OBJECTIVES: Investigation of the perception of emotional and neutral facial expressions in female adolescents with borderline personality disorder (BPD). METHODS: Emotional and neutral facial expressions from the set of Ekman and Friesen were presented to 30 adolescent patients with a diagnosis of BPD, to 29 adolescent patients with other psychiatric diagnoses, and to a control group of 30 healthy subjects. All participants in the study were female. The subjects were asked to name the displayed emotion and to estimate the perceived intensity, negativity and pleasantness by means of a self-developed questionnaire on the perception of emotions in facial expressions. RESULTS: Female adolescents with BPD demonstrated no deficits in naming the displayed emotions. Nor did they differ from the clinical and healthy control groups regarding the subjective ratings of the negative and neutral facial expressions. However, female adolescents with BPD rated the pleasantness and intensity of positive facial expressions lower, and the negativity of positive facial expressions higher than did either the clinical or the healthy control group. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest the need for further research on the processing of positive stimuli and its role in the regulation of emotion in adolescents with borderline personality disorder. Due to the dysfunctional interpretation of positive emotional stimuli, therapeutic efforts should also rely on the possible biases in emotional information processing.
OBJECTIVES: Investigation of the perception of emotional and neutral facial expressions in female adolescents with borderline personality disorder (BPD). METHODS: Emotional and neutral facial expressions from the set of Ekman and Friesen were presented to 30 adolescent patients with a diagnosis of BPD, to 29 adolescent patients with other psychiatric diagnoses, and to a control group of 30 healthy subjects. All participants in the study were female. The subjects were asked to name the displayed emotion and to estimate the perceived intensity, negativity and pleasantness by means of a self-developed questionnaire on the perception of emotions in facial expressions. RESULTS: Female adolescents with BPD demonstrated no deficits in naming the displayed emotions. Nor did they differ from the clinical and healthy control groups regarding the subjective ratings of the negative and neutral facial expressions. However, female adolescents with BPD rated the pleasantness and intensity of positive facial expressions lower, and the negativity of positive facial expressions higher than did either the clinical or the healthy control group. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest the need for further research on the processing of positive stimuli and its role in the regulation of emotion in adolescents with borderline personality disorder. Due to the dysfunctional interpretation of positive emotional stimuli, therapeutic efforts should also rely on the possible biases in emotional information processing.