Functional MRI Correlations in Women Diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder Exposed to Self-Harm Imagery

Purpose Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a multidimensional impulsive personality condition leading to emotional dysregulation and self-harm (1). Previous fMRI studies have found abnormal prefrontal and amygdala activation in BPD subjects compared to normal subjects when presented with aversive or autobiographical stimuli (1-3). However, most BPD patients have a history of psychological drug treatment, and to date no fMRI studies have accounted for possible drug-induced brain activation in analyses between BPD and control groups. The purpose of this work was to eliminate the effects of psychological drug treatment in the neurological study of BPD by incorporating a medicated-control group into an fMRI study of BPD.