A comprehensive examination of delayed emotional recovery in borderline personality disorder.
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.
['Fitzpatrick|Skye|S|', 'Kuo|Janice R|JR|']
D000293:Adolescent D000786:Anger D001008:Anxiety Disorders D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder D004644:Emotions D005239:Fear D005260:Female D005712:Galvanic Skin Response D006801:Humans D065809:Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia D012647:Self-Assessment D012920:Social Behavior Disorders D013997:Time Factors D055815:Young Adult
Emotional recovery Borderline personality disorder Emotion dysregulation Emotion regulation