This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn more

Psychology Notes Abnormal Psychology (2nd year) Notes

Bpd 7 Notes

Updated Bpd 7 Notes

Abnormal Psychology (2nd year) Notes

Abnormal Psychology (2nd year)

Approximately 57 pages

These notes cover antisocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, psychopathy, and externalising disorders (ADHD, Conduct Disorder, and ODD).

Characteristics, prevalence rates (including gender differences), causes (environmental, genetic), risk factors, comorbidity, deficits, and treatments of each are outlined. Evidence from studies is also provided....

The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our Abnormal Psychology (2nd year) Notes. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:

PERSONALITY DISORDERS

Personality = collection of charac or traits that we have developed growing up and something which makes each of us an individual

Including the ways we think, feel and behave

Different kinds of personality disorders research suggests 3 groups:

  1. Cluster A: Odd or Eccentric

  2. Cluster B: Dramatic, Emotional, or Erratic

  3. Cluster C: Anxious and Fearful

BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER

BPD = emotional instability, fears of abandonment, impulsivity, self-mutilating behaviours, unstable sense of self intense and stormy personal relationships

Long term

Frequent change in emotions

Marked impulsivity

Associated with a wide variety of disorders

Epidemiology

Leichsenring et al., 2011:

USA population sample: 0.5-5.9%

In clinical sample: 10% all psychiatric outpatients; 15-25% inpatients

Non clinical: 5.9% (many individuals fail to seek appropriate treatment)

DIAGNOSIS: DSM-V CRITERIA

The essential features of a PD are impairments in personality functioning and the presence of pathological personality traits

To diagnose BDP, the following criteria must be met:

A Sig impairments in personality functioning manifest by: Impairments in self functioning (a or b)

a: identity

b: self-direction

Impairments in interpersonal functioning (a or b)

a: empathy

b: intimacy

B Pathological personality traits in the following domains: Negative Affectivity, characterised by:

a: emotional liability

b: anxiousness

c: separation insecurity

d: depressive

Disinhibition, characteristied by:

a: impulsivity

b: risk taking

Antagonism, characterised by: a: hostility

High prevalence of aggression

Newhill et al., 2009: 73% of BP patients have engaged in aggressive behaviour over 1 year

LIFE COURSE AND COMORBIDITY

Co-morbidity

Unipolar/bipolar mood, anxiety disorders, substance-use, eating disorders

Paris, 2007: 50% those with BPD also qualified for a mood disorder

Co-morbid with other PDs especially histrionic, dependent, antisocial and schizotypal

Tomko et al., 2014:

Results suggest that 2.7% of adults in the USA meet diagnostic criteria for BPD

High rates of the disorder in F, people in lower income brackets, people younger than 30, and individuals who are separated/divorced

BPD individuals were likely to have co-occurring lifetime mood disorders, anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, and other personality disorders

84.8% of individuals with BPD also had a lifetime anxiety disorder, 82.7% had a lifetime mood disorder/episode, and 78.2% were diagnosed with a lifetime substance use disorder

Karsten et al., 2016:

BPD women (compared to psychiatric patient none-BPD F):

  • More likely to have been abused as children

  • More likely to have a history of outpatient treatment

  • Less likely to be convicted for homicide

  • More likely to be comvited for arson

  • More likely to have comorbid substance abuse

  • Incidents towards others and themselves were more violent

Several risk factors for BPD F:

  • Poor behavioural control

  • Impulsivity

  • Irresponsibility

F diagnosed with BPD are a subgroup within the F psychiatric population

Lieb et al., 2004: NEUROBEHAVIORAL MODEL OF BPD

Genetics factors

Adverse childhood experience

Emotional dysreg/impulsivity

Dysfunctional behaviour

All interlink and worsen each other

Leichsenring et al., 2011: BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL MODEL OF BPD

Genetic factors + Adverse childhood experiences

Leads to biological dysfunctions and Psychosocial factors (personality traits)

Leads to BPD

RISK FACTORS

Genetics

Hooley et al., 2010: personality traits of affective instability and impulsivity are heritable

Lid et al., 2007: certain parts of 5-HTT gene implicated in depression may also be asoc with BPD

Hooley et al., 2001: link with other genes involved in regulating dopamine

Goodman et al., 2008: in twin studies, heritability scores for the full diagnoses were .65 to .75

The serotonin system is the NT system of greatest interest in these patients, and is the assumed site of action for specific serotonin-reuptake inhibitors

Ni X et al., 2006:

Data from a candidate gene study showed an assoc between a haplotype containing the short allele in the serotonin transporter gene (the serotonin transporter-linked promoter region (5-HTTLPR in SLC6A4) and development of BPD

Presence of the short allele of 5-HTTLPR can indicate a poor treatment response to fluoxetine in BPD patients

Wagner et al.,2009: Polymorphism in 5-HTTLPR might also modulate the assoc between serious life events and the development of impulsivity in patients

Distel et al., 2008: BPD tendencies are influenced equally by genetic and non-shared environment

Hunt et al., 2015: genetic and environmental overlap between BPD and Psychopathy

Factor 1: fearless dominance adaptive features of stress immunity, social potency and fearlessness = +ve

Factor 2: impulsive-antisocial tendencies eg lack of planning and aggressiveness = highly correlated with BPD

F2 and BPD = common genetic vulnerability and non-shared environmental risk factors

Strong genetic and non-shared environmental correlations suggests that common genetic and non-shared environment contribute to both phenotypes

Negative genetic and non-shared environmental correlations between Factor 1 and BPD tendencies suggests genetic factors underlying Factor 1 serve as protective factors against BPD

Promotive effects of Factor 2

Protective effects of Factor 1

BUT others define F1 as = interpersonal and affective traits eg CU and lack of affect

Biological data

BPD and low serotonin involved in inhibiting behavioural responses, hence impulsive behaviour manifests

Disturbances in noradrenergic regulation similar to those in PTSD

Lieb et al., 2004: brain areas that inhibit aggression seem to show decreased activation

Hooley et al., 2012: reductions in hippocampal and amygdala volume, features associated with aggression ad impulsivity

Weniger et al., 2009:

Reduced amygdala (34%) and hippocampus (12%) size and sig impaired cognition

Trauma-exposed patients with BPD but without PTSD also showed sig...

Buy the full version of these notes or essay plans and more in our Abnormal Psychology (2nd year) Notes.