(PS8-C70) The Impact of Emotional Reactivity on Emotion Regulation in Borderline Personality Disorder

Improving emotion regulation (ER) is central to borderline personality disorder (BPD) treatment, but it is unclear which ER strategies are optimally effective and when. Basic emotion science suggests that the effectiveness of engagement ER strategies decreases as emotional intensity increases, but the effectiveness of disengagement strategies do not. This study examined whether emotional reactivity to emotional stimuli predicts the effectiveness of engagement and disengagement across self-report, general physiologic (heart rate), sympathetic (skin conductance responses), and parasympathetic (respiratory sinus arrythmia) emotion in BPD, healthy, and clinical control (generalized anxiety disorder; GAD) groups. Participants were exposed to emotion inductions and then implemented engagement (mindful awareness) and disengagement (distraction) strategies while self-report and physiological emotion measurements were taken. In the BPD group, higher heart rate predicted improved mindful awareness effectiveness and higher skin conductance reactivity predicted worsened distraction effectiveness. Higher reactivity may potentiate engagement ER, and exacerbate disengagement from emotional content, in BPD. Future research should examine other domains of ER that may be influenced by emotional intensity, and other forms of emotional intensity that may influence them.