Altered memory and affective instability in prisoners assessed for dangerous and severe personality disorder

Abstract

<jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>Previous studies of borderline personality disorder report neuropsychological impairments in several domains, including memory. No studies have compared memory functioning in high-risk prisoners with borderline personality disorder with similar prisoners with other personality disorders.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Aims</jats:title><jats:p>To explore mnemonic impairments in prisoners undergoing personality assessment as part of the dangerous and severe personality disorder initiative or detained in a medium secure facility.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Method</jats:title><jats:p>We investigated memory function in 18 prisoners with borderline personality disorder and 18 prisoners with other personality disorders.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>Prisoners with borderline personality disorder exhibited a pattern of multi-modal impairments in the immediate and delayed recall of verbal and visual information, with some association with affective instability. These deficits were not associated with the severity of personality disturbance.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>These data suggest that memory deficits have some specificity in relation to the constituent traits of borderline personality disorder and indicate that neuropsychological assessment may be a source of useful adjunctive information for distinguishing between the cognitive and psychological difficulties of individual prisoners.</jats:p></jats:sec>