title: Emotion identification and tension in female patients with borderline personality disorder.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study investigates the identification of emotions in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), when compared with mentally healthy control subjects. The inability to identify different emotions is considered as an essential component of affect dysregulation in BPD that has rarely been empirically investigated.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, 30 female borderline patients and 28 healthy control participants received a handheld-PC for a 24-hour period that reminded them hourly to enter data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  When compared with the control group, patients showed pronounced difficulties in emotion identification. Moreover, the data revealed a significant relationship between difficulties in identifying emotions and levels of aversive inner tension for BPD patients, but not for control subjects.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results indicate that the inability to identify different emotions is a problem that characterizes borderline patients in real-life situations. Treatment programs should, therefore, focus on the improvement of emotion identification and regulation.
authors.affiliation: Freie Universitä Berlin, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195 Berlin, Germany. wolffs@zedat.fu-berlin.de
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wolff
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Stiglmayr
authors.forename: Hans Joachim
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Bretz
authors.forename: Claas-Hinrich
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Lammers
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Auckenthaler
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D012647:Self-Assessment