Change in Emotional and Theory of Mind Processing in Borderline Personality Disorder : A Pilot Study
IPC
Kramer, UeliInstitute of Psychotherapy, Department of Psychiatry - CHUV, University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Service of General Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry-CHUV, University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Department of Psychology, University of Windsor, Canada
Kolly, StéphaneService of General Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry-CHUV, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Maillard, PaulineInstitute of Psychotherapy, Department of Psychiatry - CHUV, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Samson, Andrea C.
ORCID
Faculty of Psychology, Swiss Distance Learning University and Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland. Institute of Special Education, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Schmitt, RuthDepartment of Psychiatry, University of Heidelberg, Germany
Bernini, AdrianoLREN – Department of Clinical Neurosciences - CHUV, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Allenbach, GillesService of General Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry-CHUV, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Charbon, PatrickService of General Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry-CHUV, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
de Roten, YvesInstitute of Psychotherapy, Department of Psychiatry - CHUV, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Conus, PhilippeService of General Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry-CHUV, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Despland, Jean-NicolasInstitute of Psychotherapy, Department of Psychiatry - CHUV, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Draganski, BogdanLREN – Department of Clinical Neurosciences - CHUV, University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
English
Changes in emotion processing (EP) and in theory of mind (TOM) are central across treatment approaches for patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Whilst the assessment of EP relies on the observation patient’s self-criticism in a two-chair dialogue, individual’s TOM assessments is made based on responses to humorous stimuli based on false beliefs. For this pilot study, we assessed eight patients with BPD before and after a three-month long psychiatric treatment, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and behavioral tasks. We observed arousal increase within session of the two-chair dialogue (d = 0.36), paralleled by arousal decrease between sessions (d = 0.80). We found treatment associated trends for neural activity reduction in brain areas central for EP and TOM. Our exploratory findings using an integrative assessment procedure of changes in EP and TOM point towards evidence for treatment effects at the brain systems level related to behavioral modulation.