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01-02-2020 | Borderline Personality Disorder | Original Contribution

QTc dispersion and interval changes in drug-free borderline personality disorder adolescents

Authors: Monica Bomba, Franco Nicosia, Anna Riva, Fabiola Corbetta, Elisa Conti, Francesca Lanfranconi, Lucio Tremolizzo, Renata Nacinovich

Published in: European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry | Issue 2/2020

Abstract

Emotional instability and dysregulation represent a core feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and abnormal patterns of sympathetic/parasympathetic activity have been repeatedly investigated in individuals with this disorder. Such abnormalities may represent the substrate for an arrhythmogenic risk that could materialize the following specific drug exposure. In this work, we decided to assess basal-corrected QT interval and dispersion (QTc and QTcd) for estimating such risk in a sample of drug-free adolescents with diagnosis of BPD. In this cross-sectional comparative study, we recruited n = 70 female adolescent BPD (14.7 ± 1.3 years), free of medications, alcohol or recreational drugs. Furthermore, n = 70 matched female healthy controls (CTRL, 14.6 ± 1.5 years) were enrolled. QTc and QTcd were manually assessed on a standard 12-lead ECG by a single experienced investigator who was unaware of clinical outcomes. QTcd was increased by 7 ms on average in BPD vs. CTRL (+ 18%, p = 0.03). QTc was decreased by about 15 ms on average in BPD vs. CTRL (p = 0.003). A mild correlation was found between QTc and QTcd in BPD (r = 0.25, p = 0.03) that was not present in CTRL. No correlation was found between either QTc or QTcd, and age in both groups. Mildly increased QTcd characterizes the cardiac activity regardless of drug exposure in female adolescents with BPD. This information may be of value to clinicians striving to use neuroleptic and antidepressant drugs with a lower risk of QTcd increase.

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Title: QTc dispersion and interval changes in drug-free borderline personality disorder adolescents
Authors: Monica Bomba
Franco Nicosia
Anna Riva
Fabiola Corbetta
Elisa Conti
Francesca Lanfranconi
Lucio Tremolizzo
Renata Nacinovich
Publication date: 01-02-2020
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Keywords: Borderline Personality Disorder
Electrocardiography
Electrocardiography
Published in: European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry / Issue 2/2020
Print ISSN: 1018-8827
Electronic ISSN: 1435-165X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-019-01343-3

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

QTc dispersion and interval changes in drug-free borderline personality disorder adolescents

Abstract

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Abstract

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