Borderline Personality Disorder Group Research Articles

Divergent mentalization types in adolescent borderline personality disorder and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Background Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) have several similarities and it is difficult to distinguish these disorders in adolescents. We aimed to identify the unique correlates of mentalization abilities that may distinguish these two disorders, and to investigate the mentalization abilities of adolescents with ADHD, BPD and ADHD + BPD in an inpatient sample to determine the effect of co-morbidity on mentalization abilities. Methods We have explored the relationship between Child Eye Test (CET) scores, Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC) subscales, and ADHD and BPD symptoms in adolescent inpatients. In addition, we compared ADHD, BPD and ADHD + BPD groups in terms of their mentalization abilities. Results Correct MASC scores were negatively associated with both ADHD and BPD symptoms in girls, and negatively associated with ADHD symptoms in boys. In addition, hypermentalization scores were associated with BPD symptoms in girls, and hypomentalization and no mentalization scores were associated with ADHD symptoms in girls. CET scores were negatively associated with ADHD symptoms in girls, but no relations with BPD were found. Group comparisons revealed no significant difference among groups. Limitations We included only inpatient sample without considering their medication condition, we did not compare the mentalization scores of the patient groups with healthy controls and we used self-report measures for several assessments. Conclusion Mentalization patterns in ADHD and BPD are distinct. ADHD may be related to hypomentalization, instead, BPD may be related to hypermentalization.

Evaluating schema modes and cognitive distortions in borderline personality disorder: A mixed-method approach.

Cognitive processes, such as schema modes and cognitive distortions, may playa role in the genesis and maintenance of affective, interpersonal, and behavioral difficulties in individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Thisstudy aimed at exploring the schema modes and cognitive distortions in individuals with BPD. Using a mixed-methodapproach, 30 individuals with BPD and 30 healthy participants were assessed on the Borderline Personality Questionnaire, the Schema Mode Inventory, the Cognitive Distortions Scale, and a semi-structured interview schedule. The BPD group had higher scores than the control group on all the maladaptive schema modes and cognitive distortions subscales. The child modes were the commonest and were also the strongest correlate of BPD symptomatology. Qualitative analysis of the content of the semi-structured interview also corroborated these findings. There could be many schema modes and cognitive distortions operating behind the diverse psychopathology seen in BPD.

A Comparison of Adolescent versus Young Adult Outpatients with First-Presentation Borderline Personality Disorder: Findings from the MOBY Randomized Controlled Trial.

The increasing focus on adolescent personality disorder has tended to ignore evidence of the developmental continuity of the period from puberty to young adulthood. This study aims to: (1) describe the characteristics of a sample of young people with borderline personality disorder (BPD) who had no previous history of evidence-based treatment for the disorder and (2) compare their characteristics by participant age group. One hundred and thirty-nine young people (15 to 25 years) with BPD, newly enrolled in the Monitoring Outcomes of BPD in Youth randomized controlled trial, completed semi-structured interview and self-report measures assessing demographic, clinical, and functional characteristics. Younger (aged 15 to 17 years; n = 64) and older (aged 18 to 25 years; n = 75) participants were compared on these same variables using t-tests, chi-square tests, and logistic regression. Young outpatients with BPD had extensive and severe psychopathology and were functioning poorly. Adolescents and young adults with BPD showed substantial similarities on 20 key aspects of their presentation. Significant between-groups differences were observed in household makeup, treatment history, antisocial personality disorder, emotion dysregulation, substance use, age of commencement and extent of self-harm, and achievement of age-appropriate educational milestones. Adolescent BPD group membership was predicted by family composition and self-harm, whereas young adult BPD group membership was predicted by not achieving age-appropriate milestones, vocational disengagement, and emotion dysregulation. The final model explained 54% of the variance and correctly classified 80.2% of the sample by age. Both adolescents and young adults with early stage BPD present with severe and often similar problems to one another, supporting developmental continuity across this age range. However, there are also meaningful differences in presentation, suggesting that pathways to care might differ by age and/or developmental stage. Detection and intervention for personality disorder should not be delayed until individuals reach 18 years of age.

