Antistigma campaigns have been promoting a medical view of schizophrenia. Given the growing body of research finding negative associations between biogenetic (BG) causal attributions and stigmatizing attitudes, this approach must be reappraised. The present study investigates the impact of different psychoeducational interventions on the etiology of schizophrenia (BG and psychosocial [PS], vs a neutral condition) and on stigmatizing attitudes in medical (n = 60) and psychology students (n = 61). Information was presented via information brochures and a video presentation. Attitudes were assessed before and after the interventions on an explicit level using the stereotype questionnaire and the Social Distance Scale as well as on an implicit level, using the Implicit Association Test. Both educational interventions produced a significant decrease in several stereotype components, which was not the case in the neutral condition. The BG intervention decreased the attribution of blame in both groups. It also decreased the stereotype unpredictability/incompetence and social distance in the medical students but increased the negative outlook on prognosis in the psychology students. The PS intervention reduced the widespread stereotype of dangerousness as well as social distance in the group of medical students. While further research into antistigma interventions is necessary, the proposal for antistigma campaigns is to take a multidimensional and balanced approach, which is adapted to target groups and provides additional facts that challenge the myths maintaining stigma.

Early views of borderline personality disorder (BPD) were based on the idea that patients with this pathology were "on the border" of psychosis. However, more recent studies have not supported this view, although they have found evidence of a malevolent interpersonal evaluation and a significant proportion of BPD patients showing psychotic symptoms. For example, in one study, 24% of BPD patients reported severe psychotic symptoms and about 75% had dissociative experiences and paranoid ideation. Thus, we start with an overview regarding the prevalence of psychotic symptoms in BPD patients. Furthermore, we report findings of studies investigating the role of comorbidity (eg, post-traumatic stress disorder) in the severity and frequency of psychotic symptoms in BPD patients. We then present results of genetic and neurobiological studies comparing BPD patients with patients with schizophrenia or nonschizophrenic psychotic disorders. In conclusion, this review reveals that psychotic symptoms in BPD patients may not predict the development of a psychotic disorder but are often permanent and severe and need careful consideration by clinicians. Therefore, adequate diagnosis and treatment of psychotic symptoms in BPD patients is emphasized.

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The ability to reappraise the emotional impact of events is related to long-term mental health. Self-focused reappraisal (REAPPself), i.e., reducing the personal relevance of the negative events, has been previously associated with neural activity in regions near right medial prefrontal cortex, but rarely investigated among brain-damaged individuals. Thus, we aimed to examine the REAPPself ability of brain-damaged patients and healthy controls considering structural atrophies and gray matter intensities, respectively. Twenty patients with well-defined cortex lesions due to an acquired circumscribed tumor or cyst and 23 healthy controls performed a REAPPself task, in which they had to either observe negative stimuli or decrease emotional responding by REAPPself. Next, they rated the impact of negative arousal and valence. REAPPself ability scores were calculated by subtracting the negative picture ratings after applying REAPPself from the ratings of the observing condition. The scores of the patients were included in a voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) analysis to identify deficit related areas (ROI). Then, a ROI group-wise comparison was performed. Additionally, a whole-brain voxel-based-morphometry (VBM) analysis was run, in which healthy participant's REAPPself ability scores were correlated with gray matter intensities. Results showed that (1) regions in the right superior frontal gyrus (SFG), comprising the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA9) and the right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (BA32), were associated with patient's impaired down-regulation of arousal, (2) a lesion in the depicted ROI occasioned significant REAPPself impairments, (3) REAPPself ability of controls was linked with increased gray matter intensities in the ROI regions. Our findings show for the first time that the neural integrity and the structural volume of right SFG regions (BA9/32) might be indispensable for REAPPself. Implications for neurofeedback research are discussed.

The authors longitudinally investigated the familial transmission of mothers' BPD symptoms to their offspring, taking maternal depression into consideration. The sample consisted of 323 offspring and their mothers from the community-based Greifswald Family Study. These families were examined for the first time when the children were about 15 years old (T(0)), and again 5 years later (T(1)), using self-ratings and interviews. Regression analyses revealed that maternal BPD symptoms and depression at T(0) were significant predictors of a number of BPD criteria that offspring met at T(1). Furthermore, the analyses also predicted offspring's general psychopathology. In sum, the authors' findings provide evidence for familial aggregation of BPD symptoms and heightened levels of general psychopathology in offspring of mothers with high levels of BPD features, pointing to the need for providing early intervention for this high-risk group.