Evaluating the Psychometric Properties of the German Self and Interpersonal Functioning Scale (SIFS).

The Self and Interpersonal Functioning Scale (SIFS) is a 24-item self-report questionnaire assessing personality functioning according to the alternative DSM-5 model for personality disorders. We evaluated the German SIFS version in a total sample of 886 participants from Germany and Switzerland. Its factor structure was investigated with confirmatory factor analysis comparing bifactor models with two specific factors (self- and interpersonal functioning) and four specific factors (identity, self-direction, empathy, and intimacy).

Somatization and Somatic Symptom Disorder and its overlap with dimensionally measured personality pathology: A systematic review.

Objective: Difficulties in the assessments of Somatoform Disorders (SD) and Personality Disorders (PD) regarding operationalization, arbitrary thresholds, and reliability led to a shift from categorical to dimensional models in the DSM-5. Empirical research data postulates a continuous level of severity in both groups of diseases. The aim of this systematic review was to investigate the overlap between somatization and personality pathology.

Dimensional personality impairment is associated with disruptions in intrinsic intralimbic functional connectivity.

Background: Recently proposed alternative dimensional models of personality disorder (PD) place the severity of impairments in self and interpersonal functioning at the core of personality pathology. However, associations of these impairments with disturbances in social, cognitive, and affective brain networks remain uninvestigated.

Methods: The present study examined patterns of resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) in a sample of 74 age- and sex-matched participants (45 inpatients with PD and 29 healthy controls).

Facial Emotion Perception in Borderline Personality Disorder: Differential Neural Activation to Ambiguous and Threatening Expressions and Links to Impairments in Self and Interpersonal Functioning.

Background: Many individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) perceive emotional expressions in faces intended to convey no emotion and display a heightened sensitivity to facial expressions conveying threat, such as fear. In BPD, the amygdala activates in response to ambiguous and threatening facial expressions, although the differential sensitivity of this brain region to higher and lower intensities of fearful expressions and the relationship of this neural activity to personality impairments have not yet been investigated.

Methods: In the present study, we examined brain activation during an implicit facial emotion task with neutral faces and fearful expressions displayed at 50% and 100% intensity in patients with BPD (n=45) and healthy controls (HC; n=25).

Impulsiveness in borderline personality disorder predicts the long-term outcome of a psychodynamic treatment programme.

Despite the preponderance of treatment outcome predictors in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), the predictive value of measures of impulsiveness is inconclusive. This naturalistic study consecutively included hospitalized patients with BPD (N = 99) who underwent a standardized and structured 12-week inpatient treatment programme, which integrated cognitive-behavioural and psychodynamic elements. The Brief Symptom Checklist (BSCL) was applied as outcome measure over four time points: pretreatment, posttreatment, first follow-up at 6 to 8 weeks and second follow-up at 1 year after discharge.

Negative affect moderates the effect of social rejection on frontal and anterior cingulate cortex activation in borderline personality disorder.

Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) have a heightened sensitivity to social exclusion. Experimental manipulations have produced inconsistent findings and suggested that baseline negative affect (NA) might influence the experience of exclusion. We administered a standardized social exclusion protocol (Cyberball paradigm) in BPD (n = 39) and age-matched and sex-matched healthy controls (n = 29) to investigate the association of NA on social exclusion and activation in brain regions previously implicated in this paradigm.