Referential Activity Differentially Mediates Expression of Positive and Negative Emotions in Borderline Personality Disorder.

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a high risk and prevalent personality disorder that is associated with increased negative emotions, decreased positive emotions, and impairments in symbolization and impaired reflective functioning. These dimensions, while they may impact one another, have not been investigated concurrently from qualitative, linguistic narratives. We hypothesized a BPD group would have lower expression of positive emotions and greater expression of negative emotions and less reflective function than healthy controls. Additionally, we explored the role of referential activity (an index of symbolic capacity) between BPD and healthy controls in the context of valenced emotional expression. An adult, female BPD group (n = 13) and a demographically matched healthy control group (n = 14) were recruited and administered the Adult Attachment Interview and/or the Object Relations Inventory. Computerized text analyses were used to assess positive emotion and negative emotion, the Weighted Referential Activity Dictionaries to assess referential activity, and the Computerized Reflective Function dictionary. On the Object Relations Inventory, the BPD group expressed more frequent negative emotions and less frequent positive emotions; on the Adult Attachment Interview, the BPD group exhibited less expression of positive emotions. There were no differences between BPD and controls on referential activity or reflective functioning on either interview. However, BPD status fully mediated the significant relationship between referential activity and negative emotion expression. The BPD group utilized more referential activity when expressing negative emotions than controls. Conversely, the control group utilized more referential activity when expressing positive emotions than controls. Referential activity seems to play an important role in explaining the BPD versus control difference in valenced linguistic emotional expression. Furthermore, these results suggest the object relations inventory elicits more robust linguistic features relevant to BPD.

Psychosocial stress increases testosterone in patients with borderline personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and healthy participants

BackgroundThe gonadal hormone testosterone not only regulates sexual behavior but is also involved in social behavior and cognition in both sexes. Changes in testosterone secretion in response to stress have been reported. In addition, stress associated mental disorders such as borderline personality disorder (BPD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are characterized by alterations in basal testosterone metabolism. However, testosterone changes to stress have not been investigated in mental disorders such as BPD and PTSD so far.MethodsIn the study described, we investigated testosterone reactivity to an acute psychosocial stressor, the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Our sample consisted of young adult women with BPD (n = 28), PTSD (n = 22) or both disorders (n = 22), and healthy control (n = 51). Based on previous studies on basal testosterone secretion in these disorders, we expected the stress-associated testosterone reactivity to be higher in the BPD group and lower in the PTSD group, when compared to the healthy control group.ResultsThe study could demonstrate an increase in testosterone after acute stress exposure across all groups and independent of BPD or PTSD status. Different possible explanations for the absence of a group effect are discussed.ConclusionsFrom the results of this study, we conclude that stress-related changes in testosterone release are not affected by BPD or PTSD status in a female patient population. This study expands the knowledge about changes in gonadal hormones and stress reactivity in these disorders.

An fMRI study of cognitive reappraisal in major depressive disorder and borderline personality disorder.

One common denominator to the clinical phenotypes of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) is emotion regulation impairment. Although these two conditions have been extensively studied separately, it remains unclear whether their emotion regulation impairments are underpinned by shared or distinct neurobiological alterations. We contrasted the neural correlates of negative emotion regulation across an adult sample of BPD patients (n=19), MDD patients (n=20), and healthy controls (HCs; n=19). Emotion regulation was assessed using an established functional magnetic resonance imaging cognitive reappraisal paradigm. We assessed both task-related activations and modulations of interregional connectivity. When compared to HCs, patients with BPD and MDD displayed homologous decreased activation in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) during cognitive reappraisal. In addition, the MDD group presented decreased activations in other prefrontal areas (i.e., left dorsolateral and bilateral orbitofrontal cortices), while the BPD group was characterized by a more extended pattern of alteration in the connectivity between the vlPFC and cortices of the visual ventral stream during reappraisal. This study identified, for the first time, a shared neurobiological contributor to emotion regulation deficits in MDD and BPD characterized by decreased vlPFC activity, although we also observed disorder-specific alterations. In MDD, results suggest a primary deficit in the strength of prefrontal activations, while BPD is better defined by connectivity disruptions between the vlPFC and temporal emotion processing regions. These findings substantiate, in neurobiological terms, the different profiles of emotion regulation alterations observed in these disorders.

