Emotion Dysregulation in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder

Emotional dysregulation is a central topic of interest in many clinical studies. It plays a vital role in making or breaking interpersonal and interpersonal relationships in clinical populations as well as healthy controls. This study seeks to investigate the nature, intensity and extensity patterns of emotional regulation in patients diagnosed as major depression (N: 254) and borderline personality disorder (N: 69). By using a one-shot cross sectional purposive sample survey design, this hospital-based study targeted a random sample of subjects from both gender between 18-30 years. Following clinical interviews and diagnosis as per the chosen inclusion and exclusion criteria, participants were recruited based on ICD-10 criteria and after they secured a minimum cut-off score on McLean’s Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. The selected participants were administered Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Results show significantly high scores on emotion regulation in patients with borderline personality disorder than major depressive disorder (p:<0.05). These differences are maintained across all domains except for cognition mediated areas like ‘awareness’, ‘self-blame’, ‘acceptance’, ‘rumination’, and ‘positive refocusing’. Associated variables like genderand marital status appear to influence only some aspects of non-cognitive emotional dysregulation. The findings are discussed along with their implications for therapy in the context of cultural factors unique to Indian settings.