Changes in the Brain as Borderline Patients Learn to Regulate Their Emotions

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), a prevalent psychiatric disorder found in approximately 2% to 6% of the population and 20% of hospitalized psychiatric patients, has proven quite treatment resistant. This study is designed to determine whether patients with BPD can be trained to improve their ability to regulate their emotions and whether this leads to changes in how their brans regulate emotion.

Detailed Description
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Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a common psychiatric disorder found in approximately 2% to 6% of the population . It is characterized by intense and rapid mood changes, self-destructive behavior, suicidality, and tumultuous relationships. In additional to the emotional costs of the suffering experienced by borderline patients and their loved ones, BPD patients typically function at a level substantially below that of individuals with comparable intellect. The difficulty controlling emotion, so central to the disorder, has proved a particularly difficult to treat. The present study utilizes the latest neuroimaging findings in BPD to generate new ideas for the psychotherapy of the disorder. This project builds upon our previous neuroimaging work, which has shown that when BPD patients try to control their emotions by employing a method that healthy people frequently use quite effectively -- taking an emotional distance from what is upsetting - BPD patients are not able to quiet down the part of their brain that sends out emotional alarm signals. The objective of the present study is to determine whether giving BPD patients special training in using this healthy distancing strategy can help them to improve their ability to regulate their emotions and return their brain activity to a more normal pattern. The investigators will do this by using fMRI to record brain activity as BPD subjects try to use distancing to reduce their emotional reactions to upsetting pictures before any training, then to have them receive specific training in the distancing strategy. After this training we will again obtain an fMRI scan to determine whether their pattern of brain activation has normalized and whether they have been able to better reduce their negative reactions to the pictures. If this is effective, it will show that such training may help BPD patients better regulate their emotions and would support a program to further develop and incorporate distancing training into the psychotherapy of BPD patients. A second objective of the present study is to determine whether the tendency of BPD patients to become increasingly sensitized to negative situations when they are re-experienced (as shown by increased activity of the brain's emotional alarm system), will reduce with additional exposure, as it does in patients with phobias, or will continue to increase. Knowing this can help the therapist plan how to most therapeutically approach disturbing life experiences in the psychotherapy of BPD patients. This project represents an important step in brain imaging research since it applies information learned about brain activity patterns to develop new approaches to psychotherapy. It addresses a serious, prevalent and difficult to treat disorder.

Official Title
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An fMRI Study of the Enhancement of Emotion Regulation in Borderline Patients

Conditions
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Borderline Personality Disorders, Avoidant Personality Disorders

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Reappraisal Training


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: BPD subjects 18 to 50 years old Meet criteria for DSM-IV Borderline Personality Disorder, including the DSM-IV criteria for affective instability (criterion #6), and not meet criteria for Schizotypal Personality Disorder (SPD) or AvPD. Subjects in the AvPD group meet DSM-IV criteria for AvPD and not for BPD or SPD. All subjects will be free of psychotropic medications for 2 weeks (6 weeks for fluoxetine). Subjects may be enrolled in psychotherapy Exclusion Criteria: BPD and AvPD subjects will not meet DSM-IV criteria for past or present PTSD, bipolar I disorder, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, substance dependence, head trauma, CNS neurological disease, seizure disorder or current major depression. Substance abuse disorder in the prior 6 months Significant medical illness Pregnancy Metallic foreign-bodies that contraindicate MRI

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 55 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Basic Science
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: BPD Emotion Regulation Training<br>Guided practice in reappraisal | Behavioral: Reappraisal Training<br> <br> * Other names: Emotion Regulation Training;|
| No Intervention: BPD Control<br>no training in reappraisal | |
| Experimental: APD Emotion Regulation Training<br>Guided practice in reappraisal | Behavioral: Reappraisal Training<br> <br> * Other names: Emotion Regulation Training;|
| No Intervention: APD Controls<br>no training in reappraisal | |
| Experimental: Healthy Controls Emotion Regulation Training<br>Guided practice in reappraisal | Behavioral: Reappraisal Training<br> <br> * Other names: Emotion Regulation Training;|
| No Intervention: Healthy Controls<br>no training in reappraisal | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Changes in BOLD signal in brain | BOLD signal changes at 5 days compared to baseline to measure reappraisal success using fMRI to record brain activity. | baseline and 5 days | 
| Changes in BOLD signal in brain | BOLD signal changes at 2 weeks compared to baseline to measure reappraisal success using fMRI to record brain activity. | baseline and 2 weeks | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Perceived Stress Scale | Change in Perceived Stress Scale at 5 days compared to baseline | baseline and 5 days | 
| Perceived Stress Scale | Change in Perceived Stress Scale at 2 weeks compared to baseline | baseline and 2 weeks | 
| State Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI) | Change in STAXI at 5 days compared to baseline | baseline and 5 days | 
| State Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI) | Change in STAXI at 2 weeks compared to baseline | baseline and 2 weeks | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Borderline Personality Disorder, Avoidant Personality Disorder, Brain Imaging