Theory of mind in women with borderline personality disorder or schizophrenia: differences in overall ability and error patterns

Abstract

Although borderline personality disorder (BPD) and schizophrenia (SZ) are notably different mental disorders, they share problems in social cognition—or understanding the feelings, intentions and thoughts of other people. To date no studies have directly compared the social cognitive abilities of individuals with these two disorders. In this study, the social cognitive subdomain theory of mind was investigated in women with BPD (n = 25), women with SZ (n = 25) and healthy women (n = 25). An ecologically valid video-based measure (Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition) was used. For the overall score, women with SZ performed markedly below both healthy women and women with BPD, whereas women with BPD did not perform significantly different compared to the healthy control group. A statistically significant error type × group interaction effect indicated that the groups differed with respect to kind of errors. Whereas women with BPD made mostly overmentalizing errors, women with SZ in addition committed undermentalizing errors. Our study suggests different magnitude and pattern of social cognitive problems in BPD and SZ.

On the relationships between DSM‐5 dysfunctional personality traits and social cognition deficits: A study in a sample of consecutively admitted Italian psychotherapy patients

“…Social cognition may be defined as the ability to infer another's thoughts, feelings, and intentions (Frith & Frith, ); thus, the construct of social cognition highly overlaps with the constructs of theory of mind (ToM; Woodruff, Premack, & Kennel, ) and mentalizing (Frith & Frith, ). Against this background and consistent with previous reports (e.g., Ha, Sharp, Ensink, Fonagy, & Cirino, ; Sharp et al, ; Vaskinn et al, ), in this study, we used the term social cognition as a synonym of mentalizing and ToM .…”

“…Against this background and consistent with previous reports (e.g., Ha, Sharp, Ensink, Fonagy, & Cirino, 2013;Sharp et al, 2011;Vaskinn et al, 2015), in this study, we used the term social cognition as a synonym of mentalizing and ToM.…”

Mentalization‐based treatment or psychodynamic treatment programmes for patients with borderline personality disorder – the impact of clinical severity

“…Our fourth perspective is on the primary and explicit aim of the MBT therapist – to maintain a joint focus on mentalizing and mentalizing deficits in therapy. In the present study sample, although we cannot report measures of the patients’ mentalizing capacity, the BPD patients with severe personality pathology in PDT and MBT are likely to be a comparable cohort with poor personality functioning and severe mentalizing deficits (Antonsen et al ., ; Vaskinn et al ., ). It is noteworthy that MBT‐PDT outcome differences were largest among these patients and conceivable that an intervention style explicitly focusing on mentalizing deficiencies could be important.…”

“…Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is known to be a heterogeneous disorder of variable clinical severity (Johansen, Karterud, Pedersen, Gude, & Falkum, 2004). Patients with BPD typically present with characteristic interpersonal vulnerability, emotional instability, and a disturbed capacity to interpret and reflect over mental states (mentalization) (Antonsen, Johansen, Ro, Kvarstein, & Wilberg, 2016;Diamond et al, 2014;Vaskinn et al, 2015). Several studies have shown that the extent of maladaptive personality features, not only within BPD, but also across personality disorder (PD) categories, is closely related to the severity of social impairment and symptom distress among patients Kvarstein & Karterud, 2012Newton-Howes, Tyrer, & Weaver, 2008;Yang, Coid, & Tyrer, 2010).…”

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

“…Although the mentalizing process was initially described in autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia (Baron-Cohen, Leslie, & Frith, 1985;Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, Hill, Raste, & Plumb, 2001;Fernández-Abascal, Cabello, Fernández-Berrocal, & Baron-Cohen, 2013;Gavilán-Ibáñez & García-Albea, 2013), is not limited to them. Indeed, in relation BPD, some specific patterns can differ [e.g., under-mentalizing vs. over-mentalizing (Andreou et al, 2015;Vaskinn et al, 2015)].…”