scholarly journals Blinded by our emotions: The impact of borderline personality disorder and affect on emotion recognition sensitivity

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 204380871881887 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kibby McMahon ◽  
Kwanguk Kim ◽  
Caitlin M. Fang ◽  
Andrada D. Neacsiu ◽  
M. Zachary Rosenthal

Previous studies have demonstrated abnormalities in emotion recognition within individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, it is yet unknown how much these abnormalities can be attributed to emotional states or affect. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate the independent effects of BPD, positive affect, and negative affect on emotion recognition sensitivity. We recruited a mixed, transdiagnostic community sample of 118 adults diagnosed with either a personality disorder, only an affective disorder, or without psychopathology. Participants completed self-report assessments of positive and negative affect and two behavioral assessments of emotion recognition sensitivity. We found that both positive and negative affect predict lower overall emotion recognition sensitivity in both tasks, beyond the effect of BPD. We did not find a significant, independent effect of the diagnosis of BPD. Additionally, we found that the diagnosis of BPD moderated the relationship between negative affect and emotion recognition sensitivity within one task. Findings from the present study suggest that sensitivity to other people’s emotional expressions may be influenced by affect beyond the effect of the BPD diagnosis. The implications for future research efforts on emotion recognition and BPD are discussed.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Skye Fitzpatrick

This study examined Linehan’s (1993) theory of delayed emotional recovery (i.e., emotions last longer) in borderline personality disorder (i.e., BPD), and whether non-suicidal self-injury and suicidal ideation modulate this process. BPD and healthy control (HC) groups were monitored via parasympathetic, sympathetic, and self-report indices after fear, anger, and sadness inductions. After the fear induction, the BPD group showed increases in emotional arousal as indicated by parasympathetic indices and no changes in sympathetic indices, whereas HCs showed no change in parasympathetic indices and decreases in sympathetic indices. Further, individuals with BPD with higher urges to commit suicide after the fear induction exhibited faster decreases in sympathetic responding than others. These findings suggest that individuals with BPD selectively show delayed emotional recovery and that suicidal ideation may quicken emotional recovery in this group. Those with BPD may benefit from learning strategies to quicken, or tolerate, delayed emotional recovery.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Skye Fitzpatrick

This study examined Linehan’s (1993) theory of delayed emotional recovery (i.e., emotions last longer) in borderline personality disorder (i.e., BPD), and whether non-suicidal self-injury and suicidal ideation modulate this process. BPD and healthy control (HC) groups were monitored via parasympathetic, sympathetic, and self-report indices after fear, anger, and sadness inductions. After the fear induction, the BPD group showed increases in emotional arousal as indicated by parasympathetic indices and no changes in sympathetic indices, whereas HCs showed no change in parasympathetic indices and decreases in sympathetic indices. Further, individuals with BPD with higher urges to commit suicide after the fear induction exhibited faster decreases in sympathetic responding than others. These findings suggest that individuals with BPD selectively show delayed emotional recovery and that suicidal ideation may quicken emotional recovery in this group. Those with BPD may benefit from learning strategies to quicken, or tolerate, delayed emotional recovery.


Crisis ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Jacqueline M. Frei ◽  
Vladimir Sazhin ◽  
Melissa Fick ◽  
Keong Yap

Abstract. Psychiatric hospitalization can cause significant distress for patients. Research has shown that to cope with the stress, patients sometimes resort to self-harm. Given the paucity of research on self-harm among psychiatric inpatients, a better understanding of transdiagnostic processes as predictors of self-harm during psychiatric hospitalization is needed. The current study examined whether coping styles predicted self-harm after controlling for commonly associated factors, such as age, gender, and borderline personality disorder. Participants were 72 patients (mean age = 39.32 years, SD = 12.29, 64% male) admitted for inpatient treatment at a public psychiatric hospital in Sydney, Australia. Participants completed self-report measures of coping styles and ward-specific coping behaviors, including self-harm, in relation to coping with the stress of acute hospitalization. Results showed that younger age, diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, and higher emotion-oriented coping were associated with self-harm. After controlling for age and borderline personality disorder, higher levels of emotion-oriented coping were found to be a significant predictor of self-harm. Findings were partially consistent with hypotheses; emotion-oriented but not avoidance-oriented coping significantly predicted self-harm. This finding may help to identify and provide psychiatric inpatients who are at risk of self-harm with appropriate therapeutic interventions.


