Emotional responses in borderline personality disorder and depression: Assessment during an acute crisis and 8 months later

Stability of subjective emotional responses to positive and negative film stimuli was examined in female patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD, n = 30), depressed patients (n = 27) and a non-clinical control group (n = 30). At first assessment (t1) clinical participants were inpatients. The second assessment was conducted 8 months later, when clinical participants were not in an acute crisis. Positive emotions and other-focused negative emotions were successfully induced in all participants. Altogether, more negative baseline emotionality describes both patient groups better than differences in emotional reactivity. Our findings contradict the hypothesis of general emotional hyperreactivity in BPD patients for both positive and negative emotions.