Object relations predicts borderline personality disorder symptoms beyond emotional dysregulation, negative affect, and impulsivity.

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven K. Huprich ◽  
Sharon M. Nelson ◽  
Amy Paggeot ◽  
Ketrin Lengu ◽  
Jeremy Albright
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Allen ◽  
Michael Hallquist ◽  
Aidan G.C. Wright ◽  
Alexandre Dombrovski

Importance: Clinicians treating borderline personality disorder (BPD) are often faced with the difficult challenge of assessing when, and for whom, risk for suicide is greatest. Addressing this dilemma requires longitudinal, prospective data from high-risk samples with an elevated base rate of suicide attempts.Objective: To test whether dispositional characteristics modulate the pathway from interpersonal dysfunction to suicide in BPD. Design: This longitudinal, observational study was conducted between 1990 and 2020. Data were analyzed between April and July 2020. Participants were assessed annually for up to 30 years (mean number of follow-ups = 7.82). Setting: Participants were recruited from inpatient, outpatient, and community referral sources.Participants: 458 individuals (Mean age = 28.59, 77% female) diagnosed with BPD.Main Outcomes and Measures: Presence or absence of a suicide attempt within one year of each follow-up assessment. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to 1) examine longitudinal, within-person transitions from interpersonal dysfunction to suicidal ideation to suicide attempts (i.e., the [I]nterpersonal-[I]deation-[A]ttempt pathway); and 2) evaluate whether two maladaptive personality dimensions, negative affect and disinhibition, moderated these transitions.Results: At the within-person level, there was support for the I-I-A pathway: suicidal ideation accounted for the association between interpersonal dysfunction and suicide attempts. Personality further moderated each component of the I-I-A pathway: negative affect was associated with a stronger coupling between interpersonal dysfunction and ideation; and disinhibition was associated with a stronger coupling between ideation and attempts. Conclusions and Relevance: The escalation from interpersonal difficulties to a suicidal crisis in BPD involves two psychologically distinct process. An internalizing process links interpersonal dysfunction to suicidal ideation and is facilitated by trait negative. An additional externalizing process links suicidal ideation to suicide attempts, and is facilitated by trait disinhibition. Assessment of these intra- and interindividual risk factors may inform clinical decisions about when, and for whom, crisis intervention is necessary.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Timothy A. Allen ◽  
Alexandre Y. Dombrovski ◽  
Paul H. Soloff ◽  
Michael N. Hallquist

Abstract Background Individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) often describe their lives as stressful and unpredictable. However, it is unclear whether the adversity faced by those with BPD is a product of stress reactivity or stress generation. Here, we examined the dynamic, prospective associations between BPD and stressful life events over 3 years. Given the heterogeneity present in BPD, we sought to understand which empirically derived dimensions of this heterogeneous disorder explain stress reactivity v. stress generation. Methods Participants included 355 individuals diagnosed with BPD and followed longitudinally at three annual assessments. Auto-regressive cross-lagged panel models were used to examine prospective associations between stressful life events and three latent dimensions implicated in BPD: negative affect, disinhibition, and antagonism. Results Antagonism and disinhibition, but not negative affect, prospectively predicted dependent stressful life events (events the individual may have some role in). Evidence for decompensation under stress was more tenuous, with independent stressful life events (those presumably outside the individual's control) predicting increases in negative affect. Conclusions Our longitudinal study of a well-characterized clinical sample found more evidence for stress generation than for stress-induced decompensation in BPD. Stress generation in BPD is driven by externalizing dimensions: antagonism and disinhibition. These results highlight the utility of empirically derived dimensions for parsing heterogeneity present in BPD, leading to improvements in diagnostic evaluation, clinical prediction, and individualized approaches to treatment planning.


2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karyn Ayre ◽  
Gareth S. Owen ◽  
Paul Moran

SummaryThe use of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 in assessing decision-making capacity in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) is inconsistent. We believe this may stem from persisting confusion regarding the nosological status of personality disorder and also a failure to recognise the fact that emotional dysregulation and characteristic psychodynamic abnormalities may cause substantial difficulties in using and weighing information. Clearer consensus on these issues is required in order to provide consistent patient care and reduce uncertainty for clinicians in what are often emergency and high-stakes clinical scenarios.


2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. E. Yeomans ◽  
K. N. Levy

One of the principal formulations of borderline personality disorder is based on object relations theory, a component of psychoanalytic theory. To remain relevant, psychoanalytic formulations must find support from empirical research. After summarizing the object relations understanding of borderline personality, the authors review studies in biological neuroscience, developmental psychology and cognitive science related to the fundamental concepts of object relations theory as it aplies to borderline pathology. This review suggests that these empirical studies support psychoanalytic formulations originally derived from clinical practice and observation.


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