title: Anhedonia in borderline personality disorder and its relation to symptoms of impulsivity.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) report strong negative affect and show impulsive, disruptive behaviors. The role of anhedonia, or the inability to experience positive affect, has been less examined in BPD. The present study examined the role of anhedonia in BPD patients and its relation to symptoms of impulsivity.
  
  
  METHODS
  Anhedonia, affect, impulsivity and BPD symptoms were measured in BPD patients and healthy control participants.
  
  
  RESULTS
  It was found that BPD patients showed abnormally high anhedonia levels. In addition, anhedonia was found to be positively related to dysfunctional impulsivity in the BPD patient group, while in the control group, anhedonia was related to withdrawal behaviors. A strong relation was found between anhedonia and BPD symptoms, emphasizing the relevance of anhedonia as an important symptom of BPD. Finally, anhedonia was found to be an important contributor to the severity of borderline symptoms, independently of other factors such as affect and impulsivity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results underline that anhedonia might be an important but currently overlooked feature of BPD. The results further suggest that anhedonia is associated with the impulsive behaviors that are typically observed in borderline patients.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Personality Disorders, PsyQ, The Hague, The Netherlands. marissen@fsw.eur.nl
authors.forename: Marlies A E
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Marissen
authors.forename: Nienke
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Arnold
authors.forename: Ingmar H A
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Franken
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D059445:Anhedonia; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*