title: Recent advances in the biological study of personality disorders.
abstract: While it is premature to provide a simple model for the vulnerability to the development of either borderline (BPD) or schizotypal (SPD) personality disorder, it is clear that these heritable disorders lend themselves to fruitful neurobiological exploration. The most promising findings in BPD suggest that a diminished top-down control of affective responses, which is likely to relate to deceased responsiveness of specific midline regions of prefrontal cortex, may underlie the affective hyperresponsiveness in this disorder. In addition, genetic and neuroendocrine and molecular neuroimaging findings point to a role for serotonin in this affective disinhibition. Clearly SPD falls within the schizophrenia spectrum, but precisely the nature of what predicts full-blown schizophrenia as opposed to the milder symptoms of SPD is not yet clear.
authors.affiliation: The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1217, New York, NY 10029, USA. antonia.new@mssm.edu
authors.forename: Antonia S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: New
authors.forename: Marianne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Goodman
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Triebwasser
authors.forename: Larry J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Siever
mesh_terms: D000679:Amygdala / Q000503:physiopathology; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics; D005838:Genotype; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000503:physiopathology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000503:physiopathology; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D011957:Receptors, Opioid / Q000502:physiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012569:Schizotypal Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D012701:Serotonin / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D011957:Receptors, Opioid; D012701:Serotonin