scholarly journals Body connection mediates the relationship between traumatic childhood experiences and impaired emotion regulation in borderline personality disorder

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marius Schmitz ◽  
Katja Bertsch ◽  
Annette Löffler ◽  
Sylvia Steinmann ◽  
Sabine C. Herpertz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Borderline Personality Disorder ◽  
Personality Disorder ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Body Awareness ◽  
Borderline Personality ◽  
The Body ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Background Previous studies revealed an association between traumatic childhood experiences and emotional dysregulation in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, possible mediating pathways are still not fully understood. The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential mediating role of body connection, describing the awareness of the relationship of bodily and mental states, for the association between a history of traumatic childhood experiences and BPD core symptomatology. Methods One-hundred-twelve adult female individuals with BPD and 96 healthy female controls (HC) were included. Impaired emotion regulation, traumatic childhood experiences, and BPD symptomatology were assessed with self-report questionnaires. The Scale of Body Connection was used to assess two dimensions of body connection, that is body awareness, describing attendance to bodily information in daily life and noticing bodily responses to emotions and/or environment and body dissociation, describing a sense of separation from one’s own body, due to avoidance or emotional disconnection. Mann-Whitney U tests were employed to test for group differences (BPD vs. HC) on the two SBC subscales and associations with clinical symptoms were analyzed with Spearman correlations. We performed mediation analyses in the BPD group to test the assumption that body connection could act as a mediator between a history of traumatic childhood experiences and emotion dysregulation. Results Individuals with BPD reported significantly lower levels of body awareness and significantly higher levels of body dissociation compared to HC. Body dissociation, traumatic childhood experiences, and emotion dysregulation were significantly positively associated. Further analyses revealed that body dissociation, but not body awareness, significantly and fully mediated the positive relationship between traumatic childhood experiences and impaired emotion regulation in the BPD sample. This mediation survived when trait dissociation, i.e., general dissociative experiences not necessarily related to the body, was statistically controlled for. Conclusion Certain dimensions of body connection seem to be disturbed in BPD patients, with body dissociation being an important feature linking a history of traumatic childhood experiences to current deficits in emotion regulation.

Self-Compassion Mediates the Relationship Between Mindfulness and Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 838-856 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah J. Scheibner ◽  
Anna Daniels ◽  
Simon Guendelman ◽  
Franca Utz ◽  
Felix Bermpohl
Keyword(s):  
Borderline Personality Disorder ◽  
Personality Disorder ◽  
Symptom Severity ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Borderline Personality ◽  
Psychological Process ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Self Compassion ◽  
Nonclinical Sample ◽  
The Relationship

Individuals suffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD) experience difficulties with mindfulness. How mindfulness influences BPD symptoms, however, is still unknown. We hypothesized that the relationship between mindfulness and BPD symptoms would be mediated by self-compassion. In study 1, we recruited 29 individuals with BPD and 30 group-matched healthy controls. In study 2, we complemented our results with findings from a larger, nonclinical sample of 89 participants that were recruited during an open-house event at the local university. All participants completed questionnaires assessing self-compassion, mindfulness, BPD symptom severity, and emotion dysregulation. In both studies, self-compassion mediated the relationship between mindfulness and BPD symptom severity as well as between mindfulness and emotion dysregulation. Self-compassion seems to be one psychological process that could explain the relationship between mindfulness and BPD symptoms. One promising approach in therapy could be to target self-compassion more directly during mindfulness trainings and interventions.

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

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Skye Fitzpatrick ◽  
Sonya Varma ◽  
Janice R. Kuo
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Borderline Personality Disorder ◽  
Personality Disorder ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Vagal Tone ◽  
Borderline Personality ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Healthy Control ◽  
Emotional Recovery

Abstract Background 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. Methods 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. Results 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. Conclusions 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.

scholarly journals Child abuse potential in mothers with early life maltreatment, borderline personality disorder and depression

2018 ◽  
Vol 213 (1) ◽  
pp. 412-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katja Dittrich ◽  
Katja Boedeker ◽  
Dorothea Kluczniok ◽  
Charlotte Jaite ◽  
Catherine Hindi Attar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Child Abuse ◽  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Borderline Personality Disorder ◽  
Personality Disorder ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Child Psychopathology ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Borderline Personality ◽  
Abuse Potential ◽  
History Of

