A comprehensive examination of delayed emotional recovery in borderline personality disorder

Abstract

Background and objectives: Despite growing attention to emotion processes in borderline personality disorder (BPD), little research has examined delayed emotional recovery (i.e., long-lasting emotions after the termination of an emotionally evocative stimulus) in this population. The extant data on delayed emotional recovery in BPD are limited by a lack of assessment across a range of indices and emotions. The present study addresses these gaps by comparing emotional recovery between individuals with BPD, social anxiety disorder (SAD), and healthy controls (HCs) using a multi-modal assessment approach.

Methods: Participants underwent fear, anger, and sadness inductions followed by a 5-min "washout" phase wherein emotional recovery was assessed via self-report, respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and skin conductance responses (SCR).

Results: After controlling for state dissociation, the BPD and SAD group exhibited decreases in RSA, while the HC group showed no changes in RSA after the anger induction only. Groups did not differ in rate of emotional recovery across self-report, RSA, or SCR after fear and sadness inductions.

Limitations: The present study is limited by a solely female and small sample, and the short time frame in which emotional recovery was assessed.

Conclusions: Findings indicate that individuals with BPD generally do not exhibit delayed emotional recovery, but may show decreases in parasympathetic activity during the recovery period after experiencing anger. However, this pattern may not be specific to this disorder.

Keywords: Borderline personality disorder; Emotion dysregulation; Emotion regulation; Emotional recovery.

Figure 1

Group X time interaction predicting changes in respiratory sinus arrhythmia following the anger induction.