Variations of emotion dysregulation in borderline personality disorder: a latent profile analysis approach with adult psychiatric inpatients

BACKGROUND: The purpose of the present study was to identify variations in emotional dysregulation patterns among adults diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD), with an eye toward implications for treatment. METHODS: Latent profile analysis (LPA) was utilized to classify 156 inpatients with BPD, based on patterns of Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Gratz and Roemer, J Psychopathol Behav Assess 26: 41-54, 2004) subscale scores. RESULTS: Results revealed that a three class solution best fit the sample (Low Impairment, Global Dysregulation, and Emotionally Aware). Further analysis of the classes at admission revealed that the Global Dysregulation group reported significantly higher suicidal ideation than either the Low Impairment or Emotionally Aware groups, and that the Global Dysregulation group reported significantly higher functional impairment than the Low Impairment group. CONCLUSIONS: All three groups improved greatly over the course of hospital treatment, although they remained distinguishable at discharge, retaining their positions symptomatically relative to one another. Limitations, implications, and future directions are discussed. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40479-017-0068-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.