Effect of negative valence on assessment of self-relevance in female patients with borderline personality disorder

Pegah Sarkheil*, N. Goik, C.N. Ibrahim, F. Schneider

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

BackgroundA disturbed self-image is central to the characteristic symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Evaluations of self-relevance (SR) are highly important in cognitive and emotional processing of information and adaptive behavior.MethodIn the current study, we used affective statements to investigate if SR is altered in patients with higher scores on Borderline Symptom List (BSL-95). Forthyfemale adults with BPD and 20 healthy participants assessed a set of stimuli consisting of sentences in third-person for relevance to self.ResultsBPD patients exhibited a higher SR for negative contents as compared to healthy controls (p <.001). Furthermore, a significant positive correlation coefficient was found between the increased bias in evaluating the SR of stimuli and borderline symptom severity scores, as measured by BSL-95 questionnaire (r = 0.67, p <.001). This effect persisted after controlling for depressive symptoms by a partial correlation analysis.ConclusionOur results revealed an enhanced SR for negative statements, which was related to the severity of individuals' BPD symptoms. These findings add to the diagnostic information regarding the disturbed organization of self in this clinical population. We suggest the maladaptive evaluation of SR offers an important treatment target for therapeutic approaches to BPD.
Original languageEnglish
Article number0209989
Number of pages11
JournalPLOS ONE
Volume14
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10 Jan 2019

Keywords

  • attentional bias
  • brain
  • depression
  • emotion
  • metaanalysis
  • model
  • validity
  • version
  • DEPRESSION
  • METAANALYSIS
  • EMOTION
  • MODEL
  • ATTENTIONAL BIAS
  • VERSION
  • VALIDITY
  • BRAIN

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