Welfare consequences of early-onset Borderline Personality Disorder: a nationwide register-based case-control study.

Information regarding welfare consequences of early onset of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is limited. This nationwide study aimed to estimate the educational and employment outcome and health care costs of patients with early-onset BPD compared with matched controls. All patients (< 19years) with first diagnosis of BPD in the Danish Patient Register (NPR) during the period 1983-2015 were included. Health care costs and socioeconomic variables were extracted from national registers. A total of 171 patients was compared with 677 controls. At the age of 20years, BPD patients had reached a statistically significantly lower educational level (including lower primary school grades) and employment status compared with the controls. When adjusting for the parents' educational level, BPD patients were nearly 22 times more likely to be unemployed (OR = 21.7, 95% CI 11.9, 39.6), and nearly 15 times more likely to be on disability pension (OR = 14.8, 95% CI 5.0, 43.9) than controls. Furthermore, the total health care costs were more than 8 times higher in the BPD group. Early onset of BPD was associated with lower educational and vocational outcome and increased health care costs as early as at the age of 20years. Even after controlling for parents' lower socioeconomic status, the patients have poorer outcome than the control group. This underlines that initiatives to support patients in finishing school and secondary education is highly needed. Future prevention and early intervention programs should target patients with early-onset BPD and their families.

Is borderline personality disorder really an emotion dysregulation disorder and, if so, how? A comprehensive experimental paradigm.

Leading theories suggest that borderline personality disorder (BPD) is an emotion dysregulation disorder involving lower basal vagal tone, higher baseline emotion, heightened emotional reactivity, delayed emotional recovery, and emotion regulation deficits. However, the literature to date lacks a unifying paradigm that tests all of the main emotion dysregulation components and comprehensively examines whether BPD is an emotion dysregulation disorder and, if so, in what ways. This study addresses the empirical gaps with a unified paradigm that assessed whether BPD is characterized by five leading emotion dysregulation components compared to generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and healthy control (HC) groups. Emotion was assessed across self-report, sympathetic, and parasympathetic indices. Participants with BPD, GAD, and HCs (N = 120) first underwent baseline periods assessing basal vagal tone and baseline emotional intensity, followed by rejection-themed stressors assessing emotional reactivity. Participants then either reacted normally to assess emotional recovery or attempted to decrease emotion using mindfulness or distraction to assess emotion regulation implementation deficits. Individuals with BPD and GAD exhibited higher self-reported and sympathetic baseline emotion compared to HCs. The BPD group also exhibited self-reported emotion regulation deficits using distraction only compared to the GAD group. There is minimal support for several emotion dysregulation components in BPD, and some components that are present appear to be pervasive across high emotion dysregulation groups rather than specific to BPD. However, BPD may be characterized by problems disengaging from emotion using distraction.

