Association between Childhood Trauma and Dissociation Among Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder

Objective: To examine the relationship between childhood trauma and dissociative experience in adulthood in patients with borderline personality disorder. Method: Dissociative experiences scale scores and subscale scores for the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire were correlated in 139 patients. Patients were dichotomized into high or low dissociators using the Median Dissociative Experiences Scale score as the cut-off. Results: Childhood Trauma Questionnaire Subscale scores for emotional and physical abuse and emotional neglect but not sexual abuse correlated significantly with Dissociative Experiences Scale scores. High dissociators reported significantly greater levels of emotional abuse, physical abuse, emotional neglect and physical neglect but not sexual abuse than low dissociators. Conclusion: Patients with borderline personality disorder therefore demonstrated levels of dissociation that increased with levels of childhood trauma, supporting the hypothesis that traumatic childhood experiences engender dissociative symptoms later in life. Emotional abuse and neglect may be at least as important as physical and sexual abuse in the development of dissociative symptoms.

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Relationship of Personality to Dissociation and Childhood Trauma in Borderline Personality Disorder

CNS Spectrums ◽

10.1017/s109285290001912x ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 8 (10) ◽

pp. 755-762 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Daphne Simeon ◽

Dorothy Nelson ◽

Rachela Elias ◽

Jennifer Greenberg ◽

Eric Hollander

Keyword(s):

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Childhood Trauma ◽

Short Form ◽

Small Sample Size ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

Small Sample ◽

Emotional Neglect ◽

Childhood Trauma Questionnaire ◽

The Relationship

ABSTRACTBackground:Dissociation is a prominent feature in some individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD), yet our understanding of the meanings and implications of prominent dissociation in BPD remains limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between dissociation and childhood trauma in BPD and to explore the relationships of dissociation and trauma to various personality features of BPD.Methods:Twenty BPD subjects and 24 healthy comparison subjects of similar age and gender were administered the Dissociative Experiences Scale, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire—short form, the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire, the Defense Style Questionnaire, the Relationship Style Questionnaire, and the Schema Questionnaire.Results:The BPD group exhibited greater dissociation and childhood trauma, as well as greater pathology in most personality variables, compared with the healthy group. Dissociation in BPD was not significantly related to total childhood trauma, but only to emotional neglect, which accounted for 23% of the variance in dissociation scores.Conclusion:Within the BPD group, dissociation was associated with fearful attachment and immature defenses, while total childhood trauma and emotional neglect were associated with overconnection and disconnection schemata. This is a preliminary study with a small sample size, yet the correlates of dissociation in BPD merit further investigation.

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Cognitive and Affective Theory of Mind in Female Patients With Borderline Personality Disorder

Journal of Personality Disorders ◽

10.1521/pedi.2021.35.5.672 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 35 (5) ◽

pp. 672-690

Author(s):

Karen Hillmann ◽

Corinne Neukel ◽

Marlene Krauch ◽

Angelika Spohn ◽

Knut Schnell ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Theory Of Mind ◽

Childhood Trauma ◽

Affective State ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

False Belief ◽

Affective States ◽

Experimental Conditions ◽

Childhood Trauma Questionnaire

Empirical studies have identified deficits in cognitive and affective theory of mind (ToM) in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), but results remain heterogeneous and not much is known about the role of childhood trauma. The current study assessed cognitive and affective ToM in 80 patients with BPD and 41 healthy controls in a false-belief cartoon task. Childhood trauma was measured with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Patients with BPD responded slower in all experimental conditions in false-belief situations, but not when false beliefs were resolved; made more errors in the cognitive ToM condition; and reported worse affective states more often in and after false-belief situations. No significant correlations between ToM and childhood trauma could be found. The current study revealed deficits in cognitive and affective ToM in patients with BPD that may be related to a more negative affective state raised by the false-belief stories.

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Cognitive and Affective Theory of Mind in Female Patients With Borderline Personality Disorder

Journal of Personality Disorders ◽

10.1521/pedi_2020_34_490 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-19

Author(s):

Karen Hillmann ◽

Corinne Neukel ◽

Marlene Krauch ◽

Angelika Spohn ◽

Knut Schnell ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Theory Of Mind ◽

Childhood Trauma ◽

Affective State ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

False Belief ◽

Affective States ◽

Experimental Conditions ◽

Childhood Trauma Questionnaire

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Psychological Risk Factors and Self-Mutilation in Male Patients with Bpd

The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.1177/070674379403900505 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 39 (5) ◽

pp. 266-268 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

Hallie Zweig-Frank ◽

Joel Paris ◽

Jaswant Guzder

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorders ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

