ArticleJournal of psychosomatic research2020
Exploring the links among borderline personality disorder symptoms, trauma, and pain in patients with chronic pain disorders.
Article in Journal of psychosomatic research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Chronic pain in mental disorders: An umbrella review of the prevalence, risk factors, and treatments across 957,168 people with mental disorders and 16,606,910 controls.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2025Pooled it
- A systematic review of personality and musculoskeletal disorders: evidence from general population studies.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Co-Occurring Trauma and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Among People With Chronic Pain: A Systematic Review.Current pain and headache reports · 2021Pooled it
- Screening for borderline personality disorder (BPD) in malaysia: a validation study of the McLean screening instrument for BPD.Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation · 2025Article
- Temporal Summation of Pain Unpleasantness Is Increased in Borderline Personality Disorder.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Article
- Article
- Perceived injustice in patients with chronic pain.BioPsychoSocial medicine · 2025Article
- Negative affect and pain catastrophizing link borderline personality disorder to pain: Replicating and extending the borderline personality disorder-pain association.Personality disorders · 2025Article
- Acute, Chronic, and Everyday Physical Pain in Borderline Personality Disorder.Current psychiatry reports · 2024Review
- Exploring the psychopathological profile of fibromyalgia: insights from the personality assessment inventory and its association with disease impact.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- What is the association between childhood adversity and subsequent chronic pain in adulthood? A systematic review.BJA open · 2023Review
- Vertebral fracture as a risk factor for self-harm: a retrospective cohort study.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2021Article
- Complex PTSD and borderline personality disorder.Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation · 2021Review
- Article
- Emotion Regulation, Physical Diseases, and Borderline Personality Disorders: Conceptual and Clinical Considerations.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Chronic Pain and Psychiatric Conditions.Complex psychiatryReview
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveChronic pain and borderline personality disorder (BPD) are commonly comorbid and jointly associated with increased symptoms of both disorders and clinical and functional impairment. Little is known, however, about specific links between these disorders. In a cross-sectional study of patients with chronic pain, we compared participants high or low on BPD symptoms on patterns of pain experience and types of child and adult traumas.
methodsAdults (N = 181) with chronic pain completed self-reports of pain severity, dimensions of pain experiencing, body coverage of pain, and clinical indicators of central sensitization (i.e., chronic hypersensitivity of the central nervous system), as well as measures of child and adult physical abuse, sexual abuse, trauma, and neglect. Participants also completed the McLean Screening Instrument for BPD.
resultsParticipants with clinically significant BPD symptoms (n = 32) reported more childhood sexual trauma, punishment, and neglect, as well as adult physical/sexual trauma, than those without elevated BPD symptoms. Among participants with clinically significant BPD symptoms, affective pain and central sensitization were elevated, potentially explained by heightened negative affect in BPD.
conclusionBPD symptoms are associated with increased clinical severity among patients with chronic pain as well as a unique manifestation of pain experiencing (i.e., increased affective pain and central sensitization in particular). Childhood trauma of all types is associated with chronic pain and BPD co-occurrence. Researchers and clinicians should assess for BPD in people with chronic pain to enhance conceptual models of the transaction between these disorders and to improve clinical care.
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