Pain sensitivity is reduced in borderline personality disorder, but not in posttraumatic stress disorder and bulimia nervosa.

Background: Several studies revealed reduced pain sensitivity in patients suffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD) under baseline and stress conditions. To establish whether these findings are specific for BPD, we compared pain thresholds in patients with BPD, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), bulimia nervosa, and healthy controls.

Methods: The study included 76 female subjects: 16 patients with BPD, 16 patients with PTSD, 20 patients with bulimia nervosa and 24 healthy controls.

Causal symptom attributions in somatoform disorder and chronic pain.

Objective: Somatoform disorders (SFD) are defined by symptoms that lack medical explanation. This study examined the type and pattern of patients' causal attributions using a new semistructured interview technique

Methods: The Causal Attributions Interview allows to assess and weigh 15 common explanations of physical symptoms. Attributions given by 79 patients with SFD were compared with those obtained from 187 chronic pain patients.

Guided self-help for binge eating/purging anorexia nervosa before inpatient treatment.

The goal of this study was to develop a cognitive-behavioral self-help manual for anorexia nervosa. Patients diagnosed with anorexia nervosa (N=102), binge eating/purging type (AN-B/P), were consecutively assigned to one of two conditions: 6-week manualized guided self-help or a wait-list control. All patients thereafter received inpatient treatment in a hospital for behavioral medicine.

Gray matter decrease of the anterior cingulate cortex in anorexia nervosa.

Objective: The brain regions that are critically involved in the pathophysiology of anorexia nervosa have not been clearly elucidated. Moreover, decrease in cerebral tissue during extreme malnutrition has been demonstrated repeatedly in anorexia nervosa, but data regarding the reversibility of this cerebral tissue decrease are conflicting. The authors examined region-specific gray matter changes and global cerebral volumes in recovered patients with anorexia nervosa.