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.


Author(s):  
Annemarie Miano ◽  
Sven Barnow ◽  
Stina Wagner ◽  
Stefan Roepke ◽  
Isabel Dziobek

Abstract Background Emotion regulation (ER) and interpersonal dysfunction constitute key features of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Here, we tested if females with BPD show impairments in dyadic ER, that is in their support seeking and creation of closeness. We investigated if women with BPD might over-rely on their male partner by excessive support seeking and establishing of closeness, during conversations with personally and relationship-threatening topics. Methods Thirty couples in which the women were diagnosed with BPD and 34 healthy control (HC) couples were videotaped while discussing neutral, personally threatening, and relationship-threatening topics. Support seeking was rated by three independent raters, using a naïve observer method. The creation of closeness was rated using a continuous video-rating. Perceived emotions were assessed using self-report after each conversation. Results Women with BPD engaged in more support seeking than HC women, especially in more negative behaviors to elicit support, they created less closeness to their partner than HCs and reported a greater decline of positive emotions in both threatening conditions. Women with BPD displayed more fluctuations than controls between creating closeness and distance in the personally-threatening situation. They reported a larger increase in negative emotions after the relationship threatening conversation compared to female HC. Conclusions The present study indicates an increased demand of dyadic ER in BPD. Increased negative support seeking and less creation of closeness to the partner might reflect ineffective strategies to actually receive support from the partner.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Kolbeck ◽  
Steffen Moritz ◽  
Julia Bierbrodt ◽  
Christina Andreou

Ongoing research is shifting towards a dimensional understanding of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Aim of this study was to identify personality profiles in BPD that are predictive of self-destructive behaviors. Personality traits were assessed (n = 130) according to the five-factor model of personality (i.e., Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness) and an additional factor called Risk Preference. Self-destructive behavior parameters such as non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and other borderline typical dyscontrolled behaviors (e.g., drug abuse) were assessed by self-report measures. Canonical correlation analyses demonstrated that Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness are predictors of NSSI. Further, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Risk Preference were associated with dyscontrolled behaviors. Our results add further support on personality-relevant self-destructive behaviors in BPD. A combined diagnostic assessment could offer clinically meaningful insights about the causes of self-destruction in BPD to expand current therapeutic repertoires.


2016 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 270-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reed Maxwell ◽  
Steven Jay Lynn ◽  
Scott Lilienfeld

Although interest in the relationship between mental imagery and psychopathology has increased greatly over the last decade, few publications to date have examined relationships between personality-related psychopathology and mental imagery use, abilities, or both. However, we have reason to expect that substantive relationships may exist. For example, studies have consistently linked psychopathy and borderline personality disorder to problems in emotion experience and emotion regulation, and a growing number of studies indicate that deficits in visual mental imagery use and ability in particular may contribute to such problems. Using correlational data from multiple self-report measures of normal and pathological personality functioning and visual mental imagery, our study presents preliminary evidence for lower levels of self-reported visual mental imagery use, abilities, or both among noncriminal individuals with higher levels of self-reported psychopathy and individuals with greater emotional regulation difficulties, a core feature of borderline personality disorder. We also found significant relationships among self-reported visual mental imagery use, ability, or both, and personality variables shown to strongly predict psychopathy and emotional regulation difficulties. Limitations of the study, especially its reliance on a correlational, cross-sectional design, are discussed, and implications for future research are explored.


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