M-CHLOROPHENYLPIPERAZINE CHALLENGE IN BORDERLINE PERSONALITY-DISORDER- RELATIONSHIP OF NEUROENDOCRINE RESPONSE, BEHAVIORAL-RESPONSE, AND CLINICAL MEASURES

We have previously found that a subgroup of patients with impulsive pe rsonality disorders respond to m-chlorophenylpiperazine (m-CPP) admini stration with a distinctive spacy/high behavioral reaction and with in creased cortisol responses. In this report we analyzed the relationshi p between behavioral and neuroendocrine responses to m-CPP in an enlar ged sample of patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). We also assessed the association of behavioral and neuroendocrine respons es with clinical symptoms and with m-CPP blood levels. We found that i n BPD patients the presence of a spacy/high behavioral response was si gnificantly associated with increased prolactin and cortisol responses to m-CPP. In BPD patients increased m-CPP levels were significantly a ssociated with neuroendocrine hypersensitivity and with a spacy/high b ehavioral response, while in controls increased m-CPP levels were not significantly associated with neuroendocrine hypersensitivity but were significantly associated with dysphoric behavioral responses. Taken t ogether with previous work on m-CPP in obsessive-compulsive disorder, these results are partially consistent with the hypothesis that compul sive and impulsive symptoms fall at opposite ends of a phenomenologic and neurobiologic spectrum.