Restructuring the final year of the model study programme MaReCuM at the Medical Faculty Mannheim: the academic quarter in ambulatory medicine.

To reflect the ever-growing importance of outpatient care in medical education, MaReCuM - a reformed curriculum, also referred to as a model study programme - was introduced at the Medical Faculty Mannheim in 2006. It divided the final year of medical study into quarters and added a mandatory quarter dedicated to ambulatory medicine. This project report presents our experiences, the costs and the evaluation results connected with making specific changes to the final year of undergraduate medical study.

A negative bias in decoding positive social cues characterizes emotion processing in patients with symptom-remitted Borderline Personality Disorder.

Background: Impairments in the domain of interpersonal functioning such as the feeling of loneliness and fear of abandonment have been associated with a negative bias during processing of social cues in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Since these symptoms show low rates of remission, high rates of recurrence and are relatively resistant to treatment, in the present study we investigated whether a negative bias during social cognitive processing exists in BPD even after symptomatic remission. We focused on facial emotion recognition since it is one of the basal social-cognitive processes required for successful social interactions and building relationships.

Difficulties with being socially accepted: An experimental study in borderline personality disorder.

Anxious preoccupation with real or imagined abandonment is a key feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Recent experimental research suggests that patients with BPD do not simply show emotional overreactivity to rejection. Instead, they experience reduced connectedness with others in situations of social inclusion.

Behavioural mimicry and loneliness in borderline personality disorder.

Introduction: Interpersonal problems together with feelings of intense loneliness constitute a core symptom domain in borderline personality disorder (BPD). Mimicry is one social behaviour that serves the forming of social affiliation and building a sense of belonging. In the present study, we investigated whether behavioural mimicry is altered in BPD and whether it is linked to the patient's feeling of loneliness.

Generalisation of fear in PTSD related to prolonged childhood maltreatment: an experimental study.

Background: Fear responses are particularly intense and persistent in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and can be evoked by unspecific cues that resemble the original traumatic event. Overgeneralisation of fear might be one of the underlying mechanisms. We investigated the generalisation and discrimination of fear in individuals with and without PTSD related to prolonged childhood maltreatment.

Borderline Personality Disorder Features and Sensitivity to Injustice.

Hypersensitivity to injustice has been proposed to contribute to interpersonal dysfunction in borderline personality disorder (BPD). We investigated whether BPD features are related to sensitivity to injustice and whether justice sensitivity mediates the relationship between BPD features and aggressive behavior. In an online survey, subjects reported justice sensitivity from the perspective of a victim, an observer, a beneficiary, and a perpetrator as well as BPD features and their own aggressive behavior.

Modification of Fear Memory by Pharmacological and Behavioural Interventions during Reconsolidation.

Background: Dysfunctional fear responses play a central role in many mental disorders. New insights in learning and memory suggest that pharmacological and behavioural interventions during the reconsolidation of reactivated fear memories may increase the efficacy of therapeutic interventions. It has been proposed that interventions applied during reconsolidation may modify the original fear memory, and thus prevent the spontaneous recovery and reinstatement of the fear response.

Loneliness, social networks, and social functioning in borderline personality disorder.

Persistent loneliness is often reported by patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, empirical studies investigating this aspect of BPD psychopathology are sparse. Studies from social psychology revealed that social isolation and low social functioning contribute to loneliness, that is, the subjective feeling of being alone.

Emotion recognition in borderline personality disorder: effects of emotional information on negative bias.

Background: Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is characterized by severe deficits in social interactions, which might be linked to deficits in emotion recognition. Research on emotion recognition abilities in BPD revealed heterogeneous results, ranging from deficits to heightened sensitivity. The most stable findings point to an impairment in the evaluation of neutral facial expressions as neutral, as well as to a negative bias in emotion recognition; that is the tendency to attribute negative emotions to neutral expressions, or in a broader sense to report a more negative emotion category than depicted.

Rejection sensitivity and symptom severity in patients with borderline personality disorder: effects of childhood maltreatment and self-esteem.

Background: Interpersonal dysfunction in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is characterized by an 'anxious preoccupation with real or imagined abandonment' (DSM-5). This symptom description bears a close resemblance to that of rejection sensitivity, a cognitive affective disposition that affects perceptions, emotions and behavior in the context of social rejection. The present study investigates the level of rejection sensitivity in acute and remitted BPD patients and its relation to BPD symptom severity, childhood maltreatment, and self-esteem.

Confidence in facial emotion recognition in borderline personality disorder.

Dysfunctions of social-cognitive processes such as the recognition of emotions have been discussed to contribute to the severe impairments of interpersonal functioning in borderline personality disorder (BPD). By investigating how patients with BPD experience the intensity of different emotions in a facial expression and how confident they are in their own judgments, the current study aimed at identifying subtle alterations of emotion processing in BPD. Female patients with BPD (N = 36) and 36 healthy controls were presented with faces that displayed low-intense anger and happiness or ambiguous expressions of anger and happiness blends.