Impaired set-shifting in drug-naïve patients with borderline personality disorder: an event-related potentials study

Background: Neurocognitive impairments might play a key role in the development of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), however, the pathophysiological mechanism underlying cognitive impairment of BPD is largely unknown. This study was aimed to examine the electrophysiological mechanism of deficits in set-shifting processing in patients with BPD.Methods: Twenty-seven drug-naïve patients with BPD and twenty-four healthy controls were recruited. Demographic variables and clinical characteristics of all subjects were collected. Behavioral data and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded when subjects were performing the task-switching paradigm, which was applied to investigate the set-shifting function. The P2, N2 and P3 components in the task-switching paradigm would be analyzed.Results: Patients with BPD had significantly higher level of impulsivity, depression and anxiety than healthy controls. When performing the switching task, the BPD group had lower P2 amplitude and higher N2 amplitude than the control group. In the BPD group, the P2 latency at Fz electrode in repeat task was correlated positively with the level of depression, and P2 latency at Pz electrode in repeat task and switch task both had significantly negative relationships with the the level of anxiety.Limitations: This cross-sectional designed study did not clarify the causal relationship of the electrophysiological characteristics and the development of BPD.Conclusions: Patients with BPD might have abnormal brain activities when overcoming the inhibition of current task and inhibiting the effects of prior task, and their top-down control function might be impaired. These findings provide some useful clues for the underlying pathophysiological mechanism of BPD.

Identifying specific insomnia components in borderline personality disorder and their influence on emotion dysregulation.

Insomnia-related sleep problems are common in borderline personality disorder (BPD) and exacerbate the core of BPD, emotion dysregulation. Insomnia is elicited and maintained through behaviors that disrupt both the homeostatic and circadian sleep systems. However, it is unclear which homeostatic or circadian insomnia behaviors characterize BPD and exacerbate emotion dysregulation, thus warranting clinical attention in this population. This study therefore investigated whether homeostatic (i.e., abnormalities in time in bed and sleep efficiency [SE]) and circadian (i.e., abnormalities in risetime variability and chronotypes) behaviors characterize and exacerbate emotion dysregulation in BPD group relative to healthy control (HC) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) groups. Participants from the community who met criteria for BPD, GAD, or no psychological disorders (HCs) were recruited and completed measures of emotion dysregulation. They also completed measures of daily homeostatic and circadian insomnia behaviors for 14 days. Generalized estimating equations revealed that the GAD group exhibited lower SE than HCs, and there was a marginally significant effect wherein the BPD group exhibited delayed risetimes relative to the GAD group. Moreover, higher time in bed predicted elevated emotion dysregulation in HCs but lower emotion dysregulation in the GAD group. Higher SE predicted higher emotion dysregulation in BPD. These results suggest that the influence of insomnia behaviors on emotion dysregulation is heterogeneous. Idiographic assessments of the influence of insomnia behaviors on emotion dysregulation are advised. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Social cognition and social functioning in people with borderline personality disorder and their first-degree relatives.

BackgroundA few papers studying healthy, first-degree relatives of people with borderline personality disorder (BPD) have found that this group presents attention and memory problems. However, current research has not analyzed their social cognition.Materials and MethodsWe designed an age-, gender- and education-level matched case-control study involving 57 people with BPD, 32 of their first-degree relatives, and 57 healthy controls in Spain in 2018–2019. All were assessed for social cognition and functioning using the Movie for Assessment of Social Cognition and the Social Functioning Scale; other potential confounders were also collected (marital status, occupation and household variables).ResultsThere were differences in the social cognition domain of overmentalizing errors, with the BPD group scoring significantly higher than controls; however, there was no significant difference with relatives; in the social functioning domain of family relationships, with the controls showing the highest scores. Social engagement/withdrawal, interpersonal behavior, independence-competence, prosocial activities, full scale and categorization domains showed the same pattern: the BPD group had lower scores than their relatives and the controls. Relatives were significantly different from BPD patients in family relationships, social engagement/withdrawal and interpersonal behavior, as well as on the full Social Functioning Scale (both as a linear and categorical variable). However, only controls showed differences with relatives in family relationships.ConclusionsAll in all, relatives show similar levels of social cognition and functioning compared with controls, and people with BPD show some alterations in different domains of both social cognition and functioning.

The association between neurocognitive functioning and clinical features of borderline personality disorder.

