Perceived Invalidation in Adolescent Borderline Personality Disorder: An Investigation of Parallel Reports of Caregiver Responses to Negative Emotions

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe form of personality pathology characterized by high levels of negative emotionality. Because negative emotions are so central to the clinical presentation of BPD, the issue of how people with this disorder process and experience positive emotional experiences is relatively unexplored. This chapter provides an overview of what is currently known about positive emotions and BPD. Although the literature is characterized by many inconsistencies, our review suggests that people with BPD do indeed experience positive emotions. However, their recall of positive emotional experiences appears to be reduced, perhaps because such experiences are more transient, less stable, and more likely to be quickly replaced by negative emotions. Problems with the identification and accurate differentiation of positive emotions may also play a role. Such difficulties may conspire to create a psychological world for people with BPD that is characterized by a focus on negative mood and negative emotional experiences. In addition to focusing on negative affect, we suggest that it might also be clinically beneficial to make problems with positive affect a specific clinical target.

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Change of Emotional Experience in Major Depression and Borderline Personality Disorder During Psychotherapy: Associations With Depression Severity and Personality Functioning

Journal of Personality Disorders ◽

10.1521/pedi_2019_33_420 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 1-20 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ulrike Dinger ◽

Magdalena Fuchs ◽

Johanna Köhling ◽

Henning Schauenburg ◽

Johannes C. Ehrenthal

Keyword(s):

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Positive Emotions ◽

Emotional Experience ◽

Negative Emotions ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

Depression Severity ◽

Personality Functioning ◽

Before And After ◽

Patient Groups

This study examines emotional experience in major depressive disorder (MDD) with and without comorbid borderline personality disorder (BPD). It investigates if depression severity or personality functioning mediates group differences and which aspects of emotional experience change during psychotherapy. The emotional experience of MDD-BPD patients (n = 44) was compared to MDD-only patients (n = 35) before and after multimodal short-term psychotherapy. Emotions were classified based on valence and an active/passive polarity. MDD-BPD patients exhibited more active-negative emotions. This group difference was mediated by the level of personality functioning, but not by depression severity. Although passive-negative emotions decreased and positive emotions increased during therapy, there was no significant change in active-negative emotions. The two patient groups did not significantly differ in the change of emotional experience. Lower levels of personality functioning in depressed patients with BPD are associated with a broader spectrum of negative emotions, specifically more active-negative emotions.

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Staff attitudes towards patients with borderline personality disorder

European Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/s0924-9338(11)72715-8 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 26 (S2) ◽

pp. 1010-1010

Author(s):

E. Bodner ◽

S. Cohen-Fridel ◽

I. Ianco

Keyword(s):

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Mental Health Professionals ◽

Negative Emotions ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

List Type ◽

Staff Attitudes ◽

Community Settings ◽

Common Diagnosis ◽

Level Of Agreement

IntroductionBDP is a common diagnosis in hospitals and community settings, estimated at 20% and 11%, respectively. Nevertheless, the attitudes and skills of all mental health professionals regarding the treatment of these patients had hardly been studied.ObjectivesDevelop tools and use them to understand staff attitudes towards BDP patients.Aims(1)To develop two inventories for the measurement of cognitive and emotional attitudes towards borderline personality disorder (BPD) patients and their treatment;(2)To use these tools to understand and compare attitudes of psychiatrists, psychologists and nurses toward BPD patients.MethodTwo lists of items referring to cognitive and emotional attitudes towards BPD patients were formulated. Nurses, psychologists and psychiatrist (n = 57), working in public psychiatric institutions rated their level of agreement with each item. Both lists of attitudes yielded three factors (cognitive: required treatment, suicidal tendencies, and antagonistic judgment, and emotional: negative emotions, experienced difficulties in treatment, and empathy, respectively).ResultsPsychologists scored lower than psychiatrists and nurses on antagonistic judgments. Nurses scored lower than psychiatrists and psychologists on empathy. Regression stepwise analyses on the three emotional attitudes separately showed that suicidal tendencies of BPD patients mainly explained negative emotions and difficulties in treating these patients. All groups were interested in learning more about the treatment of these patients.ConclusionsSuicidal tendencies of BPD patients provoke antagonistic judgments among the three professions. Psychiatrists, psychologists and nurses hold distinctive cognitive and emotional attitudes towards these patients. Staff training programs regarding BDP patients should consider these differences and concerns.

