Affect regulation in borderline personality disorder: experimental findings from psychophysiology and functional neuroimaging.

Background: Intense and rapidly changing mood states are a major feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD), which is thought to arise from affective vulnerability.

Objective: There have been only a few studies investigating affective processing in BPD, and particularly neither psychophysiological nor neurofunctional correlates of abnormal emotional processing have been identified so far.

Methods: Studies are reported using psychophysiological or functional neuroimaging methodology.

Emotion in criminal offenders with psychopathy and borderline personality disorder.

Background: Criminal offenders with a diagnosis of psychopathy or borderline personality disorder (BPD) share an impulsive nature but tend to differ in their style of emotional response. This study aims to use multiple psychophysiologic measures to compare emotional responses to unpleasant and pleasant stimuli.

Methods: Twenty-five psychopaths as defined by the Hare Psychopathy Checklist and 18 subjects with BPD from 2 high-security forensic treatment facilities were included in the study along with 24 control subjects.

Emotional responses in patients with borderline as compared with avoidant personality disorder.

The aim of this study was to assess psychophysiological affect correlates, in addition to the usual self-report in borderline personality disorder (BPD) compared with avoidant personality disorder (APD) and normal controls (NCs), when responding to standardized experimental stimuli. In 24 BPD female patients, 23 APD female patients, and 27 female NCs, skin conductance response (SCR), heart rate (HR) change, and startle response were recorded while the subjects viewed slides with emotional content. Neither the self-report nor the psychophysiological data supported the hypothesis that affective responses of BPD individuals are generally stronger than those with APD.

Affective instability and impulsivity in personality disorder. Results of an experimental study.

Affective instability in borderline personality disorder is due to a marked reactivity to environmental events. The present study focused on the relationship between affective instability and impulsivity in personality disorder. It used an experimental approach in the form of an affect-stimulation design based on the presentation of a short story which allowed for an analysis of affective responses in regard to quality, intensity, and alterations over time.