Increased Prevalence of Intermittent Rhythmic Delta or Theta Activity (IRDA/IRTA) in the Electroencephalograms (EEGs) of Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder

Tebartz van Elst, Ludger and Fleck, Max and Bartels, Susanne and Altenmüller, Dirk-Matthias and Riedel, Andreas and Bubl, Emanuel and Matthies, Swantje and Feige, Bernd and Perlov, Evgeniy and Endres, Dominique (2016) Increased Prevalence of Intermittent Rhythmic Delta or Theta Activity (IRDA/IRTA) in the Electroencephalograms (EEGs) of Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 10. ISSN 1662-5153

[thumbnail of pubmed-zip/versions/1/package-entries/fnbeh-10-00012/fnbeh-10-00012.pdf] Text
pubmed-zip/versions/1/package-entries/fnbeh-10-00012/fnbeh-10-00012.pdf - Published Version

Download (1MB)

Abstract

Introduction: An increased prevalence of pathological electroencephalography (EEG) signals has been reported in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). In an elaborative case description of such a patient with intermittent rhythmic delta and theta activity (IRDA/IRTA), the BPD symptoms where linked to the frequency of the IRDAs/IRTAs and vanished with the IRDAs/IRTAs following anticonvulsive therapy. This observation raised a question regarding the prevalence of such EEG abnormalities in BPD patients. The aim of this retrospective study was to identify the frequency of EEG abnormalities in a carefully analyzed psychiatric collective. Following earlier reports, we hypothesized an increased prevalence of EEG abnormalities in BPD patients.

Participants and Methods: We recruited 96 consecutive patients with BPD from the archive of a university clinic for psychiatry and psychotherapy, and compared the prevalence of EEG abnormalities to those of 76 healthy controls subjects. The EEGs were rated by three different blinded clinicians, including a consultant specializing in epilepsy from the local epilepsy center.

Results: We found a significant increase in the prevalence of IRDAs and IRTAs in BPD patients (14.6%) compared to the control subjects (3.9%; p = 0.020).

Discussion: In this blinded retrospective case-control study, we were able to confirm an increased prevalence of pathological EEG findings (IRDAs/IRTAs only) in BPD patients. The major limitation of this study is that the control group was not matched on age and gender. Therefore, the results should be regarded as preliminary findings of an open uncontrolled, retrospective study. Future research performing prospective, controlled studies is needed to verify our findings and answer the question of whether such EEG findings might predict a positive response to anticonvulsive pharmacological treatment.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: STM Article > Biological Science
Depositing User: Unnamed user with email support@stmarticle.org
Date Deposited: 24 Feb 2023 07:31
Last Modified: 17 Jul 2024 07:48
URI: http://publish.journalgazett.co.in/id/eprint/597

Actions (login required)

View Item
View Item