Dissociative Experiences Scale ◽

Psychological Risk Factors ◽

Dissociative Experiences ◽

Self Mutilation ◽

Psychological Risk

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not self-mutilation in patients with personality disorders is related to other psychological risk factors, dissociation or diagnosis. The sample included 61 subjects with borderline personality disorder and 60 subjects with nonborderline personality disorder; 32 subjects with borderline personality disorder reported self-mutilation. Psychological risk factors were measured through histories of childhood sexual abuse, physical abuse and separation or loss as well as through scores on the Parental Bonding Index. Dissociation was measured by the Dissociative Experiences Scale. There were no relationships between any of the psychological risk factors and self-mutilation. Subjects who mutilated themselves had higher scores on the Dissociative Experiences Scale in univariate analysis but the scores in multivariate analyses dissociation did not discriminate between subjects who mutilated themselves and those who did not. The results do not support the theory that abuse and dissociation account for self-mutilation in the personality disorders.

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Childhood abuse and borderline personality disorder features in Chinese undergraduates: the role of self-esteem and resilience

BMC Psychiatry ◽

10.1186/s12888-021-03332-w ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Guo-Die Xie ◽

Jun-Jie Chang ◽

Meng-Yuan Yuan ◽

Geng-Fu Wang ◽

Yang He ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sexual Abuse ◽

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Physical Abuse ◽

Childhood Abuse ◽

Emotional Abuse ◽

Self Esteem ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

Mediating Role

Abstract Background Although childhood abuse is considered to be related to borderline personality disorder (BPD), few studies have elaborated on the mediating role of self-esteem and resilience in it. Thus, the present study aimed to explore the potential mediating role of resilience and self-esteem between childhood abuse and BPD. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted with 4034 college students in Anhui Province, China. Participants were asked to complete Chinese versions of the following instruments: Childhood Trauma Questionnaire–Short Form (CTQ-SF), Mclean Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder (MSI-BPD), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the mediation effects. Results Resilience and self-esteem were found to be mediators of all three types of childhood abuse (emotional abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse) when the types were examined separately; however, when all three types of childhood abuse were entered into the model simultaneously, neither the indirect effects nor direct effects of physical abuse or sexual abuse were found to be significant, only the association between emotional abuse and BPD features was partially mediated by resilience and self-esteem. Conclusions Self-esteem and resilience mediate the links between childhood abuse and BPD features, and emotional abuse is uniquely associated with BPD features.

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Abuse and Neglect in Childhood: Relationship to Personality Disorder Diagnoses

CNS Spectrums ◽

10.1017/s1092852900019118 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 8 (10) ◽

pp. 737-754 ◽

Cited By ~ 141

Author(s):

Linda M. Bierer ◽

Rachel Yehuda ◽

James Schmeidler ◽

Vivian Mitropoulou ◽

Antonia S. New ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorders ◽

Childhood Trauma ◽

Emotional Abuse ◽

Suicide Attempts ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

Antisocial Personality ◽

Abuse And Neglect ◽

History Of

ABSTRACTBackground:Childhood history of abuse and neglect has been associated with personality disorders and has been observed in subjects with lifetime histories of suicidality and self-injury. Most of these findings have been generated from inpatient clinical samples.Methods:This study evaluated self-rated indices of sustained childhood abuse and neglect in an outpatient sample of well-characterized personality disorder subjects (n=182) to determine the relative associations of childhood trauma indices to specific personality disorder diagnoses or clusters and to lifetime history of suicide attempts or gestures. Subjects met criteria for ~2.5 Axis II diagnoses and 24% reported past suicide attempts. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire was administered to assess five dimensions of childhood trauma exposure (emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, and emotional and physical neglect). Logistic regression was employed to evaluate salient predictors among the trauma measures for each cluster, personality disorder, and history of attempted suicide and self-harm. All analyses controlled for gender distribution.Results:Seventy-eight percent of subjects met dichotomous criteria for some form of childhood trauma; a majority reported emotional abuse and neglect. The dichotomized criterion for global trauma severity was predictive of cluster B, borderline, and antisocial personality disorder diagnoses. Trauma scores were positively associated with cluster A, negatively with cluster C, but were not significantly associated with cluster B diagnoses. Among the specific diagnoses comprising cluster A, paranoid disorder alone was predicted by sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. Within cluster B, only antisocial personality disorder showed significant associations with trauma scores, with specific prediction by sexual and physical abuse. For borderline personality disorder, there were gender interactions for individual predictors, with emotional abuse being the only significant trauma predictor, and only in men. History of suicide gestures was associated with emotional abuse in the entire sample and in women only; self-mutilatory behavior was associated with emotional abuse in men.Conclusion:These results suggest that childhood emotional abuse and neglect are broadly represented among personality disorders, and associated with indices of clinical severity among patients with borderline personality disorder. Childhood sexual and physical abuse are highlighted as predictors of both paranoid and antisocial personality disorders. These results help qualify prior observations of the association of childhood sexual abuse with borderline personality disorder.

