Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY 10032, USA.
Psychol Med. 2009 Dec;39(12):1979-88. doi: 10.1017/S003329170900600X. Epub 2009 May 22.
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is partly characterized by chronic instability in interpersonal relationships, which exacerbates other symptom dimensions of the disorder and can interfere with treatment engagement. Facial emotion recognition paradigms have been used to investigate the bases of interpersonal impairments in BPD, yielding mixed results. We sought to clarify and extend past findings by using the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), a measure of the capacity to discriminate the mental state of others from expressions in the eye region of the face.
Thirty individuals diagnosed with BPD were compared to 25 healthy controls (HCs) on RMET performance. Participants were also assessed for depression severity, emotional state at the time of assessment, history of childhood abuse, and other Axis I and personality disorders (PDs).
The BPD group performed significantly better than the HC group on the RMET, particularly for the Total Score and Neutral emotional valences. Effect sizes were in the large range for the Total Score and for Neutral RMET performance. The results could not be accounted for by demographics, co-occurring Axis I or II conditions, medication status, abuse history, or emotional state. However, depression severity partially mediated the relationship between RMET and BPD status.
Mental state discrimination based on the eye region of the face is enhanced in BPD. An enhanced sensitivity to the mental states of others may be a basis for the social impairments in BPD.
边缘型人格障碍（BPD）的部分特征为人际关系的慢性不稳定，这加剧了该障碍的其他症状维度，并可能干扰治疗的参与。面部情绪识别范式已被用于研究 BPD 人际障碍的基础，得出的结果喜忧参半。我们试图通过使用“读心测试”（RMET）来澄清和扩展过去的发现，该测试是一种从面部眼部区域的表情中辨别他人心理状态的能力的衡量标准。
30 名被诊断患有 BPD 的个体与 25 名健康对照者（HCs）在 RMET 表现上进行了比较。参与者还接受了抑郁严重程度、评估时的情绪状态、儿童期虐待史以及其他轴 I 和人格障碍（PDs）的评估。
BPD 组在 RMET 上的表现明显优于 HCs 组，尤其是在总分和中性情绪效价上。总得分和中性 RMET 表现的效应大小处于大范围内。结果不能用人口统计学、共同发生的轴 I 或 II 条件、药物状态、虐待史或情绪状态来解释。然而，抑郁严重程度部分中介了 RMET 与 BPD 状态之间的关系。
基于面部眼部区域的心理状态识别在 BPD 中得到增强。对他人心理状态的敏感性增强可能是 BPD 中社会障碍的基础。
