A laboratory examination of emotion regulation skill strengthening in borderline personality disorder.

Abstract

This study examined whether individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD; N = 25) exhibit deficits in their ability to strengthen their emotion regulation skills over time compared with healthy controls (HCs; N = 30). Participants were instructed to implement 1 of 2 different emotion regulation strategies (i.e., distraction and mindful awareness of the emotion) or to either react naturally (i.e., nonregulation condition) in response to BPD-relevant stimuli across multiple trials. Self-reported negativity and positivity, and physiological indices of emotion were collected throughout. Self-report results indicated that both groups displayed strengthening of distraction, but not mindful awareness, compared with the nonregulation condition over time. When comparing the 2 emotion regulation strategies to each other, heart rate data suggested that the rate of skill strengthening varied by group. Specifically, the BPD group evidenced strengthening of mindful awareness, but not distraction, over time whereas the HCs exhibited the opposite pattern. These findings suggest that individuals with BPD generally do not show deficits in their ability to strengthen emotion regulation skills and exhibit greater strengthening of mindful awareness than distraction over time. (PsycINFO Database Record

Severity of childhood maltreatment predicts reaction times and heart rate variability during an emotional working memory task in borderline personality disorder

“…No significant decrease in HF-HRV during the EWMT as compared to resting-state was found, which resembles earlier findings of studies using emotion regulation tasks (Dixon-Gordon et al, 2011 ; Fitzpatrick & Kuo, 2016 ; Krause-Utz, Walther, et al, 2019 ; Kuo et al, 2016 ; Metcalfe et al, 2017 ; Svaldi et al, 2012 ). At the same time, we observed significant group differences in HF-HRV.…”

“…With regards to BPD, previous research on HF-HRV revealed inconsistencies, partly due to methodological differences in study design and sample characteristics. During rest, patients with BPD showed reduced HRV (Koenig et al, 2016 ), while changes during emotion regulation tasks have not consistently been found (Dixon-Gordon, Chapman, Lovasz, & Walters, 2011 ; Fitzpatrick & Kuo, 2016 ; Krause-Utz, Walther, Lis, Schmahl, & Bohus, 2019 ; Kuo, Fitzpatrick, Metcalfe, & McMain, 2016 ; Metcalfe, Fitzpatrick, & Kuo, 2017 ; Svaldi, Dorn, Matthies, & Philipsen, 2012 ). Not all studies in BPD controlled for childhood trauma, comorbid PTSD and medication, which may all influence HF-HRV (Krause-Utz, Walther, et al, 2019 ; Meyer et al, 2016 ; O’Regan, Kenny, Cronin, Finucane, & Kearney, 2015 ).…”

Heart rate variability during a cognitive reappraisal task in female patients with borderline personality disorder: the role of comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder and dissociation

“…HF-HRV differences dependent on the ER instruction, in BPD. Likewise, patients with BPD previously showed no differences in HRV when implementing and strengthening ER skills (Svaldi et al ., 2012; Metcalfe et al ., 2015; Fitzpatrick and Kuo, 2016; Kuo et al ., 2016; Dixon-Gordon et al ., 2017).…”

“…Patients with BPD showed reduced baseline RSA but did not differ from HC during the ER task, indicating a similar adaptation to distressing conditions. Similarly, other data suggest that individuals with BPD do not significantly differ in implementing ER skills (Metcalfe et al ., 2015; Fitzpatrick and Kuo, 2016). Moreover, and unlike HC, they showed increased HRV when instructed to accept ( v. suppress) emotional experiences during social rejection (Dixon-Gordon et al ., 2017).…”

Emotion regulation strategies among individuals with borderline personality disorder relative to other groups: A review

“…Whereas HCs reported greater positive affect during distraction than mindfulness, the BPD group showed no difference in positive affect between the two strategies (Kuo et al, 2016). Furthermore, both groups experienced increased effectiveness of distraction, but not mindfulness, in reducing negative affect over time (Metcalfe et al, 2017). Overall, the effectiveness of the ER strategies reduced as participants encountered increasingly arousing stimuli, though this relationship was stronger for HCs during mindfulness than for participants with BPD during either strategy .…”