Borderline personality disorder and dissociation - comparison with healthy controls

THE AIM of our study is to examine if the dissociation, can influence intensity of psychopathology in patients suffering with borderline personality disorders and compare the level of dissociation of the patients with the data of healthy subjects. METHODS: 24 patients suffering with borderline personality disorder (7 males and 17 females) and 31 healthy controls (9 males and 22 females) were included into the study. The patients were psychiatrically assessed and the subjective intensity of symptoms was evaluated by Beck Anxiety Inventory and Beck Depression Inventory. All participants were assessed with the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES). RESULTS: The two groups didn’t differ in demographic variables like age, gender and education. Level of the psychological dissociation assessed with DES was not correlated with the severity of subjective anxiety symptoms, or with the severity of depression symptoms. Level of the psychological dissociation assessed with the subscale pathological DES was not correlated with the severity of subjective anxiety symptoms, but was correlated with the severity of depression symptoms (p<0.05). Patients had statistically significant higher mean score of DES and pathological DES than healthy controls (p<0.0005 resp. p<0.005). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that the level of psychological dissociation in borderline personality disorder patients is higher than in are matched healthy controls. The psychological dissociation measured with pathological DES subscale is correlated with level of depressive symptoms but not with level of anxiety symptoms.