Comparing Neurocognitive Profile of Patients with Borderline Personality and Bipolar-II Disorders

• Main Authors: Valiolah Akbari, Parvin Rahmatinejad, Seyed Davood Mohammadi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tehran University of Medical Sciences 2019-05-01
• Series: Iranian Journal of Psychiatry
• Subjects: Bipolar Disorder; Borderline Personality Disorder; Neurocognitive Profile
• Online Access: https://ijps.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijps/article/view/1270
• ISSN: 1735-4587; 2008-2215

Objective: The present study was conducted to compare neurocognitive profile in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and bipolar II disorder (BD-II) and to find whether BPD can be classified as one of bipolar spectrum disorders. Method: A total of 35 patients with BPD and 35 euthymic patients with BDII disorder were selected by convenience sampling method. These 2 groups were compared with 30 healthy individuals using neurocognitive battery tests that assessed cognitive flexibility and set-shifting, response inhibition, problem-solving, decision-making, and sustained and selective attention. Data were analyzed using independent t test, X2 and ANOVA. Results: Patients with euthymic BDII and BPD had poorer performance than the healthy group in most neurocognitive domains (p<0.05). Both patient groups showed similar functions in cognitive flexibility and set-shifting, decision-making, sustained and selective attention, and problem-solving (p<0.05). BPD patients had more elevated response inhibition deficits than BD-II patients (P<0.05). Also, BPD patients had poorer performance in planning compared to BD-II patients (P<0.05). Conclusion: The results provided empirical support for previous findings which have reported that patients with BPD and BD-II show neurocognitive dysfunctions. Despite the similarity between these 2 clinical groups in terms of neurocognitive profile in this study, more extensive studies are needed to confirm the hypothesis that BPD can be conceptualized as one of bipolar spectrum disorders.