Social cognition and executive function in borderline personality disorder: evidence of altered cognitive processes

Abstract

Introduction. Social cognition (SC) and executive function (EF) research in borderline personality disorder (BPD) has proven to be controversial and lack of sufficient information about deficit patterns. Objective. Assess the contribution of SC and EF in the socio-emotional and cognitive patterns in BPD, as well as investigate the possible relationships between SC, EF, and clinic features in BPD. Method. The study evaluated 20 females with BPD in ambulatory hospitalization and 20 healthy women in social cognition ("Reading the mind through the eyes" and the IOWA gambling task) and executive function (with the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, verbal fluency tasks; digit spam test and numbers-and-letters of the WAIS-III, Trail Making Test Form A and B). Results. The results show statistically-significant differences for the tasks evaluated in social cognition, the theory of mind (u:

Dysfunction of Empathy and Related Processes in Borderline Personality Disorder: A Systematic Review

“…Four studies reported lower, 80 , 89 , 98 , 101 and three studies reported higher, 48 , 73 , 88 RMET total scores in patients with BPD relative to healthy control subjects, but six studies did not find a significant difference between patients and controls in the RMET total score. 36 , 47 , 61 , 78 , 91 , 99 Schilling and colleagues 47 reported a pattern of high confidence ratings for correct and incorrect answers in patients.…”

“…Forty-five studies, published between 2000 and 2019, were included in this review. 17 , 36 , 40 , 41 , 47 , 48 , 52 , 54 – 57 , 61 , 63 , 69 , 70 , 72 – 101 Thirteen (28.9%) of the 45 studies comprised samples of patients with psychiatric conditions other than BPD, 40 , 41 , 52 , 55 , 72 , 74 , 77 , 81 , 82 , 87 , 91 , 97 , 100 including other personality disorders, major depressive disorder (MDD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, substance abuse disorder, and anorexia nervosa (Tables 1 – 4 and 6 – 10 ). All but two studies 47 , 82 reported sex distributions for patients with the diagnosis of BDP.…”

“…Thirteen (28.9%) of the 45 studies included in this review used the RMET to assess ToM capacities (Table 4 ). 36 , 47 , 48 , 61 , 73 , 78 , 80 , 88 , 89 , 91 , 98 , 99 , 101 …”

“…Thirty-six studies included in this review reported deficits of empathy (i.e., cognitive or emotional), ToM, mentalizing, social cognition, or emotional intelligence in patients with BPD. 17 , 36 , 41 , 47 , 52 , 54 , 55 , 57 , 61 , 69 , 70 , 74 , 76 – 90 , 92 – 98 , 100 , 101 …”

“…Eighty percent of the studies included in this review reported deficits of empathy or related processes in patients with BPD. 17 , 36 , 41 , 47 , 52 , 54 , 55 , 57 , 61 , 69 , 70 , 74 , 76 – 90 , 92 – 98 , 100 , 101 Moreover, enhanced emotional empathy in BPD was reported in eight studies, all of which revealed that patients had increased scores of distress on the IRI self-report questionnaire. 54 , 61 , 72 , 76 , 79 , 83 , 84 , 86 Several studies found no significant differences between patients with BPD and healthy control subjects in terms of empathy or related processes, 40 , 56 , 63 , 75 , 91 , 99 and some even found contradictory results between distinct tests.…”