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Reported childhood trauma, attempted suicide and self-mutilative behavior among women in the general population

European Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.eurpsy.2005.01.002 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 20 (3) ◽

pp. 268-273 ◽

Cited By ~ 59

Author(s):

Gamze Akyuz ◽

Vedat Sar ◽

Nesim Kugu ◽

Orhan Doğan

Keyword(s):

Sexual Abuse ◽

General Population ◽

Childhood Abuse ◽

Childhood Trauma ◽

Emotional Abuse ◽

Attempted Suicide ◽

Suicide Attempts ◽

Dissociative Experiences Scale ◽

Dissociative Experiences ◽

Central Turkey

AbstractThis study attempted to determine the prevalence of childhood trauma among women in the general population as assessed in a representative sample from a city in central Turkey. The Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) was administered to 628 women in 500 homes. They were also asked for childhood abuse and/or neglect. DES was administered to 251 probands. Mean age of the probands was 34.8 ± 11.5 years (range 18–65). Sixteen women (2.5%) reported sexual abuse, 56 women (8.9%) physical abuse, and 56 women (8.9%) emotional abuse in childhood. The most frequently reported childhood trauma was neglect (n = 213, 33.9%). The prevalence of suicide attempts was 4.5% (n = 28). Fourteen probands (2.2%) reported self-mutilative behavior.

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Oxytocin Receptor Gene, Childhood Maltreatment and Borderline Personality Disorder among Male Inmates in China

10.21203/rs.2.12763/v1 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Min Zhang ◽

Na Liu ◽

Haocheng Chen ◽

Ning Zhang

Keyword(s):

Sexual Abuse ◽

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Physical Abuse ◽

Childhood Maltreatment ◽

Emotional Abuse ◽

Receptor Gene ◽

Oxytocin Receptor ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

Genotype Frequency

Abstract Background Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is caused by a variety of biological and environmental factors. Accumulating evidence suggests that childhood maltreatment is a risk environmental factor in the development of BPD, but research on the genetic pathology of BPD is still in its early stages, and very little is known about the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene. The purpose of this study is to further explore the interaction between OXTR gene polymorphism and childhood maltreatment in BPD. Methods A total of 1804 prison inmates and 196 normal controls participated in this study. Childhood maltreatment was measured by a self-reported questionnaire, as was BPD. Venous blood was collected for the genotype test. Results Analyses revealed that the BP group had higher rs53576 AA genotype frequency and rs237987 AA genotype frequency than the non-BP group. Childhood maltreatment and its dimension could positively predict BPD risk. Among the prison samples, rs53576 GG genotype carriers had higher BPD scores at higher levels of emotional abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse and lower BPD scores at lower levels of physical abuse and sexual abuse. Conclusions The finding suggests that the interaction between childhood maltreatment and OXTR gene variations is an important mechanism for the development of BPD. The moderating role of the OXTR gene provides evidence for gene plasticity.

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Narrative coherence of autobiographical memories in women with borderline personality disorder and associations with childhood adversity

Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation ◽

10.1186/s40479-021-00159-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Glenn Bendstrup ◽

Erik Simonsen ◽

Mickey T. Kongerslev ◽

Mie S. Jørgensen ◽

Lea S. Petersen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Childhood Trauma ◽

Childhood Adversity ◽

Narrative Structure ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

Autobiographical Narratives ◽

Narrative Coherence ◽

Autobiographical Memories ◽

Tentative Evidence

Abstract Background People suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) seem to have incoherent autobiographical narratives. Tentative evidence suggests that reduced narrative coherence of autobiographical memories is associated with insecure attachment. However, it remains unknown whether incoherent autobiographical narratives in people with BPD are coupled to experiences of childhood trauma, which is highly prevalent in BPD. Method We examined if written autobiographical memories in 26 female participants with BPD had reduced narrative coherence relative to 28 healthy female controls and whether more incoherent narratives were associated with childhood trauma. Results As hypothesized, results showed that compared to controls, the autobiographical memories in participants with BPD had reduced narrative coherence, specifically inadequate orientation about the narrative and lack of narrative structure. More self-reported childhood adversity was coupled to lower orientation across groups whereas increased childhood adversity showed a specific relationship to lowered narrative structure in BPD participants. Conclusion Women with BPD had incoherent autobiographical narratives, and reduced narrative coherence was associated with more self-reported childhood adversity, which appeared to explain the group differences.

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