Undifferentiated negative affect and impulsivity in borderline personality and depressive disorders: A momentary perspective.

Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) often report experiencing several negative emotions simultaneously, an indicator of "undifferentiated" negative affect. The current study examined the relationship between undifferentiated negative affect and impulsivity. Participants with a current BPD (n = 67) or depressive disorder (DD; n = 38) diagnosis carried an electronic diary for 28 days, reporting on emotions and impulsivity when randomly prompted (up to 6 times per day).

Measuring impulsivity in daily life: the momentary impulsivity scale.

Impulsivity is a core feature of many psychiatric disorders. Traditionally, impulsivity has been assessed using retrospective questionnaires or laboratory tasks. Both approaches neglect intraindividual variability in impulsivity and do not capture impulsivity as it occurs in real-world settings.

Affect and alcohol use: an ecological momentary assessment study of outpatients with borderline personality disorder.

Alcohol use may be viewed as an attempt (albeit maladaptive) to regulate negative emotional states. We examined associations between both negative and positive affects and alcohol use in outpatient women diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD; n=74), a prototype of emotional dysregulation, as well as a psychiatric control group of women with current depressive disorder (major depressive disorder/dysthymic disorder [MDD\DYS]; n=50). Participants completed randomly prompted reports of mood and alcohol use up to six times a day over a 28-day period using electronic diaries.

Clinical assessment of affective instability: comparing EMA indices, questionnaire reports, and retrospective recall.

Traditional self-report measures of psychopathology may be influenced by a variety of recall biases. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) reduces these biases by assessing individuals' experiences as they occur in their natural environments. This study examines the discrepancy between trait questionnaire, retrospective report, and EMA measures of affective instability in psychiatric outpatients either with a borderline personality diagnosis (n = 58) or with a current episode of major depressive disorder or dysthymia (n = 42).

Affective instability: measuring a core feature of borderline personality disorder with ecological momentary assessment.

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA; Stone & Shiffman, 1994) was used to characterize and quantify a dynamic process--affective instability in borderline personality disorder (BPD). Sixty outpatients (34 with BPD and affective instability; 26 with current depressive disorder but not with BPD or affective instability) carried electronic diaries for approximately 1 month and were randomly prompted to rate their mood state up to 6 times a day. Results indicated that BPD patients (a) did not report significantly different mean levels of positive or negative affect; (b) displayed significantly more variability over time in their positive and negative affect scores; (c) demonstrated significantly more instability on successive scores (i.