Abstract
Depression and borderline personality disorder (BPD) are both thought to be accompanied by alterations in the subjective experience of environmental rewards. We evaluated responses in women to sweet, bitter and neutral tastes (juice, quinine and water): 29 with depression, 17 with BPD and 27 healthy controls. The BPD group gave lower pleasantness and higher disgust ratings for quinine and juice compared with the control group; the depression group did not differ significantly from the control group. Juice disgust ratings were related to self-disgust in BPD, suggesting close links between abnormal sensory processing and self-identity in BPD.
Highlights
The borderline personality disorder (BPD) group rated both quinine and juice as more unpleasant and disgusting than the control group, but no differences were found between the depression and control groups
Disgust propensity did not correlate with ratings in this group and all correlations were non-significant in the depression group
We found that in the BPD group there were abnormal pleasantness and disgust ratings after the intake of biological stimuli, whereas no differences between the depression and control groups were found
Summary
A total of 29 women with DSM-IV5 major depressive disorder, 17 women with DSM-IV BPD and 27 female healthy controls took part in the study, which was approved by the Cambridgeshire 4 National Health Service research ethics committee; all participants provided written informed consent. Additional details, including statistical data, are provided in the online supplement. Evaluation of taste consisted of participants taking a sip, but not swallowing, from a cup with 10 ml of orange juice, quinine dihydrochloride at 0.006 mol/L or water. Participants had to maintain the liquid in the mouth for 5 s, rate the disgust and pleasantness produced using two visual scales (online Fig. DS1) and rinse their mouths with water. Order of liquids was counterbalanced across participants. Clinical evaluation was completed prior to the taste experiment. Statistical analysis (see online supplement for details) aimed to evaluate the association between taste disgust and disgust as measured using two clinical rating scales: the Self-Disgust Scale (SDS)[6] and the Disgust Scale Revised (DSR).[7]
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