Distress and Affective Dysregulation in Patients With Borderline Personality Disorder

2008/04/01 by Ulrich Ebner‐Priemer, Ulrich W. Ebner-Priemer, Janice R. Kuo +8 · 105 citations
Arts and Humanities · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Arousal #Borderline personality disorder #Clinical psychology #Distress #Emotional dysregulation #Mental Health and Psychiatry #Neuroscience #Personality #Personality Disorders and Psychopathology #Psychiatry #Psychological intervention #Psychology #Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications

paper · doi:10.1097/nmd.0b013e31816a493f

published in The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 196(4), 314-320 (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins)

openalex publication_date 2008/04/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22

Abstract

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by enduring psychological distress and affective dysregulation. Several models have linked both phenomena, but are lacking empirical support. To investigate the relation between psychological distress and components of affective dysregulation (especially inability to label emotions, conflictive emotions, and physiological hyperarousal), we repeatedly assessed these components using a 24-hour ambulatory monitoring approach in a group of 50 BPD patients and 50 healthy controls. Hierarchical linear model analyses identified a clear relation between inability to label emotions and distress in the BPD group (p = 0.0009) but not across all subjects (p = 0.6492). Conflictive emotions were related to psychological distress in both groups (p < 0.0001). This relation is, however, most pertinent to the BPD group who experienced conflicting emotions more frequently. Physiological arousal (heart rate) was related to distress in both groups. Our empirical findings emphasize training in labeling emotions and distress tolerance interventions in treatment for BPD.

Citations

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