BackgroundEarly life maltreatment (ELM), borderline personality disorder (BPD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) have been shown to increase the potential of abuse. Emotion regulation is an identified mediator for the association of ELM and BPD with abuse potential. Until now, there has been no study to account for the co-occurrence of these risk factors in one analysis, although BPD and MDD are known as common sequelae of ELM. This is paired with a lack of studies investigating the effects of abuse potential on child well-being.AimsOur study aims at (a) disentangling the effects of maternal ELM, MDD and BPD on abuse potential; (b) exploring the role of emotion regulation as a mediator; and (c) testing for intergenerational effects of abuse potential on child psychopathology.MethodThe research design included 114 mothers with/without ELM, BPD and MDD in remission and their children, all of which were between 5 and 12 years of age. A path analysis was conducted to investigate the multiple associations between our variables.ResultsELM, MDD and BPD were all associated with abuse potential, with emotion regulation acting as a mediator for BPD and MDD. Furthermore, an elevated abuse potential was related to higher psychopathology in the child.ConclusionsHistory of ELM as well as the common sequelae, BPD and MDD, pose risks for child abuse. Our findings suggest improvement of emotion regulation as a potential target for intervention programs. These programs should also aim at non-substantiated cases because even an elevated abuse potential affected child mental health.Declaration of interestNone.

Clinical, personality, and neurodevelopmental phenotypes in borderline personality disorder: a family study

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (12) ◽  
pp. 2069-2080 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony C. Ruocco ◽  
Alexander R. Daros ◽  
Jie Chang ◽  
Achala H. Rodrigo ◽  
Jaeger Lam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Borderline Personality Disorder ◽  
Personality Disorder ◽  
Big Five ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Family Study ◽  
Familial Aggregation ◽  
Borderline Personality ◽  
Psychiatric Diagnoses ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
History Of

AbstractBackgroundBorderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by a heterogeneous clinical phenotype that emerges from interactions among genetic, biological, neurodevelopmental, and psychosocial factors. In the present family study, we evaluated the familial aggregation of key clinical, personality, and neurodevelopmental phenotypes in probands with BPD (n = 103), first-degree biological relatives (n = 74; 43% without a history of psychiatric disorder), and non-psychiatric controls (n = 99).MethodsParticipants were assessed on DSM-IV psychiatric diagnoses, symptom dimensions of emotion dysregulation and impulsivity, ‘big five’ personality traits, and neurodevelopmental characteristics, as part of a larger family study on neurocognitive, biological, and genetic markers in BPD.ResultsThe most common psychiatric diagnoses in probands and relatives were major depression, substance use disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, and avoidant personality disorder. There was evidence of familial aggregation for specific dimensions of impulsivity and emotion dysregulation, and the big five traits neuroticism and conscientiousness. Both probands and relatives reported an elevated neurodevelopmental history of attentional and behavioral difficulties.ConclusionsThese results support the validity of negative affectivity- and impulse-spectrum phenotypes associated with BPD and its familial risk. Further research is needed to investigate the aggregation of neurocognitive, neural and genetic factors in families with BPD and their associations with core phenotypes underlying the disorder.

scholarly journals Interpersonal Problems in Borderline Personality Disorder: Associations with Mentalizing, Emotion Regulation, and Impulsiveness

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Euler ◽  
Tobias Nolte ◽  
Matthew Constantinou ◽  
Julia Griem ◽  
P. Read Montague ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Borderline Personality Disorder ◽  
Personality Disorder ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Interpersonal Problems ◽  
Borderline Personality ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Inventory Of Interpersonal Problems ◽  
Difficulties In Emotion Regulation ◽  
Path Models

Interpersonal problems are a core symptom of borderline personality disorder (BPD). This study investigated the relationship between emotion dysregulation, impulsiveness, and impaired mentalizing in the context of predicting interpersonal problems in BPD. A total of 210 patients with BPD completed the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ), and Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP-32). The authors conducted three path models, with either mentalizing, emotion regulation, or impulsiveness as the exogenous variable. Emotion dysregulation and attentional impulsiveness predicted interpersonal problems directly, whereas hypomentalizing predicted interpersonal problems only indirectly throughout emotion dysregulation and attentional impulsiveness. The results suggest that these domains contribute significantly to interpersonal problems in BPD. Moreover, hypomentalizing might affect on interpersonal problems via its effect on impulsiveness and emotion regulation. The authors argue that focusing on emotion regulation and mentalizing in BPD treatments might have interlinked beneficial effects on interpersonal problems.

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