The role of dysregulated amygdalic emotion in borderline personality disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD), is a condition that has a high mortality and is associated with much distress for the sufferers as well as with difficult management problems for health professionals, Taking emotional dysregulation as the core feature of BPD, the authors propose that the disorder arises from impaired modulation of subcortical inputs to consciousness. We hypothesize that the amygdaloid complex, and its connections with thalamus, cingulate cortex and insular cortex are critical in the development and maintenance of the disorder. If this is the case, peptides such as galanin, somatostatin and cholecystokinin will be the most important neurotransmitters, thus explaining the relative lack of efficacy of standard antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs. (C) 2000 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.