The role of childhood trauma in differences in affective instability in those with personality disorders.
BACKGROUND
This study examined the relationship of self-reported histories of childhood trauma to measures of affective instability in a sample of unmedicated outpatients with various personality disorders (n=174).


METHODS
Childhood trauma was measured by the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Affective instability comprises at least two dimensions: affective lability, assessed using the Affective Lability Scale, and affective intensity, assessed using the Affective Intensity Measure.


RESULTS
A history of emotional abuse was the only trauma variable that significantly correlated with the affect measures in the total sample (r=.21-.30). More fine-grained analyses revealed that the relationship of emotional abuse and affective instability measures varied as a function of both gender and personality disorder type. In subjects with borderline personality disorder, the correlation for emotional abuse was greatly attenuated for both Affective Lability Scale (r=.10) and Affective Intensity Measure (r=.15) total scores.


CONCLUSIONS
This suggests that nontrauma-related factors may be more predominant in affective dyscontrol in individuals with borderline personality disorder.
Goodman
Marianne
M
Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA.
Weiss
Daniel S
DS
Koenigsberg
Harold
H
Kotlyarevsky
Vladimir
V
New
Antonia S
AS
Mitropoulou
Vivian
V
Silverman
Jeremy M
JM
O'Flynn
Karen
K
Siever
Larry J
LJ
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires