Citation

van Reekum R, Links PS, Finlayson MA, Boyle M, Boiago I, Ostrander LA, Moustacalis E. J. Psychiatry Neurosci. 1996; 21(1): 13-20.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, Canadian Medical Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8580113

PMCID

PMC1188729

Abstract

Previous research has tentatively identified a large subgroup of patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) with histories of developmental or acquired brain insults. Similarly, these studies have demonstrated a possible biological correlation between the severity of BPD and the number of previous brain insults. The possibility of frontal system cognitive dysfunction in BPD has been raised. This single-blind, case-control study of BPD showed that 13 of 24 subjects with BPD had suffered a brain insult. Correlations between neurodevelopmental/acquired brain injury score and the diagnostic interview for borderline (DIB) score (r = 0.47), and between frontal system cognitive functioning and DIB score (r = -0.37) were seen. Neurocognitive testing and comparison with a cohort of subjects with traumatic brain injury (TBI) showed a pattern of similar cognitive functioning between the 2 groups, with the only differences on individual tests being in the direction of worse functioning in the group with BPD on 2 tasks. These results support the hypotheses described above. The main limitation reflects the low numbers of subjects.

Language: en