Autistic traits in borderline personality Disorder: Relationship to interpersonal traumatic experiences

Abstract

Introduction: Detecting autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) traits in BPD patients is challenging due to overlapping symptoms such as impulsivity, emotion instability, self-injury behavior and interpersonal difficulties. Theory of mind impairments and other ASD features may increase vulnerability to interpersonal trauma and therefore to BPD symptoms. This study examines ASD traits in BPD patients and their impact on interpersonal trauma exposure. Method: 65 BPD patients and 40 controls were assessed using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ 10) and the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS-2). Interpersonal traumatic experiences were also collected (physical abuse in childhood, sexual abuse in childhood, rape in adulthood, school bullying and mobbing). ASD scores were compared between patients and controls through a t-test for mean difference. The sex variable was controlled using ANCOVA. Finally, the relationship between ASD scores and interpersonal trauma was analyzed by using linear regression analysis. Results: Patients with BPD had higher ASD scores for both the AQ-10 (p < .04) and the SRS-2 (p < .001) than the control group. In the BPD group, ASD features were significant predictors for reporting interpersonal trauma experiences (p < .001). Conclusions: ASD traits are significantly present in BPD patients than in healthy subjects and are associated with the intensity of interpersonal trauma in BPD. According to these results, the clinical relevance of ASD traits in developing BPD and in the clinical manifestations of the disorder should be further investigated in greater samples.