The Role of Cognitive Deficits in Emotional Dysregulation: a Study on a Simple of Patients from Psychiatric Rehabilitation Communities

Emotional dysregulation is a common feature across various psychiatric disorders, including personality disorders, mood disorders, substance use disorders, and schizophrenia. It manifests through difficulties in emotion modulation, which can lead to impulsive behaviors, exaggerated emotional reactions, and poor management of negative emotions. Cognitive deficits, particularly those related to executive functions such as inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility, play a crucial role in this process, contributing to a higher vulnerability to emotional dysregulation. This paper focuses on the role cognitive deficits may have in emotional dysregulation. The sample will include both psychiatric patients and offenders undergoing therapeutic rehabilitation in community settings.

In our observational study, fifty-nine psychiatric inpatients (total mean age: 45.3910.93), distributed by age, gender, and legal provision (offenders and non-offenders) were recruited in several psychiatric rehabilitation centers located in South Italy. We used Aberrant Salience Inventory (ASI), Barrat Impulsiveness Scale Version 11 (BIS-11), Historical-Clinical-Risk Management-20, Version 3 (HCR-20^V3), Brief Psychiatric Research Symptoms (BPRS), Verbal fluency tests (VFT) Estimated IQ Short Intelligence Test (T.I.B.), World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0. (WHODAS 2.0).

The results highlighted higher impulsivity levels in offenders associated with higher scores on the cognitive performance scales.

Cognitive deficits are a significant contributor to emotional dysregulation in psychiatric patients, particularly in offender psychiatric patients.