hello this is dr. grande today's
question is what are the causes and risk
factors for borderline personality
disorder now whenever we talk about
causation and mental health disorders
that is etiology of mental health
disorders it becomes a tricky area
because we really don't know what causes
mental health disorders including
borderline personality disorder
but we do know that there are certain
factors that are strongly associated
with the development of person I
disorder and we believe that some of
these are likely to be causal as is the
case with any mental health disorder we
believe that with borderline personality
disorder it's a number of factors that
come together that lead to that
personality disorder a person could have
all of the factors that we believe are
associated with borderline personality
disorder and not develop the personality
disorder they could also have none of
the factors and develop it so again
whenever we talk about causality and
mental health disorders we have to
exercise caution
so when referring specifically to
borderline personality disorder we
believe there could be many causal
elements contributors and risk factors
the first would be genetics we know that
someone has a first-degree relative who
has borderline personality disorder
there are five times more likely to
develop borderline personality disorder
also we get a lot of good information
from twin studies and with twin studies
tell us about borderline personality
disorder is that if one of the twins has
borderline personality sorter there is a
66% chance the other twin will develop
the disorder as well so there appears to
be a fairly strong genetic component to
the development of borderline
personality disorder another area would
be neurobiology so the structure and
function of the brain and there are a
lot of different studies in this area
specifically with personality disorders
including borderline personalities order
when we look at borderline personality
disorder in terms of brain scans we see
unusual activity in the hippocampus and
the orbital frontal cortex and the
the hippocampus is an area the brain
that regulates behavior the
orbitofrontal cortex
allows a person to make decisions and
aids and decision-making and the
amygdala of course regulates emotions in
the area of neurobiology and borderline
personality disorder we also see
irregularities with neurotransmitters
including serotonin and dopamine now
whenever we talk about the structure and
function of the brain and
neurotransmitters in terms of borderline
personality disorder it's important to
note that we're not sure in all of these
studies if those changes cause
borderline personality disorder or if
borderline personality disorder caused
those changes it could be in a number of
instances that through the development
of borderline personality these changes
in the brain occur and these
neurotransmitters appear at different
levels another area of potential
causation and risk factors is the
environment and we believe that there
are a lot of elements that are
associated with borderline personality
disorder that likely do have some
causative role one of these major
elements is abuse and we see this with a
number of people that suffer from
borderline personality or particularly
common would be emotional and physical
abuse and even more common than those is
sexual abuse it's estimated at about 70
to 75 percent of individuals with
borderline personality experience sexual
abuse in their childhood the evidence
also suggests that verbal abuse can have
a significant impact there are studies
that show that if an individual was
verbally abused there are three times
more likely to develop borderline
personality
as well as narcissistic personality
disorder obsessive-compulsive
personality disorder and paranoid
personality disorder we also know that
neglect and abandonment are associated
with the development of borderline
personality sweater if an individual is
separated from a parent this early
parental loss whether it's through death
or divorce or some other factor is
associated with a higher risk of
developing borderline personality
disorder other factors related to the
family
include unstable family relationships
being exposed to a high degree of
conflict or hostility and being exposed
to inconsistent parenting so we look at
all these factors we have genetic
factors neurobiological factors and
environmental factors that all come
together in a way we believe to cause
the development of borderline
personality disorder again we don't
really know what causes it these are
just factors that we find associated
with borderline personality or der it's
also worth noting that some of these
factors like abuse neglect and
abandonment are not only associated with
the development of borderline
personality
and other personality disorders but also
mental health disorders that aren't
person I disorders so we know that abuse
specifically seems to be linked to a
number of mental health disorders so we
believe it could be ideological and we
know certainly that it's at least a risk
factor I hope you found this description
of the causes and risk factors of
borderline personality disorder to be
interesting thanks for watching