The lack of negative affects as an indicator for identity disturbance in borderline personality disorder: a preliminary report.
BACKGROUND
Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) suffer from instability of their relationships, their affectivity and their identity. The purpose of the study was to investigate negative affects and identity disturbance in patients with BPD and in patients without personality disorder using questionnaire data and interview data.


METHODS
Twelve patients with BPD and 12 patients with major depressive disorder without any personality disorder were assessed with the Structured Interview of Personality Organization (STIPO) and questionnaires (Inventory of Personality Organization, Beck Depression Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory). They were compared with respect to the frequency of negative affective verbal expressions using computerized content analysis methods.


RESULTS
BPD patients showed higher levels of anxiety, depression and identity diffusion in the questionnaires than major depressive disorder patients without personality disorder. However, they did not report more negative affective expressions in the interview. Patients with identity disturbance of both groups showed higher values of negative mood in the questionnaires, but less anger, less anxiety and less affective intensity in the interview.


CONCLUSIONS
The preliminary findings indicate that patients with identity disturbance show high levels of negative affects in questionnaires but only few negative affects in the interview situation. More studies are needed to enhance the understanding of negative affects and identity disturbance in BPD.
Psychiatric Hospital, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland. marc.walter@upkbs.ch
Marc
M
Walter
Hendrik
H
Berth
Joseph
J
Selinger
Urs
U
Gerhard
Joachim
J
Küchenhoff
Jörg
J
Frommer
Gerhard
G
Dammann
D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018579:Patient Selection; D010552:Personality Assessment; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D012649:Self Concept; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires