Neuropsychological Sequelae Associated with Borderline Personality Features

This study examined whether behavioral disturbances in borderline personality disorder (BPD) were associated with neurocognitive deficits. An archival database was utilized, consisting of 45 subjects (25 males and 20 females; 12 inpatients and 33 outpatients) who had been given the MCMI-III and eleven neuropsychological measures based on clinical referrals for psychological evaluation in a large medical hospital. Comparisons in neurocognitive abnormalities in attention, memory, and executive functioning were made between groups of subjects identified as exhibiting features of BPD and those not meeting the criterion for BPD. No statistically significant differences were found; however, the unity of neuropsychology and psychoanalytically-based clinical theory resulted in the development of an empirical research model which examined neurocognitive functioning as associated with the hallmark features of BPD.