The relationship between non-suicidal self-injury and alexithymia in borderline personality disorder: “Actions instead of words”

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious mental illness that centers on the inability to effectively regulate emotions. A large amount of BPD patients engage in non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). Given the NSSI contributes to serious health risks, it is important to know why some BPD patients engage in NSSI and others do not. A possible associated factor of NSSI in BPD may be alexithymia, which reflects difficulties in identifying and communicating feelings. Therefore the aim of the present study was to investigate whether NSSI was associated with alexithymia and whether this association still stood when controlling for gender and depression.
Source: Comprehensive Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Source Type: research