Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40200359›Full record

ArticleBorderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation2025

Individual patterns and synchrony of heart rate variability in adolescent patients with borderline personality psychopathology and their mothers: a case-control study.

Katharina Williams, Anna Fuchs, Jana Kuehn, Leonie Fleck, Stefan Lerch, Marialuisa Cavelti, Julian Koenig, Michael Kaess

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Article in Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Katharina WilliamsDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Centre for Psychosocial Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
Anna FuchsDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Centre for Psychosocial Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
Jana KuehnDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Centre for Psychosocial Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
Leonie FleckDepartment of Public Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
Stefan LerchUniversity Hospital of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Marialuisa CaveltiUniversity Hospital of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Julian KoenigDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy for Children and Young Adults, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
Michael KaessDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Centre for Psychosocial Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany. michael.kaess@upd.ch.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0031-7764

Funding

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6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundIn adolescent Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), interactions with caregivers often provoke dysregulation. Vagally-mediated heart rate variability (HRV), a physiological marker of regulatory capacities, shows alterations in BPD. Studies on individual and dyadic HRV in adolescents with BPD (BPD-A) and their mothers (BPD-M) are lacking. We examined 1) individual resting state -, reactivity- and recovery- HRV, 2) intrapersonal concordance of interactional quality with HRV, 3) mother-adolescent interpersonal HRV-synchrony and 4) the association of interpersonal HRV-synchrony with behavioral synchrony in a case-control design.

methodsThirty-eight (sub)syndromal BPD-A and BPD-M were compared to 35 healthy control adolescents and their mothers (HC-A/-M). HRV was assessed during a positive interaction, a stress task and resting before and after interactions (recovery). Behavior during interactions was observed and coded using the "Coding Interactive Behavior"- Manual. Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling.

resultsBPD-A showed a lower resting HRV than HC-A, while no group differences were found for mothers. From resting to positive interaction, BPD-A/BPD-M/HC-M showed a significant increase in HRV; this increase was not significant for HC-A. HRV-reactivity to stress was not significant in either group but influenced by general emotional and behavioral problems within both adolescent samples. Significant intrapersonal concordance of HRV and behavior could only be found for HC-M during the positive interaction (positive association). For BPD-M, a complete disconnect between behavior and HRV was observed. BPD-dyads and dyads lower in behavioral synchrony displayed HRV-synchrony during stress, in HC-dyads and dyads higher in behavioral synchrony during rest after dyadic interactions.

conclusionsOur study is the first investigating altered HRV-reactivity, behavior-HRV-concordance and HRV-synchrony in adolescents with BPD traits and their mothers, adding new insight to physiological regulation and co-regulation in adolescent BPD pathology. Limitations and implications of these results are discussed.

Indexed as

AdolescentsBehavioral synchronyBPDHRVMother–child interactionPhysiological synchrony

Identifiers

PMID40200359
PMCPMC11980296

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.