Objective:To investigate the relationship between neurocognitive profiles and clinical manifestations of borderline personality disorder (BPD).Methods:Forty-five patients diagnosed with BPD and 35 healthy volunteers were included in the study. The BPD group was evaluated with the Borderline Personality Inventory for dissociative, impulsivity and suicidal dimensions. The Verbal Memory Processes Test and the Cambridge Neurophysiological Assessment Battery were administered to both the BPD and healthy control groups.Results:BPD patients differed from controls in sustained attention, facial emotion recognition, and deteriorated verbal memory function. A model consisting of the Dissociative Experiences Scale – Taxon (DES-T), motor impulsivity and Scale for Suicidal Behavior scores explained 52% of the variance in Borderline Personality Inventory scores. It was detected that motor impulsivity, decision-making and recognizing sadness may significantly predict DES-T scores, and response inhibition and facial emotion recognition scores may significantly predict impulsivity.Conclusion:Our findings demonstrate that the disassociation, impulsivity, and suicidality dimensions are sufficient to represent the clinical manifestations of BPD, that they are related to neurocognitive differences, and that they interact with clinical features.

Characterization of relationship instability in women with borderline personality disorder: A social network analysis.

Interpersonal dysfunction is considered a cornerstone of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Relationships are described as intense and unstable, with individuals with BPD alternating between idealization and devaluation of relationship partners. Furthermore, a lack of stable and supportive relationships may be related to symptom maintenance and exacerbation. Despite widespread recognition of the importance of relationship instability in BPD, there is little empirical evidence about the nature of such instability and how it emerges over time. We examined the stability of social networks of women diagnosed with BPD (n = 27) and healthy controls (HCs; n = 23) by assessing key characteristics of relationships (satisfaction, support, closeness, conflict, and criticism) over a 6-month period. We conducted analyses to examine whether relationship instability depended on the frequency of interaction with members of the network. Results showed that the relationships of women in the BPD group were perceived as more unstable than those of the HC group. Compared with women in the HC group, women with BPD had networks with more relationships that had undergone significant change or had been "cut off" over the course of the study. The relationship between frequency of interaction and instability in support and satisfaction differed between groups. Women in the HC group showed greater instability in support with partners they interacted with infrequently, whereas women in the BPD group showed greater instability in satisfaction with partners they interacted with more frequently. Implications for understanding interpersonal dysfunction in BPD are discussed and possible areas of relevance for treatment development are highlighted. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Examining the impact of online rejection among emerging adults with borderline personality pathology: Development of a novel online group chat social rejection paradigm.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by emotional reactivity and interpersonal sensitivity, including greater emotional and cognitive reactivity to social rejection than controls. However, existing social rejection paradigms are not relevant to the particular social contexts that are increasingly relevant for adolescents and young adults (i.e., social media and online settings). This study examined emotional, parasympathetic, and cognitive responses to a novel online group chat social interaction task among emerging adults (18-24 years old) with a range of BPD pathology. Consistent with hypotheses, results revealed greater hostility and upset feelings, worse mood, greater threat to social needs, and greater respiratory sinus arrhythmia withdrawal in response to this task among participants in the rejection versus inclusion condition. Less support was found for the hypothesized relation of BPD pathology to greater reactivity to online social rejection. Specifically, although results revealed positive relations of BPD pathology with both negative mood in general and hostility in particular, in response to the task among participants in the rejection (but not inclusion) condition, the effect sizes associated with these findings were small, and the other hypothesized interactions of BPD pathology and group chat task condition were not significant. Conversely, results revealed associations of BPD pathology with greater threat to social needs and lower positive mood in response to the group chat task, regardless of condition. Results provide preliminary support for the utility of this novel online group chat rejection task for eliciting negative emotional, parasympathetic, and cognitive reactions in emerging adults with a range of BPD pathology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Decreased oxytocin plasma levels and oxytocin receptor expression in borderline personality disorder.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by intense affective reactions with underlying social and interpersonal cognitive deficits. Oxytocin has largely been associated with both stress regulation and social cognition in psychiatric patients and in non-clinical populations in previous studies. Finally, abnormal oxytocin levels have been preliminary reported in BPD patients. 53 patients with moderate-severe BPD and 31 healthy control subjects were investigated for plasma levels of oxytocin and protein expression of oxytocin receptor in blood mononuclear cells. Clinical assessments were made for severity, functionality, and comorbidity with axis I and II conditions. Oxytocin plasma levels were significantly lower in BPD patients compared with controls. In addition, protein expression of oxytocin receptor was significantly reduced in the BPD group. A positive correlation was found between plasma oxytocin levels and the activity index score of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ). Oxytocin receptor protein expression, on the contrary, had a negative correlation with the ZKPQ sociability index score. Results support the evidence of a dysfunction of the oxytocin system in borderline personality disorder, which could be involved in emotional dysregulation and interpersonal disturbances in these patients.

