Comparison of different strategies to decrease negative affect and increase positive affect in women with borderline personality disorder.

BACKGROUND

In this study we compared the effect of different emotion regulation strategies on positive and negative emotions in patients with borderline personality disorder.

METHODS

Emotion regulation strategies were a distracting task, individual positive memory imagery, individual soothing imagery, and a neutral comparison condition. During two separate sessions, 17 participants watched either neutral or negative movie segments before using these strategies.

RESULTS

All three strategies influenced emotions into a favorable direction as compared to the neutral comparison condition. The positive memory image increased positive emotions significantly stronger than counting colors and distracting.

DISCUSSION

Different strategies seem to have similar effects in decreasing negative emotions. Positive emotions may be affected in particular by positive and soothing imagery techniques.