Women With Borderline Personality Disorder Show Reduced Identification of Emotional Facial Expressions and a Heightened Negativity Bias

Martin Vestergaard; Mickey T. Kongerslev; Marianne S. Thomsen; Birgit Bork Mathiesen; Catherine J. Harmer; Erik Simonsen; Kamilla W. Miskowiak

doi:10.1521/pedi_2019_33_409

Women With Borderline Personality Disorder Show Reduced Identification of Emotional Facial Expressions and a Heightened Negativity Bias

Martin Vestergaard, Mickey T. Kongerslev, Marianne S. Thomsen, Birgit Bork Mathiesen, Catherine J. Harmer, Erik Simonsen, Kamilla W. Miskowiak

Department of Clinical Medicine

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) frequently display impairments in the identification of emotional facial expressions paralleled by a negativity bias. However, it remains unclear whether misperception of facial expressions is a key psychopathological marker of BPD. To address this question, the authors examined 43 women diagnosed with BPD and 56 healthy female controls using an emotion face identification task and a face dot-probe task together with measures on psychopathology. Compared to controls, women with BPD showed impaired identification of disgusted and angry faces concurrent with a bias to misclassify faces as angry, and a faster preconscious vigilance for fearful relative to happy facial expressions. Increased severity of borderline symptoms and global psychopathology in BPD patients were associated with reduced ability to identify angry facial expressions and a stronger negativity bias to anger. The findings indicate that BPD patients who misperceive face emotions have the greatest mental health issues.

Original language	Danish
Journal	Journal of Personality Disorders
Pages (from-to)	1-22
Number of pages	22
ISSN	0885-579X
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1521/pedi_2019_33_409
Publication status	Published - 2020

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title = "Women With Borderline Personality Disorder Show Reduced Identification of Emotional Facial Expressions and a Heightened Negativity Bias",

abstract = "Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) frequently display impairments in the identification of emotional facial expressions paralleled by a negativity bias. However, it remains unclear whether misperception of facial expressions is a key psychopathological marker of BPD. To address this question, the authors examined 43 women diagnosed with BPD and 56 healthy female controls using an emotion face identification task and a face dot-probe task together with measures on psychopathology. Compared to controls, women with BPD showed impaired identification of disgusted and angry faces concurrent with a bias to misclassify faces as angry, and a faster preconscious vigilance for fearful relative to happy facial expressions. Increased severity of borderline symptoms and global psychopathology in BPD patients were associated with reduced ability to identify angry facial expressions and a stronger negativity bias to anger. The findings indicate that BPD patients who misperceive face emotions have the greatest mental health issues.",

author = "Martin Vestergaard and Kongerslev, {Mickey T.} and Thomsen, {Marianne S.} and Mathiesen, {Birgit Bork} and Harmer, {Catherine J.} and Erik Simonsen and Miskowiak, {Kamilla W.}",

year = "2020",

doi = "10.1521/pedi_2019_33_409",

language = "Dansk",

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journal = "Journal of Personality Disorders",

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T1 - Women With Borderline Personality Disorder Show Reduced Identification of Emotional Facial Expressions and a Heightened Negativity Bias

AU - Vestergaard, Martin

AU - Kongerslev, Mickey T.

AU - Thomsen, Marianne S.

AU - Mathiesen, Birgit Bork

AU - Harmer, Catherine J.

AU - Simonsen, Erik

AU - Miskowiak, Kamilla W.

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) frequently display impairments in the identification of emotional facial expressions paralleled by a negativity bias. However, it remains unclear whether misperception of facial expressions is a key psychopathological marker of BPD. To address this question, the authors examined 43 women diagnosed with BPD and 56 healthy female controls using an emotion face identification task and a face dot-probe task together with measures on psychopathology. Compared to controls, women with BPD showed impaired identification of disgusted and angry faces concurrent with a bias to misclassify faces as angry, and a faster preconscious vigilance for fearful relative to happy facial expressions. Increased severity of borderline symptoms and global psychopathology in BPD patients were associated with reduced ability to identify angry facial expressions and a stronger negativity bias to anger. The findings indicate that BPD patients who misperceive face emotions have the greatest mental health issues.

AB - Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) frequently display impairments in the identification of emotional facial expressions paralleled by a negativity bias. However, it remains unclear whether misperception of facial expressions is a key psychopathological marker of BPD. To address this question, the authors examined 43 women diagnosed with BPD and 56 healthy female controls using an emotion face identification task and a face dot-probe task together with measures on psychopathology. Compared to controls, women with BPD showed impaired identification of disgusted and angry faces concurrent with a bias to misclassify faces as angry, and a faster preconscious vigilance for fearful relative to happy facial expressions. Increased severity of borderline symptoms and global psychopathology in BPD patients were associated with reduced ability to identify angry facial expressions and a stronger negativity bias to anger. The findings indicate that BPD patients who misperceive face emotions have the greatest mental health issues.

UR - http://www.mendeley.com/research/women-borderline-personality-disorder-show-reduced-identification-emotional-facial-expressions-heigh

U2 - 10.1521/pedi_2019_33_409

DO - 10.1521/pedi_2019_33_409

M3 - Tidsskriftartikel

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SN - 0885-579X

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JO - Journal of Personality Disorders

JF - Journal of Personality Disorders

ER -

Women With Borderline Personality Disorder Show Reduced Identification of Emotional Facial Expressions and a Heightened Negativity Bias

Abstract

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