The role of sense of coherence and loneliness in borderline personality disorder traits: a longitudinal twin study

Connecting loneliness with pathological personality traits: Evidence for genetic and environmental mediation from a study of older twins

Loneliness has broad public health importance, especially in older adulthood, and there is some evidence suggesting it is associated with several personality disorders (PDs). The etiology of these PD-loneliness associations, however, has rarely been studied, especially in the context of the maladaptive traits of the DSM-5 alternative model of personality disorder (AMPD). To address these limitations, we estimated phenotypic, genetic, and unique environmental associations between loneliness and maladaptive personality traits in a sample of older adults from the Minnesota Twin Registry (n = 1,356, Mage = 70.4). Loneliness was moderately to strongly associated with each of the AMPD domains of negative affect, detachment, antagonism, disinhibition, and psychoticism (r = .22-.58), with evidence of both genetic (rg = .45-.75) and unique environmental (re = .10-.48) influences explaining the associations to varying degrees. We argue that loneliness may be an underappreciated concomitant of personality pathology, with PD traits perhaps underlying its development. Indeed, these findings suggest that loneliness may be a manifestation of the genetic and environmental forces that also lead to pathological personality variation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Evidence for a shared genetic contribution to loneliness and borderline personality disorder

Loneliness, influenced by genetic and environmental factors such as childhood maltreatment, is one aspect of interpersonal dysfunction in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Numerous studies link loneliness and BPD and twin studies indicate a genetic contribution to this association. The aim of our study was to investigate whether genetic predisposition for loneliness and BPD risk overlap and whether genetic risk for loneliness contributes to higher loneliness reported by BPD patients, using genome-wide genotype data. We assessed the genetic correlation of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of loneliness and BPD using linkage disequilibrium score regression and tested whether a polygenic score for loneliness (loneliness-PGS) was associated with case-control status in two independent genotyped samples of BPD patients and healthy controls (HC; Witt2017-sample: 998 BPD, 1545 HC; KFO-sample: 187 BPD, 261 HC). In the KFO-sample, we examined associations of loneliness-PGS with reported loneliness, and whether the loneliness-PGS influenced the association between childhood maltreatment and loneliness. We found a genetic correlation between the GWAS of loneliness and BPD in the Witt2017-sample (rg = 0.23, p = 0.015), a positive association of loneliness-PGS with BPD case-control status (Witt2017-sample: NkR² = 2.3%, p = 2.7*10-12; KFO-sample: NkR² = 6.6%, p = 4.4*10-6), and a positive association between loneliness-PGS and loneliness across patient and control groups in the KFO-sample (β = 0.186, p = 0.002). The loneliness-PGS did not moderate the association between childhood maltreatment and loneliness in BPD. Our study is the first to use genome-wide genotype data to show that the genetic factors underlying variation in loneliness in the general population and the risk for BPD overlap. The loneliness-PGS was associated with reported loneliness. Further research is needed to investigate which genetic mechanisms and pathways are involved in this association and whether a genetic predisposition for loneliness contributes to BPD risk.

Psychometric properties of the Chinese Mandarin version of the Borderline Symptom List, short form (BSL-23) in suicidal adolescents

BACKGROUND

The short form of the Borderline Symptom List (BSL-23) is a self-rated instrument developed from the initial 95-item German version of the Borderline Symptom List (BSL-95). It is widely used among Chinese adults, but its applicability, factor structure and validity remain uncertain in adolescents. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Chinese Mandarin version of the BSL-23 in a sample of suicidal adolescents.

METHODS

The Chinese Mandarin BSL-23 was given to 279 outpatient adolescents with self-injurious thoughts or behaviors. The factor structure, reliability, convergent validity, criterion-related validity and cut-off value were investigated.

RESULTS

The Chinese Mandarin version of the BSL-23 demonstrated a one-factor structure and replicated the original version. The scale had high reliability and good test-retest stability. The Chinese Mandarin BSL-23 was correlated with depression, hopelessness, impulsivity, emotional dysregulation, self-esteem, loneliness, childhood trauma and parental bonding patterns evaluated with a variety of scales. The measure showed good criterion-related validity and predictive accuracy (AUC = 0.87) for self-injurious and suicidal adolescents with borderline personality disorder (BPD) at a cut-off point of 60/61 (mean score 2.60/2.65), with a sensitivity of 0.76 and specificity of 0.83.

CONCLUSIONS

The Chinese Mandarin version of the BSL-23 is a reliable and valid self-reported instrument to assess BPD symptomatology among suicidal adolescents.