Abstract

Background: Individuals having borderline personality disorder (BPD) show impulsive behaviors, intense and unstable emotional regulation with a disturbance in interpersonal relations and unstable sense of self. Studies show that emotional processes can influence various neuro-cognitive functions such as information processing and Decision making. However, there is a dearth of studies examining the role of these processes in BPD. This study aimed to examine the emotional biases of cognitive processes and decision-making ability of patients with BPD. Materials and methods: A sample of 40 adult individuals (20 BPD patients and 20 nonpsychiatric controls), males and females, were selected. They were assessed using the emotional stroop test (EST) and the Iowa gambling task (IGT). Results: Findings indicated that though the study group had an overall slow information processing and poor response inhibition, they had greater emotional biases towards stimuli laden with negative affect which was reflected as greater interference on the negative EST. Findings from the IGT indicated impulsivity and poor decision-making ability in the study group. Further analysis revealed that the study group had slow feedback utilization. Conclusion: From the present study, it can be concluded that individuals with BPD do have certain deficits in cognitiveemotional processing.

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