The Relationship Between Impulse Control, Emotional and Cognitive Regulation Mechanisms and Heart Rate Variability

The study aims to compare heart rate variability (HRV) in borderline personality disorder (BPD) with healthy individuals and to investigate the relationships between HRV parameters and impulsivity, emotion regulation, and neurocognitive performances.

Twenty-one female patients with the diagnosis of BPD and twenty healthy women were enrolled in this study. All participants were assessed by a structured clinical interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders and the Minnesota Impulse Control Disorder Interview Scale. They were asked to fill out a sociodemographic information form, a Borderline Personality Inventory, the Barratt Impulsivity Scale-11, the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale, and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. The trial-making test, the Wisconsin card sorting test, the verbal fluency test, the Stroop test-TABG form, and the continuous performance test were applied. Holter recordings were taken from the participants at rest and while they watched emotion-evoking videos, and HRV parameters were calculated.

While watching neutral and fear videos, the low-frequency band/ high-frequency band ratio (LF/HF) was found to be higher in the patient group compared to the control group, and no difference was found in the other parameters. A number of differences in terms of impulse control, affect regulation, and neurocognitive skills have been determined (p<0.05). However, there was no correlation between HRV and self-report scales and neurocognitive test scores.

Contrary to our hypothesis, HRV is found to be similar between BPD patients and healthy subjects. HRV was not associated with impulse control, affect regulation or cognitive functions.