Biomedical subjects

F Schopick

Publications and source records attributed to F Schopick.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

Are the interpersonal and identity disturbances in the borderline personality disorder criteria linked to the traits of affective instability and impulsivity?

This study examines the degree to which two putative biologically influenced personality traits, affective instability and impulsive aggression, are associated with some of the interpersonal and intrapsychic disturbances of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and with choice of defense mechanism. In a sample of 152 personality disorder patients, affective instability and impulsive aggression were measured. Defense mechanisms were assessed in 140 of these patients using the Defensive Style Questionnaire (DSQ). The correlations between the traits of affective instability and impulsive aggression and the eight DSM-III-R criteria for borderline personality disorder and 20 DSQ defenses were examined. Affective instability was significantly correlated with the DSM-III-R criteria of identity disturbance, chronic emptiness or boredom, inappropriate anger, suicidality, and the affective instability criteria. It also was associated with the defenses of splitting, projection, acting out, passive aggression, undoing, and autistic fantasy. Impulsive aggression was related to unstable interpersonal relationships, inappropriate anger and impulsiveness and with the defense of acting out. It was negatively correlated with the defenses of suppression and reaction formation. A number of the interpersonal and experiential disturbances and defense mechanisms that are features of BPD are associated with the traits of affective instability and impulsive aggression among patients with personality disorders.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

Effects of amphetamine on visuospatial working memory performance in schizophrenia spectrum personality disorder.

Our objective was to determine if amphetamine improves visuospatial working memory, which is impaired in the schizophrenia spectrum and may be modulated by dopamine in prefrontal cortex. To this end, oral amphetamine (30 mg) was administered to 12 patients with schizophrenia spectrum personality disorders and 13 patients with other, nonschizophrenia-related personality disorders. Visuospatial working memory was assessed using the Dot test; a test in which subjects are asked to memorize and reproduce the position of a dot on a sheet of paper. Patients with schizophrenia spectrum personality disorders performed significantly worse than the comparison group in the placebo condition and showed significantly greater improvement after amphetamine, as compared to a nonschizophrenia-related personality disorder comparison group. Patients with greatest impairment at baseline improved most. Amphetamine tended to improve negative symptoms; whereas, positive symptoms remained unchanged. Amphetamine may improve visuospatial working memory in schizophrenia spectrum patients.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Serotonin and the prediction of response time to fluoxetine in patients with mild depression.

Serotonin (5-HT) dysregulation has been associated with major depressive disorder (MDD); a blunted prolactin (PRL) response to D,L-fenfluramine (FEN) has been associated with MDD. Pharmacologic manipulation of the serotonin system with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) is effective in the treatment of depression. However, the relationship between pre-treatment 5-HT activity and response to SSRIs is not well understood. This study investigated the relationship between 5-HT dysregulation and response to fluoxetine (FLU). Twenty patients with MDD entered a double-blind placebo-controlled trial of fluoxetine preceded by D,L-fenfluramine stimulation. Patients were assigned randomly to either FLU, 20 mg QD, or placebo (PLA) for an 11-week trial. No relationship was found between the PRL response to FEN and response to FLU. Among the seven responding to FLU, there was a significant negative correlation between PRL response and the time until sustained response to FLU (r = -0.93, P < 0.001, n = 7). Although preliminary, this study suggests that low baseline serotonin activity may be associated with a slower response to FLU in depression.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Relationship between depression and borderline personality disorder.

The frequent occurrence of depressive symptoms in patients with borderline personality disorder has generated considerable interest in the nature of the relationship between borderline personality disorder and the depressive disorders. Data from the perspectives of phenomenology, biology, family history, course of illness, comorbidity patterns, and treatment response have been brought to bear on the question. Reviews based on research available by 1985 and 1991, respectively, arrived at differing conclusions: (1) that both disorders shared common but non-specific sources, and (2) that the two disorders were unrelated but co-occurred because of the high prevalence of each. Since the time of these reviews, additional evidence has become available from a wider range of biological investigations, better controlled comorbidity studies, studies of the relationship of psychosocial stressors to the course of each disorder and neuroimaging studies. In reviewing the more recent findings, we propose the less parsimonious hypothesis that the disorders co-occur, both because they share some common biological features and because the psychosocial sequella of each can contribute to the development of the other.

Borderline Personality Disorder↗