The Relationship of the Impulsivity and Decision-Making Behavior with Social Cognitive Skills in Borderline Personality Disorder.

Abstract

In this study, we aimed to examine the relationship between decision-making processes and other cognitive characteristics associated with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) in comparison with healthy controls by using the neurocognitive tests. The sample of the study consists of the patient group diagnosed with BPD (n=27) and the voluntary participants without any psychiatric diagnosis (n=28). Borderline Personality Inventory (BPI) was used for psychiatric evaluation, and Iowa Gambling Test (IGT), Stroop Test, Benton Face Recognition Test, Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, Dokuz Eylül Theory of Mind Scale (DEToM), WMS-R Digit Span and Logical Memory Subscales were administered for neuropsychological examination. A significant difference was found between the BPD and the control group in BPI scores (p=0.02). There were no significant differences on the duration of interference and the number of errors in the Stroop Test, but it was observed that the number of spontaneous correction responses differed significantly (p=0.02) between the groups. A significant difference was revealed (p<0.01) in the immediate recall scores of the WMS-R Logical Memory (subtest story A) between the groups. There were also differences in the Iowa Gambling Test between the groups in the response tendency to choose from deck A (p=0.028) in the first half and from deck B (p=0.03) in the second half of the test. Finally, among the total scores of DEToM there was significant difference between the two groups (p<0.01), and this difference was prominent in the second-degree false belief (p=0.024) and empathy (p=0.027) tasks. As a result of our study, it was concluded that individuals with BPD have minimal difficulty in inhibiting inappropriate response, and this difficulty is related to making disadvantageous choices in decision-making behavior. While BPD group was successful in predicting mental states from external cues in terms of social cognition, however, it was observed that they had difficulty integrating cues within a social pattern and making coherent narratives.