Neurocognitive Deficits in Borderline Personality Disorder: Associations With Childhood Trauma and Dimensions of Personality Psychopathology.
The present study evaluates the severity of neurocognitive deficits and assesses their relations with self-reported childhood trauma and dimensions of personality psychopathology in 45 outpatients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) matched to 56 non-psychiatric controls. Participants completed a comprehensive battery of neurocognitive tests, a retrospective questionnaire on early life trauma and a dimensional measure of personality psychopathology. Patients with BPD primarily showed deficits in verbal comprehension, sustained visual attention, working memory and processing speed. Comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and an elevated childhood history of physical trauma were each accompanied by more severe neurocognitive deficits. There were no statistically significant associations between neurocognitive function and dimensions of personality psychopathology. These results suggest that patients with BPD display deficits mainly in higher-order thinking abilities that may be exacerbated by PTSD and substantial early life trauma. Potential relationships between neurocognitive deficits and dimensions of personality psychopathology in BPD need further examination.
Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.|Psychiatric Clinic, Psychiatry Roskilde, Region Zealand, Denmark.
Marianne S
MS
Thomsen
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Canada.
Anthony C
AC
Ruocco
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Canada.
Dean
D
Carcone
Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Birgit B
BB
Mathiesen
Psychiatric Research Unit, Psychiatry Region Zealand, Denmark.|Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen.
Erik
E
Simonsen
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D019965:Neurocognitive Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D011599:Psychopathology / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult