Time course of anger and other emotions in women with borderline personality disorder: a preliminary study.
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by emotional dysregulation including strong emotional reactions to emotional stimuli and a slow return to baseline emotions. Difficulties controlling anger are particularly prominent in BPD. To experimentally test emotional dysregulation with a special focus on anger, we investigated whether a standardized anger induction by a short story caused stronger and prolonged anger reactions in women with BPD (n=27) as compared to female healthy controls (n=26) and whether other emotions were affected by the anger induction. Although the anger reaction was not stronger in the BPD group, it was significantly prolonged. The BPD group showed also stronger negative emotions over the whole experiment. The study is the first to demonstrate prolonged anger reactions in BPD patients in an experimental setting.
Jacob
Gitta A
GA
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Freiburg, Hauptstrasse 5, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany. gitta.jacob@uniklinik-freiburg.de
Guenzler
Cindy
C
Zimmermann
Sabine
S
Scheel
Corinna N
CN
Rüsch
Nicolas
N
Leonhart
Rainer
R
Nerb
Josef
J
Lieb
Klaus
K
D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D000367:Age Factors; D000786:Anger; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D011932:Reading; D012107:Research Design; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D014705:Verbal Behavior