Associations of state or trait dissociation with severity of psychopathology in young people with borderline personality disorder.

Salmon, Ashleigh P; Nicol, Katie; Kaess, Michael; Jovev, Martina; Betts, Jennifer K; Chanen, Andrew M (2023). Associations of state or trait dissociation with severity of psychopathology in young people with borderline personality disorder. Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation, 10(1), p. 20. BioMed Central 10.1186/s40479-023-00226-z

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BACKGROUND

State and trait dissociation are associated with borderline personality disorder (BPD) severity and severity of commonly co-occurring mental health symptoms. Although these distinct constructs do not consistently co-occur in experimental settings, they are frequently reported as the same construct, namely dissociation. This study aimed to investigate the co-occurrence of state and trait dissociation among young people with BPD and to examine whether state or trait dissociation were associated with symptom severity in this population.

METHODS

State dissociation was induced using a stressful behavioural task in a clinical sample of 51 young people (aged 15-25 years) with three or more BPD features. Diagnoses, state and trait dissociation, BPD severity and severity of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depressive, and stress symptoms were assessed by self-report or research interview.

RESULTS

A chi-square test of independence showed a strong association between state and trait dissociation. Bonferroni corrected t-tests showed that state dissociation was significantly associated with PTSD symptom severity and likely associated with BPD severity and severity of depressive and stress symptoms. Trait dissociation was not associated with symptom severity or severity of BPD features.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings highlight the need to distinguish between state and trait dissociation in personality disorder research. They suggest that state dissociation might be an indicator of higher severity of psychopathology in young people with BPD.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy

UniBE Contributor:

Kaess, Michael

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

2051-6673

Publisher:

BioMed Central

Language:

English

Submitter:

Pubmed Import

Date Deposited:

12 Jun 2023 10:21

Last Modified:

18 Jun 2023 02:22

Publisher DOI:

10.1186/s40479-023-00226-z

PubMed ID:

37303050

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Dissociation Early intervention Personality disorder Youth

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/183323

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/183323

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