ArticleBorderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation2021
Understanding chronic feelings of emptiness in borderline personality disorder: a qualitative study.
Article in Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- Boredom in Psychiatric Disorders: Another Dimensional Construct?Brain and behavior · 2026Review
- "I feel like so much more of myself": The experience of modifying appearance in borderline personality disorder.Personality disorders · 2026Article
- Making a case for using MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for borderline personality disorder and complex PTSD: a descriptive systematic review of the literature.Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Enhancing psychiatry education: effectiveness of a psychodynamic psychotherapy module for borderline personality disorder for psychiatry residents.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Integrating autonomic and affective pathways in borderline personality disorder: the triangle therapy hypothesis.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Reliability, validity, and screening performance of the Chinese version of the McLean Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder in a psychiatric clinical sample.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Meaning in life, emptiness and depression among adolescents: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in child and adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- Review
- Exploring Symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder in People With Affective Disorders: A Network Analysis.Alpha psychiatry · 2025Article
- Practice Assessment Tool for the Care of Patients With Borderline Personality Disorder.Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing) · 2025Article
- The urge to fill the void: Emptiness, impulsivity, and mentalizing in the daily life of individuals with borderline personality disorder.Personality disorders · 2025Article
- The Path to Loneliness for Psychiatric Patients: A Qualitative Study of a Journey Marked by Pain, Hopelessness, Prosocial Signaling Deficits, and Coping Strategies That Are Not Effective.Scandinavian journal of psychology · 2025Article
- Investigating the psychometric properties of the Persian version of Psychological Emptiness Scale (PES) among nursing students.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Emptiness in patients with borderline personality disorder: Severity and predictors of outcome over 24 years of prospective follow-up.Journal of affective disorders · 2025Article
- The Relationship Between Feelings of Emptiness and Self-Harm Among Thai Patients Exhibiting Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms: The Mediating Role of the Inner Strengths.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Article
- Facilitation of constructive intra- and inter-personal relationships: A concept analysis.Health SA = SA Gesondheid · 2024Article
- How people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder experience relationships to oneself and to others. A qualitative in-depth study.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2023Article
- Employment interventions to assist people who experience borderline personality disorder: A scoping review.The International journal of social psychiatry · 2023Article
- Understanding Patients' Experiences with Borderline Personality Disorder: Qualitative Interviews.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2023Article
- Trajectories of adaptive and disturbed identity dimensions in adolescence: developmental associations with self-esteem, resilience, symptoms of depression, and borderline personality disorder features.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundChronic feelings of emptiness are significant in the lives of people with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Feelings of emptiness have been linked to impulsivity, self-harm, suicidal behaviour and impaired psychosocial function. This study aimed to understand the experience of chronic emptiness, the cognitions, emotions and behaviours linked to emptiness, and clarify the differences between chronic emptiness and hopelessness, loneliness and depression.
methodsThis study interviewed people (n = 15) with BPD and used a template analysis qualitative approach to understand their experiences of chronic feelings of emptiness.
resultsChronic feelings of emptiness were experienced as a feeling of disconnection from both self and others, and a sense of numbness and nothingness which was frequent and reduced functional capacity. Feelings of purposelessness and unfulfillment were closely associated with emptiness, and most participants experienced emptiness as distressing. Responses to feelings of emptiness varied, with participants largely engaging in either impulsive strategies to tolerate feelings of emptiness or distracting by using adaptive behaviours. Most participants distinguished chronic feelings of emptiness from loneliness, hopelessness, dissociation, and depression.
conclusionsFeelings of chronic emptiness are an important and challenging symptom of BPD which require clinical intervention. Strengthening identity, sense of purpose and vocational and relationship functioning may reduce the intensity of emptiness.
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