Cognitive changes in the elderly with borderline personality disorder

Abstract

The objective was to conduct a neuropsychological examination in individuals over the age of 60 with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder and then compare the results with a group of people of the same age that did not have any psychiatric symptoms diagnosed. They are individuals whose cognitive symptoms go easily unnoticed for the most part of their lives.

Descriptive and transversal  type research. The design is quasi-experimental and the unit of analysis is based on elderly people (between the ages of 60 and 75). This is a cross-sectional study. The sample consisted of 105 cases: 55 control cases, 45 diagnosed cases such as Borderline Personality Disorder. Demographic variables were taken into account: age, gender and years of schooling. The presence or absence of dementia was evaluated by the Folstein Mini –mental Test. (MMSE).  To define the diagnosis of BPD, the interview and clinical history were taken into account. Also, the diagnostic self-assessment questionnaire for borderline patients was used: The Bordeline Questionnaire 87. Neuropsychological tests were used to evaluate memory, variable of attention and executive functions in people. This work is part of a major investigation initiated in 2012 and approved by the H.N. Ethics Committee. C Register 072/11.

Significant alterations were found in the cognitive functions analyzed that exceeded what was excepted in a normal aging. In the Folstein mini mental test, the elderly people examined obtained a score of 10 and 20 (mild or moderate dementia). The analysis of the variance indicated lower scores in memory tests, in all their different types. The major differences were found in variable of attention tests and executive functions.

The BPD (Borderline personality disorder) presents a pattern of neurocognitive alterations in variable of attention tests and executive functions that suggests a specific affectation in prefrontal areas. In individuals with borderline personality disorder, when they reach the vital stage analyzed, they have a significant cognitive-emotional deterioration that also exceeds what was described in the concept of “pseudo-dementia” due to the degree of disability this disorder produces and the irreversibility of the symptoms