Anhedonia in borderline personality disorder and its relation to symptoms of impulsivity.

BACKGROUND: Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) report strong negative affect and show impulsive, disruptive behaviors. The role of anhedonia, or the inability to experience positive affect, has been less examined in BPD. The present study examined the role of anhedonia in BPD patients and its relation to symptoms of impulsivity.

SAMPLING AND METHODS: Anhedonia, affect, impulsivity and BPD symptoms were measured in BPD patients and healthy control participants.

RESULTS: It was found that BPD patients showed abnormally high anhedonia levels. In addition, anhedonia was found to be positively related to dysfunctional impulsivity in the BPD patient group, while in the control group, anhedonia was related to withdrawal behaviors. A strong relation was found between anhedonia and BPD symptoms, emphasizing the relevance of anhedonia as an important symptom of BPD. Finally, anhedonia was found to be an important contributor to the severity of borderline symptoms, independently of other factors such as affect and impulsivity.

CONCLUSIONS: The results underline that anhedonia might be an important but currently overlooked feature of BPD. The results further suggest that anhedonia is associated with the impulsive behaviors that are typically observed in borderline patients.