Cortical morphology changes in women with borderline personality disorder: a multimodal approach

• Published in: Revista brasileira de psiquiatria Vol. 36; no. 1; pp. 32 - 38
• Main Authors: Araujo, Thabata B de, Araujo Filho, Gerardo M de, Sato, João R, Araújo, Celia M de, Lisondo, Cláudio M, Carrete, Jr, Henrique, Ancona, Alvaro, Lin, Katia, Bressan, Rodrigo A, Silva, Julieta F R da, Jackowski, Andrea P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Brazil Associação Brasileira de Psiquiatria 01-01-2014; Associação Brasileira de Psiquiatria (ABP)
• Subjects: Adult; borderline personality disorder; Borderline Personality Disorder - physiopathology; Case-Control Studies; Cerebral Cortex - abnormalities; Cerebral Cortex - physiopathology; Female; Gyrus Cinguli - abnormalities; Gyrus Cinguli - physiopathology; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; mental disorders; Middle Aged; Multimodal Imaging; Neuroimaging; Neuropsychological Tests; Organ Size; PSYCHIATRY; Reference Values; Young Adult; Magnetic resonance imaging; borderline personality disorder; neuroimaging; mental disorders
• ISSN: 1516-4446; 1809-452X; 1809-452X; 1516-4446
• DOI: 10.1590/1516-4446-2013-1120

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a devastating condition that causes intense disruption of patients' lives and relationships. Proper understanding of BPD neurobiology could help provide the basis for earlier and effective interventions. As neuroimaging studies of patients with BPD are still scarce, volumetric and geometric features of the cortical structure were assessed to ascertain whether structural cortical alterations are present in BPD patients.
Twenty-five female outpatients with BPD underwent psychiatric evaluation (SCID-I and II) and a 1.5 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scan. The control group comprised 25 healthy age-matched females. Images were processed with the FreeSurfer package, which allows analysis of cortical morphology with more detailed descriptions of volumetric and geometric features of cortical structure.
Compared with controls, BPD patients exhibited significant cortical abnormalities in the fronto-limbic and paralimbic regions of both hemispheres.
Significant morphologic abnormalities were observed in patients with BPD on comparison with a healthy control group through a multimodal approach. This study highlights the involvement of regions associated with mood regulation, impulsivity, and social behavior in BPD patients and presents a new approach for further investigation through a method of structural analysis based on distinct and simultaneous volumetric and geometric parameters.