ABSTRACT
Twelve patients with borderline personality disorder and 15 healthy comparison subjects were challenged with single doses of oral m-chlorophenylpiperazine (m-CPP) and placebo. Following m-CPP, the patients experienced decreased anger and fear. Seven of the 12 patients reported a "spacy," "high," depersonalized/derealized experience following m-CPP, which was confirmed by clinicians' ratings. Compared with the normal male subjects, the male patients with borderline personality disorder had higher cortisol levels and marginally blunted prolactin responses after receiving m-CPP. These results suggest serotonergic dysfunction in borderline personality disorder.
Subject(s)
Borderline Personality Disorder/diagnosis , Piperazines , Receptors, Serotonin/drug effects , Serotonin/physiology , Administration, Oral , Adult , Anger/drug effects , Borderline Personality Disorder/physiopathology , Depersonalization/chemically induced , Fear/drug effects , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Piperazines/pharmacology , Placebos , Prolactin/blood , Receptors, Serotonin/physiologyABSTRACT
The authors observed 20 patients over time for mal-adaptive personality traits during hospitalization and made longitudinal diagnoses to validate Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID) assessments of personality disorders. The SCID assessments identified certain personality disorders better than others.
