Psychotherapy serves as the foundation of care for individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD), with pharmacotherapy being regarded as a supplementary measure to be considered when necessary. In clinical practice, however, most of BPD patients receive medication.

A major problem in the treatment of BPD is the lack of compliance derived from the pathological impulsivity of BPD patients. The use of long-acting antipsychotics (LAI) may be an option.

This work aims to address the use of long-acting injectables in borderline personality disorder.

Non-systematic review of literature using the PubMed ® database, based on terms “Borderline Personality Disorder” and “Long-acting antipsychotics”. Only six articles were found.

Several studies have shown promising results in the treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) with long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotics. A six-month study using IM risperidone demonstrated significant improvement, while LAI Aripiprazole also exhibited positive outcomes in individuals with BPD and Substance Abuse. Additionally, Palomares et al. (2015) found that palmitate paliperidone LAI reduced impulsive-disruptive behaviors and enhanced overall functioning in BPD patients. Carmona et al. (2021) compared oral and LAI antipsychotics and concluded that LAIs may have a role to play in the management of BPD.

Treatment with LAIs may play an important role in clinical and functional improvement in BPD patients.

None Declared

Susac Syndrome (SS) is an immune-mediated endotheliopathy that mainly affects young women. It is characterized by the typical triad: subacute encephalopathy, retinal vaso-occlusive disease, and hearing loss. Encephalopathy symptoms are varied and include memory loss, psychiatric disturbances, cranial nerve disorders, seizures, and dementia. The syndrome is considered a rare but important differential diagnosis in various neurological, psychiatric, ophthalmological, and ear-nose-throat disorders.

Report a clinical case of SS to reflect on the relationship between psychiatric and neurological symptoms and on immune-mediated psychiatric symptoms.

Collection of clinical information from the patient described below. Review of the literature about SS.

A 21-year-old woman presented to the Psychiatry Emergency Department in November 2021 for complaints of sadness, anhedonia and emotional lability, with one month of evolution. She also had insomnia and confusional periods, so she stopped driving and quit her work as a storekeeper. She was given sertraline 50mg/day and trazodone 50mg/day. In the past two weeks, the patient had episodes of headache and vomiting, with 8 kg weight loss. She started a fever (38.5ºC) two days before observation. The patient had a prior history of depressive symptomatology four years earlier related to her father’s grief and her medical and surgical history was unremarkable. She was brought in a wheelchair by her mother and was using diapers because she was confined to bed for the past week. Objectively, the patient was somnolent, tearful and confused, with scarce speech and psychomotor slowing. No focal signs were found on neurological examination. Collaboration of Neurology was asked. Routine laboratory studies showed a slight increase in leucocyte count (12 500/mm3) and CRP (17mg/dL). Cerebrospinal fluid analysis showed 15 cells/uL and protein of 2.64 g/L. Cerebral MRI showed multiple striatocapsular periventricular lesions involving the thalamus, the left midbrain, and the medulla oblongata, as well as focal bilateral hemispherical and cerebellar subcortical lesions. The lesions presented high signal in T2 and showed restriction in the diffusion study. She was admitted to the Neurology inpatient department and treated with pulse methylprednisolone 1000 mg/day for five consecutive days, after which cognitive function improved. Ophthalmology observation found cotton-wool exudate and arteriolar interruption in the right eye, supporting the diagnosis of SS.

This syndrome represents the importance of diligent cooperation among different medical specialties to improve diagnosis-making, treatment and recovery. Psychiatric symptoms are frequent in neurological syndromes, so a high degree of suspicion is needed.

None Declared

In this study, we described the first results of a surveillance system for infections associated with long-term central venous catheters (LT-CVC) in patients under outpatient chemotherapy.

This was a multicentric, prospective study.

Outpatient chemotherapy services.

The study included 8 referral cancer centers in the State of São Paulo.

These services were invited to participate in a newly created surveillance program for patients under chemotherapy. Several meetings were convened to share previous experiences on LT-CVC infection surveillance and to define the surveillance method. Once the program was implemented, all bloodstream infection (LT-CVC BSIs), tunnel infection, and exit-site infections associated with LT-CVC were reported. Data from January to May 2021 were analyzed. The median monthly number of chemotherapy sessions per clinic was 925 (IQR, 270–5,855). We used Poisson regression to analyze the association of rates with the characteristics of the services.

In total, 107 LT-CVC infections were reported, of which 95% were BSIs, mostly associated with totally implantable devices (76%). Infections occurred a median of 4 days after the last catheter manipulation and 116 after the LT-CVC insertion. Also, 102 microorganisms were isolated from LT-CVC BSIs; the most common pathogen was Staphylococcus epidermidis, at 22%. Moreover, 44 infections (44%) fulfilled the criteria for CVC-related LT-CVC BSI and 27 infections (27%) met the criteria for mucosal barrier injury. The 1-year cumulative LT-CVC BSI rate was 1.94 per 1,000 CVC days of use. The rates were higher in public hospitals (IRR, 6.00; P < .001) and in hospitals that already had in place surveillance for LT-CVC infections (IRR, 2.01; P < .01).

Our study describes an applicable surveillance method for infections in cancer outpatients using LT-CVC.