Background: Persistent psychotic symptomatology might be present in a group of patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) according to recent research findings.
Aims: Investigate whether psychotic symptoms could be associated to greater cognitive and functional impairment in BPD patients.
Method: In this observational, cross-sectional study (PI14/01449 and PI17/01023), we investigated the incidence of persistent psychotic symptoms in BPD patients and its association with specific neurocognitive impairments. A sample of 120 patients with diagnosis of BPD according to DSM IV TR was studied.
Results: A substantial number of BPD patients (52, 43,3%) presented psychotic symptoms for a period longer than 6 months. Among BPD patients with psychotic symptoms, 25 (48%) presented hallucinations, 35 (67,3%) presented delusional thoughts and 8 patients (15%) presented both. BPD psychotic patients had greater global severity at the CGI than non-psychotic patients (p 0.02). Psychotic BPD patients had greater impairment in attention (Hedges g = -0.36, 95% CI = -0.72 to 0.00) and in the executive functions domain (Hedges g = -0.48, 95% CI = -0.84 to -0.12) including working memory and cognitive flexibility. There were no differences of neurocognitive performance between patients with hallucinations and patients with delusional thoughts.
Conclusions: Persistent psychotic symptoms are present in one third of BPD patients and are probably associated with neurocognitive and social impairment. Thus, it is a priority to extensively investigate the nature of interactions between psychosis, BPD psychopathology and neurocognitive impairment, in order to better understand BPD phenotypes and to design adjusted treatment interventions.
Keywords: Borderline personality disorder; Cross-sectional study; Neurocognitive impairment; Persistent psychotic symptoms.
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