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Subjects treated in antidepressant trials represent a minority of patients treated for major depression in routine clinical practice. These results show that antidepressant efficacy trials tend to evaluate a subset of depressed individuals with a specific clinical profile.

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The aims of this study were to examine whether certain axis I disorders characterized by impulsive aggression were associated with self-mutilative behavior and to evaluate the clinical correlates of self-mutilation in a sample of general psychiatric outpatients. Two hundred fifty-six outpatients were administered diagnostic interviews for axis I and axis II disorders. In addition, questionnaires that measured self-mutilative acts within the last 3 months, dissociation, and childhood abuse were completed. This study found that axis I disorders of substance abuse, posttraumatic stress disorder, and intermittent explosive disorder were significantly related to self-mutilative behavior, independent of borderline personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder. Also, a higher level of dissociation was related to self-mutilation, controlling for borderline personality disorder and childhood abuse. Outpatients with certain axis I disorders and those who dissociate may represent a sizable group of patients who are at risk for self-mutilative behavior.

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One aim of this study was to examine the strength of association between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alexithymia relative to other psychiatric disorders in a sample of 252 treatment-seeking psychiatric patients. The other aim of this study was to explore which type of childhood trauma was associated with a greater level of adult alexithymia. The study found that PTSD and borderline personality disorder (BPD) were the two disorders among selected psychiatric disorders to contribute independently to a higher degree of alexithymia. Another finding was that a greater severity of emotional neglect andphysical neglect, rather than abuse, was significantly related to higher levels of alexithymia. In addition, the study found that among these variables, BPD had the strongest relationship to alexithymia. KEY WORDS: alexithymia; posttraumatic stress disorder; borderline personality disorder: childhood trauma and neglect.Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is defined by symptoms denoting the reexperiencing of trauma, withdrawal, numbed responsiveness, and heightened arousal that frequently appear after exposure to a variety of traumata. Given this cluster of psychological sequelae, as well as recent formulations of PTSD as a disorder of affect dysregulation (Stone, 1993), it is not surprising that PTSD has been closely associated with the concept of alexithymia. Alexithymia refers to