatment as usual comparison groups in decreasing depression: A clinical pilot study

Abstract

Decades of research have shown that depression can have deleterious effects on couple relationships. Emotionally-focused therapy (EFT; Johnson, 2004 Johnson, S. M. (2004). The practice of emotionally focused couple therapy: Creating connection. East Sussex, UK: Brunner-Routledge. [Google Scholar]) is an empirically validated form of couple therapy, which has shown effectiveness in reducing depressive symptoms in couples where the wife has depression. The aim of the current pilot study was to examine the extent to which EFT and the comparison treatment as usual (TAU) therapy group decrease depressive symptoms in distressed couples. Results show that both groups were effective in decreasing depressive symptoms, with EFT showing a clinically significant reduction. Clinical implications and future research are discussed.     

Exploring a new paradigm for empathy research / Explorando un nuevo paradigma para el estudio de la empatía

Abstract

The present paper proposes an alternative experimental procedure for studies on empathy. It is intended as a simple and reliable alternative to the commonly used designs, which are certainly very elegant, but costly, as they require delicate real-life experimental manipulations. We advocate that studies using simple well-formulated text stimuli can be methodologically as reliable and valid as game task approaches. To underscore our claim, we report first behavioural evidence that supports this conclusion. The clear advantage of the method we present is that it is less susceptible to bias and, more importantly, more accessible to laboratories that do not have the financial means and the spatial infrastructure to manoeuvre complex and costly experimental setups and techniques. It is an easy to use, computer-based paradigm.     

Contradictions of emotion in schizophrenia

This paper considers contradictory features of emotional or affective experience and expression in schizophrenia in light of the “Kretschmerian paradox”—the fact that schizophrenia-spectrum patients can simultaneously experience both exaggerated and diminished levels of affective response. An attempt is made to explain the paradox and explore its implications. Recent research on emotion in schizophrenia is reviewed, including subjective reports, psychophysiological measures of arousal or activation, and behavioural measures, focusing on flat-affect and negative-symptom patients. After discussing relevant concepts and vocabulary of emotion (“affect”, “emotion”, “mood”, “feelings”, the “passions”), the need for a phenomenological approach focusing on subjective experience is proposed. Four modes of nonparanoid experience in schizophrenia are discussed: Bodily Alienation, Disengagement, Unworlding, and Subjectivisation. Each mode involves withdrawal from functional contexts—temporal, practical, and interpersonal—normally associated with emotional reactivity and expression; each may be accompanied by forms of non-emotional affectivity no less intense than the emotions they replace. Possible relationships between psychophysiological measures, expressive behaviour, and subjective emotional or affective response are considered.     

Exercise and Movement as an Adjunct to Group Therapy for Women with Chronic Mental Illness

Abstract

Feminist therapists value the empowerment of clients and the appropriate sharing of the therapist's institutionalized power. As therapists who are also “mandated reporters,” we are obligated under certain circumstances to use our power to warn potential victims of harm, to prevent clients from harm to self or others, or make reports to institutions which have a great impact on clients' lives. Using four case examples, this paper will present clinical situations where the use of the therapist's power interfaces with homophobia, racism, and paternalism in the lives of low-income clients.     

公共资源困境中领导对群体成员合作行为的影响

过去社会困境的领导研究大多都以被试作为领导, 发现贴上领导标签后, 被试倾向于拿取更多的公共资源, 从而有碍公共利益的实现。本研究指出, 如果领导的背叛行为能够使群体成员表现出自我节制行为的话, 那么设置领导则有可能促进公共利益的实现。研究通过三个实验, 考察领导与普通群体成员不同的行为方式以及领导的产生方式对群体成员行为的影响, 并检验公平理论和社会认同理论的解释力。研究结果表明, 领导表现出背叛行为时, 被试表现出更多的自我节制行为; 指派领导及外群体选举领导背叛时, 被试表现出更多的自我节制行为, 验证了社会认同理论的正确性。     

Linking Youth Internet and Conventional Problems

ABSTRACT

This article utilizes data from a clinical sample of 512 youth to examine whether various problematic Internet experiences are distinctly different from or extensions of the conventional adolescent mental and behavioral health problems seen by clinicians. A Two-step Cluster Analysis identified four mutually exclusive groups of youth, those with: (a) online victimization; (b) inappropriate sexual behavior online; (c) online isolation; and (d) online and offline problems. Results suggest support for the idea that problematic Internet experiences are often extensions of experiences and behaviors that clinicians were working with prior to the advent of the Internet. However, the Internet may be introducing something qualitatively or quantitatively new, such as an increased severity, an increased frequency, or some unique dynamic that requires new responses or interventions.     

胃部恶性肿瘤临床实践中的医疗艺术

医学是一门讲求艺术性的科学.随着社会的发展,医疗艺术在整个医学临床实践中的重要性越来越突出.医疗艺术体现了医生对生命的尊重和伦理的理解.讲求医疗艺术对于建立和谐的医患关系具有重要意义.因此,如何在过硬的现代医学技术基础上提高临床医疗的艺术性,是医学教育和临床实践领域都应该思考的问题.本文以胃部恶性肿瘤的临床实践为例,从态度、语言、表情以及医患互动等细节方面入手,探讨在初诊、术前、康复以及面对晚期临终患者的不同情况中应该如何提高医疗艺术.     

转化医学应用现状及其困境分析

转化医学的理念已经蓬勃发展起来,但对大多数处于临床一线的医生而言,却产生了较多困惑:基础医学与临床医学之间仍相互脱节,许多先进的基础医学研究难以为临床实践所用,基础医学的先进成果向临床的转化难以实现.因此,对于转化医学理念的提出,应有所反思,使转化医学的价值得以充分地发挥.