Impulsivity in patients with borderline personality disorder : a comprehensive profile compared with healthy people and patients with ADHD

Authors

LINHARTOVÁ Pavla LÁTALOVÁ Adéla BARTEČEK Richard ŠIRŮČEK Jan THEINER Pavel EJOVA Anastasia HLAVATÁ Pavlína KÓŠA Barbora JEŘÁBKOVÁ Barbora BAREŠ Martin KAŠPÁREK Tomáš

Year of publication 2020
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Psychological Medicine
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Medicine

Citation
Web https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medicine/article/impulsivity-in-patients-with-borderline-personality-disorder-a-comprehensive-profile-compared-with-healthy-people-and-patients-with-adhd/74FA9293042740200F0607A6C9CC1089
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291719001892
Keywords ADHD; attention; borderline personality disorder; cognitive functions; decision making; executive functions; impulsivity; urgency; working memory
Description Background Impulsivity is a core symptom of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Impulsivity is a heterogeneous concept, and a comprehensive evaluation of impulsivity dimensions is lacking in the literature. Moreover, it is unclear whether BPD patients manifest impaired cognitive functioning that might be associated with impulsivity in another patient group, such as ADHD, a frequent comorbidity of BPD. Methods We tested 39 patients with BPD without major psychiatric comorbidities and ADHD, 25 patients with ADHD, and 55 healthy controls (HC) using a test battery consisting of a self-report measure of impulsivity (UPPS-P questionnaire), behavioral measures of impulsivity – impulsive action (Go/NoGo task, stop signal task) and impulsive choice (delay discounting task, Iowa gambling task), and standardized measures of attention (d2 test), working memory (digit span), and executive functioning (Tower of London). Results Patients with BPD and ADHD, as compared with HC, manifested increased self-reported impulsivity except sensation seeking and increased impulsive choice; patients with ADHD but not BPD showed increased impulsive action and deficits in cognitive functioning. Negative urgency was increased in BPD as compared to both HC and ADHD groups and correlated with BPD severity. Conclusions Patients with BPD without ADHD comorbidity had increased self-reported impulsivity and impulsive choice, but intact impulsive action and cognitive functioning. Controlling for ADHD comorbidity in BPD samples is necessary. Negative urgency is the most diagnostically specific impulsivity dimension in BPD.
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