Experts Present Evidence on Childhood Precursors to BPD

A number of childhood precursors appear to be associated with the development of borderline personality disorder (BPD), said some of the nation’s leading BPD experts at the symposium “Childhood Precursors of BPD” yesterday at APA’s 2015 annual meeting in Toronto. The symposium was chaired by Joel Paris, M.D., of McGill University.

Carla Sharp, Ph.D., of the University of Houston presented research showing that “hypermentalization”—a social-cognitive process in which an individual makes assumptions about other people’s mental states that go far beyond observable data—appears to be a prominent characteristic of adolescents with BPD. She and her colleagues compared hypermentalizing across three samples of 12- to 17-year-old girls: 35 with BPD, 50 controls without BPD, and 80 healthy controls. Results demonstrated significant differences in overall hypermentalizing such that adolescents with BPD had significantly higher means of hypermentalizing, followed by psychiatric controls and healthy controls. Differences were most pronounced for hypermentalizing in the context of parent relationships (compared with best friend or romantic partner).

Similarly, Stephanie Stepp, Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh presented evidence showing an interaction between “negative emotional reactivity” and stressful life events in the development of BPD.

Mary Zanarini, Ed.D., presented her research on the role of adverse childhood experiences and childhood protective factors—such as positive relationships with others, childhood competence, and parental competence—in the development of BPD. She told meeting attendees that the results of her work suggest that BPD in adolescents is associated with a higher level of childhood adversity and a lower level of childhood protective experiences.