Hypervigilance in borderline disorder: A test with the emotional Stroop paradigm

The hypothesis of cognitive theories of hypervigilance for signs of danger in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) was tested with the emotional Stro op task. BPD patients (n = 15), Cluster C personality disorder (PD) patient s (n = 12), and nonpatient controls (n = 15) diagnosed with SCID-I and SCID -II interviews color-named emotional and nonemotional words presented in th ree colors on a personal computer screen, first in a subliminal condition ( words presented for a very short, individually calibrated time followed by a mask to prevent conscious recognition of the word) and then in a supralim inal condition. Four classes of negative words were used, including three c lasses of BPD-specific words (negative views of others, sexual abuse-relate d words, negative self-descriptors) and one class of general negative words that was unrelated to BPD pathology. In contrast to the nonpatient control s, both BPD and Cluster C patients showed interference caused by supralimin ally presented emotional words. There was no difference between the clinica l groups and there was no evidence for specificity of the effect for certai n stimulus classes. The subliminal Stroop failed to yield any significant e ffect. Results are interpreted as evidence for the presence of a relatively crude hypervigilance for any emotionally negative stimulus in both BPD and Cluster C PDs.