Empathy Anomalies in Emotionally Unstable (Borderline) Personality Disorder

NCT05381649 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 310008
• Study Type: observational
• Target: 40
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Emotionally unstable (borderline) personality disorder (BPD) is characterised by changeable and extreme emotions and difficulty maintaining relationships. It is often associated with self-harm. Empathy has two components; cognitive empathy (imagining someone else's thoughts and feelings) and emotional empathy (the reciprocal emotional response). People with BPD score low on cognitive empathy but high on emotional empathy. This suggests that they do not easily understand other peoples' perspectives, but their own emotions are very sensitive. This is important because it could align BPD with other neurodiverse conditions. This study will use a computer-based empathy test and short questionnaires to investigate whether empathy changes during the course of BPD, and if the severity of empathy impairments correlate with severity. The tests are the multifaceted empathy test (MET) and the questionnaire of cognitive and affective empathy (QCAE). The MET requires participants to look at photographs of emotive faces, then choose the most appropriate adjective. It takes 30 minutes to complete. The QCAE asks 31 questions like 'it is hard for me to see why some things upset people'. Participants will be invited to join the study when they are diagnosed with BPD. Severity will be measured with the Borderline Symptom List 23, a disability questionnaire, and the number of self-harming episodes per month, the number of hospital assessments per month and the number of hospital admissions per month. Short NHS questionnaires of anxiety, depression and mood will also be completed, along with short reading test. About 30 participants will be assessed 4 times over 2 years.

Conditions

Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder, Borderline Type

Keywords

Cognitive empathy; Emotional empathy; Multifaceted empathy test

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Do empathy scores correlate significantly with emotionally unstable personality disorder syndrome severity?

  Spearman's correlation-coefficient will be used to analyse any correlation between empathy scores and syndrome severity. ANOVA will be used when multiple comparisons are made.

  3 years

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 65 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)
• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

General adult psychiatry patients aged 18 to 65 whose primary diagnosis is EUPD.

You may qualify if:

• General adult psychiatry patients aged 18 to 65
• Primary diagnosis is EUPD, as per ICD-11 criteria (World Health Organisation - International Classification of Diseases for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics)
• Able to speak and read English
• Able to provide informed consent

You may not qualify if:

• Comorbid psychosis or learning disability

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Edinburgh: lead

Study Sites (1)

NHS Lothian

Livingston, United Kingdom

Location

Study Design

• Study Type: observational
• Observational Model: COHORT
• Time Perspective: PROSPECTIVE
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: May 12, 2022
• First Posted: May 19, 2022
• Study Start: November 17, 2022
• Primary Completion: November 28, 2025
• Study Completion: November 28, 2025
• Last Updated: April 29, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-04

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

GB (1)