Quetiapine treatment and improved cognitive functioning in borderline personality disorder.
OBJECTIVE
We aimed to assess whether executive functioning improved over time in a sample of borderline personality disorder (BPD) subjects that took part in a quetiapine treatment trial.


METHODS
Performance on the following neurocognitive tasks was assessed at enrolment and at the end of the 12 weeks quetiapine treatment: Trail Making Task, Word Fluency Task and Tower of London Task. Forty-one BPD patients were recruited, of whom 32 completed the trial. An intention-to-treat analysis with a mixed linear model was applied.


RESULTS
The data show that participants significantly improved on most executive functioning measures. Patients' scores decreased significantly (mean [SD] difference; p-value) on the Trail Making Task Part A (11.7 [2.3]; p < 0.0001), Part B (51.8 [9.2]; p < 0.0001) and 'B minus A' (40.1 [8.2]; p < 0.0001), on a Phonological (15.9 [1.6]; p < 0.0001) and Semantic (9.8 [1.1]; p < 0.0001) Verbal Fluency tasks, and on the Tower of London total correct score (2.5 [0.4]; p < 0.0001), total move score (29.5 [4.5]; p < 0.0001) and total time (172.9 [35.8]; p < 0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
In this study we have demonstrated that executive functioning in BPD is improved after treatment with quetiapine. Neurocognitive measures of executive functioning should be considered as valuable outcomes in the study of treatment efficacy in BPD.
Van den Eynde
Frederique
F
Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, University Hospital Ghent, Gent, Belgium. frederique.vandeneynde@iop.kcl.ac.uk
De Saedeleer
Sofie
S
Naudts
Kris
K
Day
Jemma
J
Vogels
Caroline
C
van Heeringen
Cornelis
C
Audenaert
Kurt
K
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology; D003987:Dibenzothiazepines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D000069348:Quetiapine Fumarate; D055815:Young Adult
D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D003987:Dibenzothiazepines; D000069348:Quetiapine Fumarate