TY - JOUR
T1 - Emotional reactivity in borderline personality disorder
T2 - Theoretical considerations based on a meta-analytic review of laboratory studies
AU - Bortolla, Roberta
AU - Cavicchioli, Marco
AU - Fossati, Andrea
AU - Maffei, Cesare
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Guilford Press.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Emotional hyperreactivity (Linehan, 1993) is the most investigated construct in borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, experimental studies revealed mixed results on the topic. Our main objective is to comprehensively summarize the results on emotional reactivity in BPD compared to healthy controls (HCs), using a meta-analytic approach, considering different emotional response systems (physiology, behavior, self-report). We included 31 experimental studies (1,675 subjects). We observed null to small effect sizes for several physiological and behavioral outcomes. Conversely, BPD subjects revealed a moderate to large difference in valence attributed to emotional stimuli and a small difference in self-reported arousal. Significant differences in pooled effect sizes were found between self-report and physiological outcomes. Several sources of heterogeneity were explored. In general, the hyperreactivity hypothesis was not supported. Additional dysfunctional processes should be taken into consideration to understand BPD emotional responsiveness.
AB - Emotional hyperreactivity (Linehan, 1993) is the most investigated construct in borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, experimental studies revealed mixed results on the topic. Our main objective is to comprehensively summarize the results on emotional reactivity in BPD compared to healthy controls (HCs), using a meta-analytic approach, considering different emotional response systems (physiology, behavior, self-report). We included 31 experimental studies (1,675 subjects). We observed null to small effect sizes for several physiological and behavioral outcomes. Conversely, BPD subjects revealed a moderate to large difference in valence attributed to emotional stimuli and a small difference in self-reported arousal. Significant differences in pooled effect sizes were found between self-report and physiological outcomes. Several sources of heterogeneity were explored. In general, the hyperreactivity hypothesis was not supported. Additional dysfunctional processes should be taken into consideration to understand BPD emotional responsiveness.
KW - Borderline personality disorder
KW - Emotional reactivity
KW - Linehan’s model
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U2 - 10.1521/pedi_2018_32_382
DO - 10.1521/pedi_2018_32_382
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85079859308
VL - 34
SP - 64
EP - 87
JO - Journal of Personality Disorders
JF - Journal of Personality Disorders
SN - 0885-579X
IS - 1
ER -