Emotional dysregulation is considered as a core feature of borderline personality disorders. Emotional dysregulation can express itself both as emotional instability (i.e. an inability to modulate affects than can become uncontrolled) or in terms of poor emotional awareness (i.e. emotional numbing, alexithymic features). Whereas the first dimension is closely related to symptoms, such as impulsivity, suicidal behaviours or inappropriate anger, the latter can be associated with dissociative experiences and chronic feeling of emptiness. Although both dimensions have been related to negative experiences during childhood, however, little is known about the specific developmental pathways leading to emotional instability or emotional awareness in borderline adolescents. In this presentation, we will show some data concerning the specific traumatic pathways observed in a sample of borderline adolescents issued from the European Network on borderline personality disorders.

Since the introduction of international psychiatric classification systems, systematic diagnostic methods have become available for personality disorders. Recent developments in the dimensional diagnostic approach of personality disorders have yielded relationships between this type of disorders and neurobiological processes including both monoaminergic and stress-hormonal systems. It is hypothesized that the pathogenesis of borderline personality disorders is related to an enhanced serotonergic tone in septo-hippocampal structures. Preliminary clinical data are suggestive for potential therapeutic effects of serotonin-modulating compounds in borderline personality disorders