The British Journal of Psychiatry (2009) 195: 325-330. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.108.060624
© 2009 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
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How mothers with borderline personality disorder relate to their year-old infants

R. Peter Hobson, FRCPsych, Matthew P.H. Patrick, MRCPsych and Jessica A. Hobson, PhD

Developmental Psychopathology Research Unit, Tavistock Clinic and Institute of Child Health, University College, London, UK

Lisa Crandell, PhD

Turin, Italy

Elisa Bronfman, PhD

Department of Psychiatry, Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

Karlen Lyons-Ruth, PhD

Department of Psychiatry, Cambridge Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

Correspondence: Professor R. Peter Hobson, Tavistock Clinic, 120 Belsize Lane, London NW3 5BA, UK. Email: r.hobson{at}ucl.ac.uk

Declaration of interest

None.

Background

Women with borderline personality disorder have conflictual interpersonal relations that may extend to disrupted patterns of interaction with their infants.

Aims

To assess how women with borderline personality disorder engage with their 12 to 18-month-old infants in separation–reunion episodes.

Method

We videotaped mother–infant interactions in separation–reunion episodes of the Strange Situation test. The mothers were women with borderline personality disorder, with depression, or without psychopathological disorder. Masked ratings of maternal behaviour were made with the Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification.

Results

As predicted, a higher proportion (85%) of women with borderline personality disorder than women in the comparison groups showed disrupted affective communication with their infants. They were also distinguished by the prevalence of frightened/disoriented behaviour.

Conclusions

Maternal borderline personality disorder is associated with dysregulated mother–infant communication.


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