Etween borderline personality disorder and childhood trauma

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EARLY TRAUMA AND BPD
The Relationship Between Borderline Personality Disorder and Childhood Trauma
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EARLY TRAUMA AND BPD
Abstract
Abuse in childhood is repeatedly linked to borderline personality disorder (BPD). Current
research suggests that forms of childhood trauma may be associated significantly with BPD.
Additionally, issues in emotion control have been associated with child maltreatment and BPD
symptoms. This research evaluated whether the intensity of childhood trauma is specifically
connected with the severity of BPD symptoms. According to study reports, the occurrence of
psychological abuse in childhood was specifically connected to the seriousness of BPD
symptoms. In addition, although there was no clear connection between psychological abuse,
physical violence, or sexual assault in childhood and BPD symptoms, there has been an oblique
link via deficits in emotion regulation between psychological abuse in childhood and BPD
symptoms. These findings suggest that emotional abuse plays a formative role in developing
BPD disorder among the many different types of childhood maltreatment. The supply of emotion
management tools may be advantageous to preventing and treating BPD disorder.
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The Relationship Between Borderline Personality Disorder and Childhood Trauma
Childhood trauma is defined as the encounter of an emotionally devastating or distressing
incident by a child, which results in lengthy physical and mental effects. Borderline personality
disorder (BPD) is a mental issue that impacts how you view yourself in relation to the world
around you, resulting in difficulties with day-to-day functioning. BPD is the most prevalent
psychological condition in clinical settings and has significant personal and societal
consequences. Given the severity of BPD’s effects, it is essential to understand its risk factors to
develop effective preventive and therapeutic measures. This study will examine the literature
reviews conducted on the connection Between Childhood Trauma and BDP to determine
whether the researchers agreed or disagreed. It will also discuss any new material offered by the
studies.
Findings of Other Research Studies
According to the research, there is a strong link between BPD and childhood trauma.
There was a notably high effect when including emotional abuse and neglect when looking at
BPD and elevated rates of all included categories of trauma, as revealed by additional analyses.
Meta-analyses discovered that BPD patients are more likely to report childhood trauma than
patients with mood disorders, psychosis, and other personality disorders.
The result that persons with a BPD diagnosis were almost 13 significantly more likely to
report childhood trauma than non-clinical subjects is consistent with the well-established clinical
narrative associating childhood trauma and BPD ( Graybar et al., 2002). It is hypothesized that
children’s emotional invalidation by caregivers reduces a child’s opportunities to learn how to
encounter and manage various emotional states. Similarly, psychoanalytic theories emphasize the
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crucial role of early experiences and caregiver connections in the formation of implicit emotion
and motivation regulating systems (Bradley R et al., 2005)
According to a recent study, it was predicted that the combination between childhood
trauma and behavioral features might be related to the intensity of BPD. In this respect, they
evaluated the ego history of trauma, psychological and biological temperamental characteristics,
and the intensity of Behavior problems among 130 BPD patients. According to the data, only a
connection was discovered between childhood trauma and sociability. In addition, the
relationship between high levels of neuroticism and anxiety and the existence of serious
psychological maltreatment was related to the severity of the condition (Martin-Blanco et al.,
2014).
Notably, numerous studies have recorded epigenetic changes in the BDNF gene in
patients with Bipolar disorder, proposing that childhood trauma in BPD patients could indeed
result in long-lasting epigenetic modifications of genetic makeup vitally involved in brain
operations and neurogenesis, such as BDNF, and that these adjustments may result in an
increased propensity to advance BPD pathology.
Overall, these findings provide credence to the notion that childhood trauma may be
associated with abnormalities in the BDNF epigenetic signature, which may, in turn, lead to the
alteration of cognitive abilities in BPD patients. Indeed, increased gene methylation is frequently
associated with lower expression of genes. Consequently, increased BDNF mutation levels
should be associated with decreased BDNF gene expression and decreased BDNF mRNA levels
are commonly reported in persons with severe mental illness (Polyakova M et al .,2014).
Do They Agree?
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Indeed, they did. These findings indicate a strong relationship between borderline
personality disorder and a claimed history of childhood trauma. The overwhelming majority of
borderline respondents described a similar past. Although some individuals with closely linked
disorders also recorded maltreatment experiences, they were less frequent and progressively less
severe. As indicated by extremely high trauma scores, early childhood experiences of assault and
multiple childhood trauma experiences were almost always observed in borderline cases.
What new information did the studies provide?
More recently, the classification of CPTSD (complex post-traumatic stress disorder)
reveals some overlap with BPD, including dissociative symptoms, emotional dysregulation, and
self and relational problems (Brewin CR et al.,2017). Prolonged premature traumatic events
commonly result in more widespread illnesses than basic PTSD, including insecure attachment
and emotion regulation impairments. Trauma can have behavioral, emotional, physiological, and
neuroanatomical consequences. Assaults induce hypervigilance states that can impair the ability
to judge relationships and situations accurately. Trauma victims typically experience later
stresses as a recurrence of the early traumatic experiences they encountered. (Bozzatello et al.,
2021)
This evidence demonstrates a relationship between Borderline Personality Disorder and
Childhood Trauma. Child maltreatment affects the abilities required to develop secure and longlasting interpersonal connections. It also reveals that changes in the interaction with other
children and primary figures or severely stressful circumstances can stimulate the Hypothalamichypophyseal axis, releasing and activating several brain-affecting mechanisms.
Based on the findings above, we can conclude that childhood traumatic experiences can
contribute to BPD onset at a young age. The available evidence revealed that childhood trauma
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EARLY TRAUMA AND BPD
by abuse, neglect, and bullies describe those at high risk for developing BPD. It has been argued
that early life stressful events, particularly pediatric trauma, significantly effect brain growth
through genetic pathways. Although a complicated interaction between BPD, initial stressful
adversity, and epigenetic markers has been hypothesized, additional research is required to better
understand the involvement of genetic background and childhood trauma in the development of
BPD.
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References
Brewin, C. R., Cloitre, M., Hyland, P., Shevlin, M., Maercker, A., Bryant, R. A., … & Reed, G. M.
(2017). A review of current evidence regarding the ICD-11 proposals for diagnosing PTSD and
complex PTSD. Clinical psychology review, 58, 1-15.
Bozzatello, P., Rocca, P., Baldassarri, L., Bosia, M., & Bellino, S. (2021). The Role of Trauma in Early
Onset Borderline Personality Disorder: A Biopsychosocial Perspective. Frontiers in
Psychiatry, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.721361
Bradley, R., & Westen, D. (2005). The psychodynamics of borderline personality disorder: A view from
developmental psychopathology. Development and psychopathology, 17(4), 927-957.
Graybar, S. R., & Boutilier, L. R. (2002). Nontraumatic pathways to borderline personality
disorder. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 39(2), 152.
Martín-Blanco, A., Soler, J., Villalta, L., Feliu-Soler, A., Elices, M., Pérez, V., … & Pascual, J. C.
(2014). Exploring the interaction between childhood maltreatment and temperamental traits on
the severity of borderline personality disorder. Comprehensive psychiatry, 55(2), 311-318.
Polyakova, M., Stuke, K., Schuemberg, K., Mueller, K., Schoenknecht, P., & Schroeter, M. L. (2015).
BDNF as a biomarker for successful treatment of mood disorders: a systematic & quantitative
meta-analysis. Journal of affective disorders, 174, 432-440.
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