Oxytocin Improves Empathy in Women With Borderline Personality Disorder

Oxytocin —a hormone that facilitates social bonding in animals—can improve empathy in women with borderline personality disorder (BPD), according to astudy inTranslational Psychiatry. Oxytocin was also associated with an increased desire to become emotionally close to someone.“BPD patients often report problems establishing and maintaining stable relationships to significant others,” wrote Gregor Domes, Ph.D., of the University of Freiburg, Germany, and colleagues. “Their relationships are characterized by a pervasive fear of abandonment, anxiousness, mistrust, and conflicts, which can culminate in hostile and impulsive behavior.”Domes and colleagues randomized 51 adult women with BPD and 51 age-matched women without BPD to receive either intranasal oxytocin or placebo 45 minutes prior to completing empathy assessments.Women with BPD who received placebo scored significantly lower on tests measuring emotional empathy (feeling someone else ’s pain), cognitive empathy (understanding someone else’s pain), and approach motivation than women in the control group taking placebo. Women with BPD were especially less responsive to positive emotions (pride, joy) than negative ones (sorrow, depression).“It appears that BPD patients more easily empathize with people in aversive situations or in distress, while it is difficult for them to be empathic with people in positive social situations,” Domes and colleagues wrote. “This pattern is plausible, as negative e...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: approach motivation borderline personality disorder BPD empathy interpersonal relationship intranasal spray oxytocin randomized controlled trial Translational Psychiatry Source Type: research