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Nonacceptance of negative emotions in women with borderline personality disorder: association with neuroactivity of the dorsal striatum

Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience ◽

10.1503/jpn.180077 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 44 (5) ◽

pp. 303-312 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Agnes Lamers ◽

Max Toepper ◽

Silvia Carvalho Fernando ◽

Nicole Schlosser ◽

Eva Bauer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Negative Emotions ◽

Dorsal Striatum ◽

Borderline Personality

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Comparable emotional dynamics in women with ADHD and borderline personality disorder

Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation ◽

10.1186/s40479-021-00144-y ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Talar R. Moukhtarian ◽

Iris Reinhard ◽

Paul Moran ◽

Celine Ryckaert ◽

Caroline Skirrow ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Negative Emotions ◽

Multilevel Modelling ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

Emotional Dysregulation ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Hyperactivity Disorder ◽

Affective Symptoms ◽

Comorbid Adhd

Abstract Background Emotional dysregulation (ED) is a core diagnostic symptom in borderline personality disorder (BPD) and an associated feature of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We aimed to investigate differences in dynamical indices of ED in daily life in ADHD and BPD. Methods We used experience sampling method (ESM) and multilevel modelling to assess momentary changes in reports of affective symptoms, and retrospective questionnaire measures of ED in a sample of 98 adult females with ADHD, BPD, comorbid ADHD+BPD and healthy controls. Results We found marked differences between the clinical groups and healthy controls. However, the ESM assessments did not show differences in the intensity of feeling angry and irritable, and the instability of feeling sad, irritable and angry, findings paralleled by data from retrospective questionnaires. The heightened intensity in negative emotions in the clinical groups compared to controls was only partially explained by bad events at the time of reporting negative emotions, suggesting both reactive and endogenous influences on ED in both ADHD and BPD. Conclusions This study supports the view that ED is a valuable trans-diagnostic aspect of psychopathology in both ADHD and BPD, with similar levels of intensity and instability. These findings suggest that the presence or severity of ED should not be used in clinical practice to distinguish between the two disorders.

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Associations of positive and negative emotions with ego-resiliency and quality of life in borderline personality disorder: A daily diary study.

Personality Disorders Theory Research and Treatment ◽

10.1037/per0000350 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 13-23 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Tine S. D. Harpøth ◽

Mickey T. Kongerslev ◽

Timothy J. Trull ◽

Johanna Hepp ◽

Anthony W. Bateman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Negative Emotions ◽

Daily Diary ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

Diary Study ◽

Daily Diary Study ◽

Positive And Negative Emotions

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Cognitive Reappraisal of Negative Emotional Images in Borderline Personality Disorder: Content Analysis, Perceived Effectiveness, and Diagnostic Specificity

Journal of Personality Disorders ◽

10.1521/pedi_2018_32_390 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 34 (2) ◽

pp. 199-215 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Alexander R. Daros ◽

Achala H. Rodrigo ◽

Nikoo Norouzian ◽

Bri S. Darboh ◽

Kateri McRae ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Depressive Disorders ◽

Negative Emotions ◽

Cognitive Reappraisal ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

Emotional Intensity ◽

Diagnostic Specificity ◽

Emotion Regulation Strategy

Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) report using cognitive reappraisal less often than healthy individuals despite the long-term benefits of the emotion regulation strategy on emotional stability. Individuals with BPD, mixed anxiety and/or depressive disorders (MAD), and healthy controls (HC) completed an experimental task to investigate the tactics contained in cognitive reappraisal statements vocalized for high and low emotional intensity photographs. Self-reported effectiveness after using cognitive reappraisal to decrease negative emotions was also evaluated. Although BPD and MAD used a similar number of cognitive reappraisal tactics, they perceived themselves as less effective at reducing their negative emotions compared to HC. During cognitive reappraisal, BPD and MAD uttered fewer words versus HC, while BPD uttered fewer words versus MAD. Results suggest that individuals with BPD and MAD are less fluent and perceive themselves as less effective than HC when using cognitive reappraisal to lower negative emotions regardless of stimulus intensity.

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Don't Make Me Angry: Frustration-Induced Anger and Its Link to Aggression in Women With Borderline Personality Disorder

Frontiers in Psychiatry ◽

10.3389/fpsyt.2021.695062 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Katja Bertsch ◽

Sarah Back ◽

Aleya Flechsenhar ◽

Corinne Neukel ◽

Marlene Krauch ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Emotion Dysregulation ◽

Negative Emotion ◽

Negative Emotions ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

Current Data ◽

Healthy Women ◽

Interpersonal Dysfunction ◽

Before And After

Aggression is a prominent interpersonal dysfunction of individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD). In BPD aggression is predominantly reactive in nature, often triggered by frustration, provocation, or social threat and is associated with intense anger and an inability to regulate this strong, negative emotion. Building on previous research, we were interested in investigating negative emotionality in general and anger in particular in women with BPD before and after frustration induction. To achieve this, 60 medication-free women with BPD and 32 healthy women rated the intensity of negative emotions (angry, frustrated, upset, embarrassed, nervous) before and after performing a Titrated Mirror Tracing Task, which reliably induces frustration and distress. As expected, women with BPD reported significantly greater intensity of negative emotions before and after frustration than healthy women. Specifically, they showed a significantly stronger frustration-induced increase in anger, while other negative emotions remained unaffected by frustration induction. This anger increase was significantly related to aggressive behavior reported in the 2 weeks prior to the experiment, as well as to the level of frustration experienced in the experiment itself, but not with emotion dysregulation. The current data confirm the important role of frustration-induced anger independent of emotion dysregulation in BPD, in particular with regard to aggression, a prominent interpersonal dysfunction of this disorder. These findings underline the importance of interventions with particular focus on anger.

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