Slow processing in borderline personality disorder: the emotional Stroop paradigm

Abstract

Background. Emotional instability has been extensively considered the main core of the borderline personality disorder (BPD) that is characterised by an important bias towards emotional information. The aim of this study was to determine the emotional bias in patients with BPD by means of an emotional Stroop paradigm.

Sampling and Methods. Sixty-one women (38 Borderline Personality Disorder outpatients and 23 healthy matched control subjects) were included. All of them underwent a computerised version of an emotional Stroop which included four valences: borderline-related negative, negative, positive and neutral.

Results. The results showed that BPD patients were slower in spotting the ink of the words [F(1.59)=4.33; p=0.04], and this effect was mainly for borderline-related and neutral words. Likewise, the more severe the BPD the slower the subjects [F(2.57)=4.81; p=0.012], indicating difficulties in processing information.

Conclusions. The findings suggest that the emotional dysregulation may account for selective processing with emotional stimulus, which in turn triggers emotional responses in BPD patients, rather than to reflect a more general hypervigilance and an attentional bias for any kind of stimul