Raisons de vivre chez les adolescents suicidants, spécificités du trouble de personnalité limite

IntroductionAdolescent suicide is a major public health problem, especially among those with borderline personality disorder (BPD). The study of protective factors such as the reasons for living is innovative about this question. Our objective was to analyze the characteristics in the development of reasons for living in suicidal adolescents with BPD, compared with a sample without BPD. MethodsAdolescent inpatients, aged 13 to 17years, admitted after suicide attempts, were consecutively included and evaluated within ten days, using the abbreviated version of the Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines–Revised, the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children–Present and Lifetime Version supported by a team consensus best-estimate method for the primary diagnosis and the inclusion in the BPD group, the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale and the Reasons For Living inventory for Adolescents. ResultsIn total, 223 adolescents were included, with a sex ratio (M/F) of 0.22 and an average age of 14.8years. The TPL group scored significantly lower than the non-TPL group on the RFL-A total and each of the subscale scores. The highest difference was observed on the subscales “suicide-related concern” and “self-acceptance”. DiscussionOur study has highlighted the disturbances in the development of reasons for living in BPD patients, especially on the suicide-related concern and self-acceptance dimensions. ConclusionOur observations reinforce the current psychopathological conceptions of BPD and they open interesting perspectives for the management of adolescents with BPD and the prevention of suicidal behaviors.

Empathy, Alexithymia, and Theory of Mind in Borderline Personality Disorder.

The purpose of this research was to determine the differences in empathy, alexithymia features, and theory of mind between healthy controls and patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Thirty-five patients with BPD and 35 healthy controls were included in the study. To measure the clinical variables, the Empathy Quotient (EQ), Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), Barratt Impulsivity Scale-11 (BIS-11), and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were applied. We found that the BPD group had significantly worse total RMET and neutral RMET scores than the control group. There were no differences in the EQ scores between the BPD and control groups. The patients with BPD were more alexithymic than the controls, and alexithymia and depression scores predicted BPD status. Patients with BPD who have difficulty identifying their own emotions tend to display deficits in perceptions of facial emotions, which, in turn, may lead to misperceptions of social signals and thus contribute to excessive emotional intensity and tension in social situations. The study results reveal that alexithymia and depression are important variables in predicting BPD traits.

Self-Harming and Sense of Agency in Patients With Borderline Personality Disorder.

