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Behavioral Assessment of Mindfulness Difficulties in Borderline Personality Disorder

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Abstract

Although mindfulness plays an important role in the treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD), few studies have investigated whether individuals with BPD show difficulties in mindfulness. Those studies have relied exclusively on questionnaire data. Here, we used a more objective, behavioral assessment of mindfulness difficulties in BPD that allowed us to distinguish difficulties in mindfulness, prolonged mind-wandering, and difficulties in awareness of mind-wandering. Twenty-five individuals with BPD and 28 healthy controls performed two mindful breathing tasks. Frequency of mindfulness versus mind-wandering was assessed in the experimenter-prompted mindfulness task, where participants were interrupted at random intervals and asked whether they had just been mindful or mind-wandering. Awareness of mind-wandering was assessed in the self-prompted mindfulness task, where participants were asked to press a computer key whenever they noticed mind-wandering. Length of mind-wandering was assessed in both tasks. In individuals with BPD, we found a lower frequency of mindful episodes. In addition, individuals with BPD indicated longer mind-wandering episodes in the experimenter-prompted task. However, individuals with BPD detected mind-wandering episodes as accurately as healthy controls in the self-prompted task. Finally, difficulties in mindfulness observed in the behavioral tasks positively correlated with participants’ reports of mindfulness difficulties in everyday life. Using behavioral tasks to specify difficulties in mindfulness in BPD, this study indicated that although individuals with BPD mind-wander longer and more often, their awareness of mind-wandering appear unaffected. This indicates that mindfulness difficulties can be reported by individuals with BPD and that therapists can build on this awareness through mindfulness-based treatments of BPD.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank A. Stippl, S. Heinrich (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and A. Daniels (Freie Universität Berlin) for assisting with participant recruitment and data collection and M. LaRue for manuscript editing.

Funding

The study was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG BE 2611/2-1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099, Berlin, Germany

    Hannah J. Scheibner & Felix Bermpohl

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany

    Stefanie Spengler & Felix Bermpohl

  3. Department of Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany

    Phillipp Kanske

  4. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Berlin, Germany

    Stefan Roepke

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  1. Hannah J. Scheibner
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  2. Stefanie Spengler
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Correspondence to Hannah J. Scheibner.

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Scheibner, H.J., Spengler, S., Kanske, P. et al. Behavioral Assessment of Mindfulness Difficulties in Borderline Personality Disorder. Mindfulness 7, 1316–1326 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-016-0572-2

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