Departamento de Psicología, Universidad Metropolitana, Hospital Neuropsiquiátrico Jesús Mata de Gregorio, Caracas, Venezuela.
J Affect Disord. 2011 Dec;135(1-3):37-42. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2011.06.040. Epub 2011 Jul 31.
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is typically characterized by severe affective dysregulation leading to impulsive behaviors. Accordingly, preliminary data suggest the hypothesis that BPD patients could have a specific and altered pattern of subjective emotional response to stimuli. The nature of the emotional response in BPD can be compared with other affective disorders and provide further insight on the nosological proximity with other psychiatric disorders.
Subjective emotional response was investigated in 19 patients with DSM-IV BPD with no current depressive episode and in 19 healthy control subjects by using the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). The intensity of arousal, valence and dominance was rated in response to 60 images categorized as pleasant, unpleasant and neutral by using a self-assessment instrument. ANOVA of multiple factors was used for between-groups comparisons.
The obtained pattern showed that BPD patients considered the unpleasant and neutral images as less aversive than controls, but the activation that these images induced was higher. Patients showed significantly greater arousal than controls for unpleasant and neutral images (p<0.05) but presented greater valence (more positive emotion) for these images (p<0.05). In addition, BPD patients showed lower dominance (greater insecurity and dyscomfort) for positive images (p<0.05).
The subjective emotional response pattern of BPD patients suggests a trait of vulnerability to pleasant stimuli and is similar to the pattern found in depressive patients in previous studies. This supports the evidence that BPD could in part be related with the spectrum of the affective temperament and affective disorders.
边缘型人格障碍（BPD）的特征通常为严重的情感失调，导致冲动行为。因此，初步数据表明，BPD 患者可能对刺激有特定且改变的主观情绪反应模式的假设。BPD 中的情绪反应性质可以与其他情感障碍进行比较，并为与其他精神障碍的分类学接近程度提供进一步的见解。
使用国际情感图片系统（IAPS），对 19 名无当前抑郁发作的 DSM-IV BPD 患者和 19 名健康对照者进行主观情绪反应研究。使用自我评估工具对 60 张被归类为愉快、不愉快和中性的图像的唤醒、效价和优势强度进行评分。采用多因素方差分析进行组间比较。
所得模式表明，BPD 患者认为不愉快和中性图像的厌恶程度低于对照组，但这些图像引起的激活程度更高。与对照组相比，患者对不愉快和中性图像的唤醒程度显著更高（p<0.05），但对这些图像的效价（更积极的情绪）更高（p<0.05）。此外，BPD 患者对积极图像的优势（更大的不安全感和不适）较低（p<0.05）。
BPD 患者的主观情绪反应模式表明对愉快刺激的脆弱性特征，与之前研究中抑郁患者的模式相似。这支持了 BPD 部分与情感气质和情感障碍谱系有关的证据。
