An experimental investigation of emotion dysregulation in borderline personality disorder.

Abstract

Despite the prominent role of emotion dysregulation in theoretical accounts of borderline personality disorder (BPD), few studies have examined emotion dysregulation in BPD. This study extends extant research by providing an experimental investigation of emotion dysregulation among outpatients with BPD. Specifically, this study modified an experimental measure of distress tolerance to examine differences between outpatients with BPD (n = 17) and those without a personality disorder (n = 18) in 2 aspects of emotion dysregulation: (a) the unwillingness to experience emotional distress in order to pursue goal-directed behavior and (b) the inability to engage in goal-directed behavior when distressed. As hypothesized, BPD participants were less willing to experience distress in order to pursue goal-directed behavior. However, BPD participants did not evidence greater difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior when distressed. Results highlight directions for future research and suggest that particular aspects of emotion dysregulation may be more or less relevant to BPD.

Emotion regulation as mediator of treatment outcome in therapy for deliberate self‐harm

“…Several lines of research have only, which may have resulted in underreporting or over-reporting of emotion regulation diffi culties. Second, an experimental investigation of distress tolerance among patients with borderline personality disorder revealed an unwillingness to experience unpleasant emotions (Gratz, Rosenthal, Tull, Lejuez, & Gunderson, 2006), which is consistent with a recent theoretical model that describes the primary function of DSH as the avoidance of unpleasant emotions (Chapman, Gratz, & Brown, 2006). However, this study involved a small and homogenous sample of participants without mood disorders, limiting the generalizability of the results.…”

Emotion Regulation Mediates the Relationship between ADHD and Depressive Symptoms in Youth

“…Specifically, BPD individuals who quit DT tasks earlier demonstrated higher levels of emotion dysregulation than BPD individuals who persisted on DT tasks. These results suggest that the measure of emotion dysregulation was not just measuring symptoms of BPD (Gratz, et al, 2006). Therefore, this study demonstrates an inverse relationship between ER and DT, and suggests that DT may in fact be viewed as a behavioral index of ER.…”

“…In a study comparing adults with borderline personality disorder (BPD), a disorder characterized by deficits in ER, to individuals without any personality disorder, results demonstrated group differences in the willingness to experience emotional distress in order to pursue goal-directed behavior. Individuals with BPD were more likely to quit the DT tasks prematurely than those without personality disorders (Gratz, Rosenthal, Tull, Lejuez, & Gunderson, 2006). Additionally, for individuals with BPD, selfreports of emotion dysregulation and experiential avoidance were significantly negatively correlated with latency to quit on the DT tasks.…”

“…Lastly, since the literature suggests that DT may be a behavioral index of ER (Gratz et al, 2006), this study will add to the literature by examining ER using traditional measures (i.e., parent/youth report) as well as through behavioral DT tasks.…”

Borderline Personality Pathology, Polysomnography, and Self-Reported Sleep Problems: A Review

“…Sleep problems associated with insomnia lead, in turn, to impairment in areas such as physical, psychological, and occupational functioning [13]. Sleep seems to play a central role in mood regulation [14], which occupies a central position in the phenomenology of BPD [15]. Thus, the examination of sleep difficulties associated with borderline personality pathology is an important, and potentially highly beneficial, route of investigation.…”