Neuropsychological profile, dimensional pattern of personality and facial emotional recognition in borderline personality disorder
- Autores: Mónica Vállez de la Muñoza
- Directores de la Tesis: Susana Subirà (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona ( España ) en 2016
- Idioma: inglés
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Azucena García Palacios (presid.), Mercè Jódar Vicente (secret.), Esther Pousa Tomás (voc.)
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: TESEO
- Resumen
SUMMARY This PhD thesis includes two related research articles that study a series of variables related to the severity of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). The objective of the first study was to study the neuropsychological profile in BPD patients with the preparation of a battery of tests designed for the study and, on the other hand, evaluate the personality profile using a dimensional approach. With the data obtained we establish the relationship between a given personality traits pattern and possible global alterations or alterations that are specific to a neuropsychological level.
In the second study we observe the capability for facial emotion recognition in BPD patients and a healthy group in order to determine if the response pattern obtained can interfere with emotional regulation and interpersonal relationships.
The second objective was to determine if having suffered sexual abuse would determine a specific facial recognition pattern specific to BPD patients.
In the first study 65 patients with a BPD diagnosis were tested and gave a complete neurocognitive profile that included executive functions and memory.
On the other hand the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) test was used as a way of measuring the personality dimension and putative biologically influenced temperament traits.
The results obtained show evidence of a neuropsychological profile in BPD patients without significant alterations, only a profile slightly above the average of the normal population. However, as regards personality testing we do get a clearly defined and significant personality dimension profile with high scores in Novelty Seeking and Harm Avoidance and low scores in self-control and Cooperation.
We are able to demonstrate in our study that personality traits characteristic of BPD would not be associated with underlying neuropsychological alterations measured.
In the second study basic facial emotional recognition and the response pattern when answering correctly and incorrectly was analysed in a group of 67 BPD patients and a control group of 92 subjects.
The results obtained show significant differences between the healthy group and the BPD group when recognizing Fear and Sadness.
As a result of studying the errors made by BPD patients when observing fear we observe that they tended to misattribute it as disgust or surprise; and the trend when not recognizing sad is to respond neutral. As regards having a sexual abuse history there is no differentiated pattern in BPD responses.
As regards having a sexual abuse history there is no differentiated response pattern associated with BPD.
In summary, the results of this study demonstrate that BPD patients don’t have specific neuropsychological alterations that may be underlying to specific clinical manifestations. They do demonstrate a neurocognitive profile slightly below the average population. However, the dimensional personality profile is clearly defined with specific traits that demonstrate that there is biological predisposition towards behavioural alterations characteristic of BPD.
On the other hand BPD patients display significant difficulties for recognizing basic facial emotions, alterations that may lead to having difficulties in adequate social interaction and their own emotional dysfunction. As such, the significant difficulties when BPD patients process information are fundamentally due to an emotional content/ component of a negative specific valence.
