Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Berlin, Germany.
Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2023 Jun;273(4):865-874. doi: 10.1007/s00406-022-01535-0. Epub 2023 Jan 5.
Unstable interpersonal relationships and fear of abandonment are core symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD) that often intensify during stress. Psychosocial stress, which includes components of social exclusion and increases cortisol secretion, enhances emotional empathy in healthy individuals. Women with BPD, on the contrary, react with reduced emotional empathy. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of perceived social exclusion without accompanying cortisol increase on empathy in women with BPD and healthy women. To induce social exclusion, we randomized 98 women with BPD and 98 healthy women to either an exclusion or an overinclusion (control) condition of Cyberball, a virtual ball game. Subsequently, participants underwent the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET), which assesses cognitive and emotional empathy. There was no increase in cortisol release after Cyberball. Cognitive empathy did not differ between groups or conditions. Women with BPD reported lower emotional empathy for positive emotions (group by valence interaction), but not for negative emotions. Exploratory analyses suggested that this effect might be more pronounced after social exclusion. Our results confirm previous findings that cognitive empathy does not differ between women with BPD and healthy women and extend this evidence to social exclusion. Emotional empathy in women with BPD seems to be more sensitive to the effects of stress or ambiguous social situations. Specifically, emotional empathy seems to be reduced for positive emotions, and might further decline after social exclusion. Empathic reactions to emotional stimuli of different valences and to specific emotions should be further investigated.
人际关系不稳定和害怕被抛弃是边缘型人格障碍(BPD)的核心症状,这些症状在压力下往往会加剧。心理社会压力包括社会排斥的成分,并增加皮质醇的分泌,增强健康个体的情绪共情。相反,患有 BPD 的女性的情绪共情反应会减少。本研究的目的是研究在没有伴随皮质醇增加的情况下,感知到的社会排斥对 BPD 女性和健康女性共情的影响。为了诱发社会排斥,我们将 98 名 BPD 女性和 98 名健康女性随机分配到 Cyberball(一种虚拟球类游戏)的排斥或过度包容(对照)条件。随后,参与者接受了多维共情测试(MET),该测试评估认知和情绪共情。Cyberball 后皮质醇没有释放增加。认知共情在组间或条件间没有差异。患有 BPD 的女性对积极情绪的情绪共情较低(组间效价交互作用),但对消极情绪没有差异。探索性分析表明,这种效应在社会排斥后可能更为明显。我们的结果证实了之前的发现,即 BPD 女性和健康女性的认知共情没有差异,并将这一证据扩展到社会排斥。BPD 女性的情绪共情似乎对压力或模棱两可的社会情况的影响更为敏感。具体来说,情绪共情似乎对积极情绪降低,并且在社会排斥后可能进一步下降。对不同效价和特定情绪的情绪刺激的共情反应应进一步研究。