The Biology of Borderline Personality Disorder: Recent Findings and Future Approaches to the Study of Impulsive Aggression and Affective Instability: Seth Resnick, Marianne Goodman, Antonia New, and Larry Siever

2013 ◽  
pp. 58-88

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Samuel Santangelo ◽  
Tobias D. Kokler ◽  
Marie-Luise Zeitler ◽  
Rebekka Knies ◽  
Nikolaus Kleindienst ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is defined by a pervasive pattern of instability. According to prior findings and clinical theories, self-esteem instability and affective instability are key features of BPD. Previous e-diary studies showed that instability in self-esteem is heightened and that it is highly intertwined with affective instability in BPD in comparison to healthy controls (HC). The present study sought to extend these findings by adding symptomatologically remitted BPD patients (BPD-REM), i.e. former patients with BPD who met four or fewer BPD criteria within the past year, as a comparison group.Methods: To examine differences regarding self-esteem instability and affective instability, we used e-diaries for repeatedly collecting data on self-esteem, valence, and tense arousal 12 times a day for four consecutive days while participants underwent their daily life activities. Determining three different state-of-the-art instability indices and applying multilevel analyses, we compared 35 BPD-REM participants with previously reported 60 acute BPD patients (BPD-ACU) and 60 HC.Results: Our results revealed that self-esteem instability was significantly lower in the BPD-REM compared to the BPD-ACU group, irrespective of the instability index. In contrast, there were no significant differences regarding affective instability between the BPD-REM participants and those in the BPD-ACU group. The comparison between the BPD-REM with the HC indicated both a significantly higher instability in self-esteem as well as significantly heightened affective instability in the BPD-REM participants. Moreover, even though the associations were not significant, we found tentative support for the assumption that affective changes that are accompanied by changes in self-esteem are experienced as more burdensome and negatively impact the quality of life of remitted BPD participants.Conclusions: This study builds on growing evidence for the importance of self-esteem instability in BPD. Whereas affective instability has been reported in various psychiatric disorders and might indeed constitute a transdiagnostic marker of affective dysregulation, our results indicate that self-esteem instability might be a specific symptom that construes the unique pathology in BPD.



2020 ◽  
pp. 119-130
Author(s):  
Joel Paris

Personality traits differ among normal people, and one should only diagnose a personality disorder (PD) in the presence of a clear-cut impairment of functioning. Most of these disorders lie on a spectrum with traits, but those that cause prominent symptoms present more often in psychiatry The most clinically important category of PD is borderline personality disorder (BPD), but this condition is widely underdiagnosed. Since these patients often present with depression and/or affective instability, clinicians often see them as suffering from mood disorders, and treat them unsuccessfully with antidepressants. However, this population, which shows repetitive suicidal behavior, needs to be correctly diagnosed to be referred for specialized psychotherapy.



2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danilo Pesic ◽  
Amir Peljto ◽  
Biljana Lukic ◽  
Maja Milovanovic ◽  
Snezana Svetozarevic ◽  
...  

An increasing number of findings confirm the significance of cerebellum in affecting regulation and early learning. Most consistent findings refer to association of congenital vermis anomalies with deficits in nonmotor functions of cerebellum. In this paper we presented a young woman who was treated since sixteen years of age for polysubstance abuse, affective instability, and self-harming who was later diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Since the neurological and neuropsychological reports pointed to signs of cerebellar dysfunction and dysexecutive syndrome, we performed magnetic resonance imaging of brain which demonstrated partially developed vermis and rhombencephalosynapsis. These findings match the description of cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome and show an overlap with clinical manifestations of borderline personality disorder.



2008 ◽  
Vol 117 (3) ◽  
pp. 647-661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Trull ◽  
Marika B. Solhan ◽  
Sarah L. Tragesser ◽  
Seungmin Jahng ◽  
Phillip K. Wood ◽  
...  


2012 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
H. Silva ◽  
J. Villarroel ◽  
S. Jerez ◽  
M. Bustamante ◽  
C. Montes ◽  
...  


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