Volumes of the hippocampus and amygdala in patients with borderline personality disorder: a meta-analysis
Abstract
Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) often exhibit impulsive and aggressive behavior. The hippocampus and amygdala form part of the limbic system, which plays a central role in controlling such expressions of emotional reactivity. There are mixed results in the literature regarding whether patients with BPD have smaller hippocampal and amygdalar volume relative to healthy controls. To clarify the precise nature of these mixed results, we performed a meta-analysis to aggregate data on the size of the hippocampus and amygdala in patients with BPD. Seven publications involving six studies and a total of 104 patients with BPD and 122 healthy controls were included. A significantly smaller volume was found in both the right and left hippocampi and amygdala of patients with BPD compared to healthy controls. These findings raise the possibility that reduced hippocampal and amygdalar volumes are biological substrates of some symptoms of BPD.
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Many of these disorders involve hippocampal dysfunction.
“Many of these disorders involve hippocampal dysfunction (Amaral et al., 2008; Nunes et al., 2009; Sheline, 2011; Sigurdsson et al., 2010).”
From A map for social navigation in the human brain (2015) · cites this paper as Nunes et al., 2009
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Borderline personality disorder
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- Authors
- Nunes, P. M., Wenzel, A., Borges, K. T., Porto, C. R., Caminha, R. M., & de Oliveira, I. R.
- Affiliations
- Universidade Federal da Bahia (BR)
- Venue
- Journal of Personality Disorders
- Publisher
- Guilford Publications
- Published
- 2009-08
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 333-345
- ISSN
- 0885-579X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2011771510
- Cited by
- 183
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 26 · 2012: 19
- FWCI
- 11.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Personality Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Bipolar Disorder and Treatment
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending
- Keywords
- borderline personality disorder, hippocampus, amygdala, brain volume, limbic system, emotional reactivity, impulsivity, aggression, neuroanatomy
- MeSH terms
- Amygdala, Borderline Personality Disorder, Hippocampus, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Case-Control Studies
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