Self-harm is considered a pervasive problem in several psychopathologies, and especially in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Self-harming behaviors may be enacted for many purposes for example to regulate emotions and to reduce dissociation. BPD patients often report dissociative episodes, which may be related to an altered body awareness, and in particular to an altered awareness of the sense of agency. The sense of agency draws in part upon perceptions of being in control of our bodies and our physical movements, of being able to act upon environments. In this study, we aim to investigate whether dissociative experiences of BPD patients may be linked to an altered sense of agency and whether self-injurious actions may, through strong sensorial stimulation, constitute a coping strategy for the reduction of the distress associated with these dissociative experiences. A group of 20 BPD patients, of whom 9 presented self-harming behaviors, took part in the study and were compared with an age-matched control group of 20 healthy individuals. Sense of agency was evaluated through the Sensory Attenuation paradigm. In this paradigm, in a comparison with externally generated sensations, the degree to which perceived intensity of self-generated sensations is reduced is considered an implicit measure of sense of agency. As we expected, we found a significant difference in the perceptions of the two groups. The attenuation effect appeared to be absent in the BPD group while it was present in the control group. However, further analysis revealed that those BPD patients who engaged in self-harming behaviors presented a degree of attenuation which was similar to that of the control group. These results confirm the hypothesis that self-injurious actions constitute a coping strategy for increasing the sense of agency. We finally discuss the correlation of these experimental results with some clinical self-evaluation measures assessing dissociation, anxiety, depression, and affective dysregulation.

Emotion Dysregulation and Early Trauma in Borderline Personality Disorder: An Exploratory Study.

Background:Borderline personality disorder (BPD) research is in its nascent stage in India though studies have estimated its prevalence in psychiatric conditions. Trauma experiences and emotion regulation difficulties are well documented in BPD in the international literature. Thus, it is imperative to examine the role of trauma experiences and their relation to emotion dysregulation in BPD in the Indian context.Materials and Methods:This study used both self-report and semistructured interview data from 34 adults with BPD who presented for outpatient or inpatient psychiatric treatment and compared them with a gender-matched control group. The tools used were the International Personality Disorder Examination, Kessler-10, Early Trauma Inventory Self Report-Short Form, modified-Positive And Negative Affect Scale, Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS).Results:The BPD group reported higher negative affect, increased use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and a deficit of adaptive strategies, after depression scores were controlled for. General abuse, physical punishment, and emotional abuse were significantly higher in the BPD group. The high occurrence of childhood emotional abuse and negative affect in BPD patients emerged as a major correlate accounting for 68.4% of the variance in DERS scores.Conclusions:Although we obtained results similar to the western literature on BPD pathology, sociocultural factors such as family and economic conditions, cultural differences in symptom expression of BPD, and treatment forms used in India warrant further research.

Induced Illusory Body Ownership in Borderline Personality Disorder

Background: One aspect of selfhood that may have relevance for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is variation in sense of body ownership. We employed the rubber hand illusion (RHI) to manipulate sense of body ownership in BPD. We extended previous research on illusory body ownership in BPD by testing: 1) two illusion conditions: asynchronous & synchronous stimulation, 2) relationship between Illusion experience and core BPD symptoms, and 3) relationship between illusion experience maladaptive personality traits. Methods: Participants (24 BPD, 21 control) underwent RHI procedures. We measured illusion strength (questionnaire responses), proprioceptive drift (perceived shift in physical hand position), BPD symptoms (DIB-R score), and maladaptive personality traits (PID-5). Results: For subjective illusion strength, we found a main effect of group (BPD > HC, F = 11.94 p = 0.001), and condition (synchronous > asynchronous, F(1,43) = 22.80, p < 0.001). There was a group x condition interaction for proprioceptive drift (F(1,43) = 6.48, p = 0.015) such that people with BPD maintained illusion susceptibility in the asynchronous condition. Borderline symptom severity correlated with illusion strength within the BPD group, and this effect was specific to affective symptoms (r = 0.481, p < 0.01). Across all participants, trait psychoticism correlated with illusion strength (r = 0.481, p <0.01). Conclusion: People with BPD are more susceptible to illusory body ownership than are healthy controls. This result is consistent with the robust clinical literature describing aberrant physical and emotional experience of self in BPD. A predictive coding interpretation of these results holds promise to develop testable mechanistic hypotheses for experiences of disrupted bodily self in BPD.