Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe disorder in which individuals often engage in extreme behaviors such as self-injury, impulsive behaviors, substance abuse and suicidal behavior. Individuals with BPD symptoms utilize the health care system (e.g., visits to physicians, emergeny rooms, and hosptializations) at alarmingly high rates (Hueston, Mainous, &Schilling, 1996) and are at extremely high risk for death by suicide. This makes BPD a significant pulic health concern. Although successful treatments have been developed for BPD (Dialectical Behavior Therapy;Linehan, 1993), little attention has been given to understanding the underlying causes and functional aspects of the maladaptive behaviors seen in BPD, valuble information for the treatment of this disorder. Linehan's (1993) theoretical model of BPD asserts that individuals with BPD have significant problems with emotion dysregulation in that they 1) have a heightened sensitivity to emotional stimuli, 2) experience emotions as extremely intense, and 3) they have a slow return to emotional baseline. Research also suggests that the maladaptive behaviors of individuals with BPD may serve the common purpose of emotion regulation. Recent findings in the field of emotion science provide evidence that rumination (a form of cognitive emotion dysregulation) may account for the emotion dysregulation seen in BPD. Rumination is defined as focusing attention and thoughts on the causes and consequences of emotionally relevant stimuli. Consequently, rumination has been shown to magnify and perpetuate negative affect;intense negative affect, in turn, may result in increased attention to emotionally relevant stimuli - potentially resulting in a cycle that causes a """"""""cascade"""""""" of intense emotions (Selby et al., in press). The proposed studies will examine the role of cognitive emotion dysregulation (defined as high levels of rumination) in BPD, as well as examine the role that maladaptive behaviors (including suicidal behaviors) have in interfering with rumination. Study 1 will examine the role of rumination in BPD with an induced rumination on negative affect procedure. A subsequent pain tolerance test with a cold-pressor will provide a proxy for self-injury, and information about the distracting quality of pain. The second study will examine the contextual and ruminative features surrounding behavioral dysregulation in BPD with an Ecological Momentary Assessment protocol.

Public Health Relevance

This study will examine if real-time rumination and interpersonal problems tend to precede behavioral dysregulation in the daily life of BPD individuals, through the use of palm pilots. This study will also specifically examine if an interaction between rumination and interpersonal problems is associated with NSSI in individuals with BPD.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F31)
Project #
5F31MH081396-02
Application #
7713993
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-F12B-N (20))
Program Officer
Rubio, Mercedes
Project Start
2008-09-22
Project End
2010-09-21
Budget Start
2009-09-22
Budget End
2010-09-21
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$32,231
Indirect Cost
Name
Florida State University
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
790877419
City
Tallahassee
State
FL
Country
United States
Zip Code
32306
Selby, Edward A; Kranzler, Amy; Panza, Emily et al. (2016) Bidirectional-Compounding Effects of Rumination and Negative Emotion in Predicting Impulsive Behavior: Implications for Emotional Cascades. J Pers 84:139-53
Selby, Edward A; Yen, Shirley (2014) Six-month trajectory of suicidal ideation in adolescents with borderline personality disorder. Suicide Life Threat Behav 44:89-100
Selby, Edward A; Joiner Jr, Thomas E (2013) Emotional cascades as prospective predictors of dysregulated behaviors in borderline personality disorder. Personal Disord 4:168-74
Selby, Edward A; Doyle, Peter; Crosby, Ross D et al. (2012) Momentary emotion surrounding bulimic behaviors in women with bulimia nervosa and borderline personality disorder. J Psychiatr Res 46:1492-500
Timmons, Katherine A; Selby, Edward A; Lewinsohn, Peter M et al. (2011) Parental displacement and adolescent suicidality: exploring the role of failed belonging. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol 40:807-17
Braithwaite, Scott R; Selby, Edward A; Fincham, Frank D (2011) Forgiveness and relationship satisfaction: mediating mechanisms. J Fam Psychol 25:551-9
Selby, Edward A; Anestis, Michael D; Bender, Theodore W et al. (2010) Overcoming the fear of lethal injury: evaluating suicidal behavior in the military through the lens of the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicide. Clin Psychol Rev 30:298-307
Van Orden, Kimberly A; Witte, Tracy K; Cukrowicz, Kelly C et al. (2010) The interpersonal theory of suicide. Psychol Rev 117:575-600
Selby, Edward A; Bulik, Cynthia M; Thornton, Laura et al. (2010) Refining behavioral dysregulation in borderline personality disorder using a sample of women with anorexia nervosa. Personal Disord 1:250-7
Selby, Edward A; Smith, April R; Bulik, Cynthia M et al. (2010) Habitual starvation and provocative behaviors: two potential routes to extreme suicidal behavior in anorexia nervosa. Behav Res Ther 48:634-45

Showing the most recent 10 out of 16 publications