Trastorno de la personalidad: un posible factor de riesgo para la demencia / Disorder of the personality: a possible factor of risk for the dementia

Objetivos. El hecho de que cada vez haya más personas que padezcan demencia hace que sea muy importante conocer los diferentes factores de riesgo para prevenir su aparición. El objetivo de este artículo es estudiar el trastorno de la personalidad como posible factor de riesgo para la aparición de un proceso demencial, y relacionar trastornos de la personalidad del Clúster B y demencia. Metodología. Se realizó una revisión sistemática y metaanálisis con literatura científica publicada hasta el año 2015. Resultados. Doce de los artículos que se encontraron cumplían con los criterios de selección y calidad especificados y estudian la relación entre un trastorno de personalidad y la aparición de una demencia. Aunque con los estudios hechos hasta el momento no se puede concluir que el primero sea un factor de riesgo para el segundo, sí que se ha podido observar, mediante técnicas de neuroimagen, que los pacientes con trastornos de personalidad del Clúster B desarrollan alteraciones en estructuras cerebrales (en la corteza prefrontal, temporal y/o parietal, además de una alteración en los niveles de N-acetil Aspartato y de sustancia gris) que también están implicadas en un proceso demencial. Conclusiones. En definitiva, los pacientes con historia clínica de trastorno límite o trastorno narcisista de la personalidad presentan más alteraciones en las estructuras cerebrales mencionadas, de tal manera que presentar este tipo de trastornos de la personalidad podría aumentar el riesgo de padecer demencia en un futuro

Objectives. The fact that more and more people suffer from dementia makes it very important to know the different risk factors to prevent their appearance. The objective of this article is to study personality disorder as a possible risk factor for the onset of an insane process, and to relate personality disorders of Cluster B and dementia. Methodology. A systematic review and meta-analysis was carried out with scientific literature published up to 2015. Results. Twelve of the articles that we found met the specified criteria of selection and quality and study the relationship between a personality disorder and the emergence of a dementia. Although with the studies made so far it can’t be concluded that the first one is a risk factor for the second one, it has been noted, thanks to neuroimaging techniques, that patients with Cluster B personality disorders develop alterations in brain structures (in the prefrontal, temporal and parietal cortex, as well as an alteration in the NAA levels and the grey matter levels) and which are also involved in a demented process. Conclusions. Definitely, the patients with medical record of the borderline or narcissistic personality disorder present more alterations in the brain structures mentioned, such that presenting these types of personality disorders could increase the risk of developing dementia in the future

Facial emotion recognition deficits and alexithymia in borderline, narcissistic, and histrionic personality disorders.

Previous studies that aimed to support emotion recognition deficits and alexithymia in B cluster personality disorders have mainly focused on borderline personality disorder (BPD), and resulted in mixed findings. In our study we examine emotion recognition and alexithymia in patients with histrionic (HPD), narcissistic (NPD) and borderline (BPD) personality disorders compared to each other and healthy controls. Furthermore, the possibility is investigated that it is not the type of PD but the severity of psychopathology which predicts the severity of emotion recognition deficits and alexithymia. Patients with HPD, NPD, BPD and healthy controls (N = 20 for each group) were examined by using the Ekman 60 Faces Test (FEEST) and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). To measure the extent and severity of psychopathology, the Symptom-Checklist-90 Revised (SCL-90-R) was used. Patient groups performed significantly worse compared to healthy controls on the Ekman test and TAS-20, while we found no significant differences among patient groups in emotion recognition and alexithymia. Furthermore, higher scores on the SCL-90-R predicted poorer emotion recognition performance and higher alexithymic features. The empirical data supports the conclusion that the severity of psychopathology plays an important role in predicting emotion recognition deficits and alexithymia in borderline, narcissistic, and histrionic personality disorders.

[Brain potentials evoked by stimuli of different intensities in normal subjects and in hysterical psychopathy]. / Vyzvannye potentsialy mozga na stimuly razlichnoi intesivnosti v norme i pri istericheskoi psikhopatii.

The author studied evoked potentials of 5 different intensitities to electroskin stimula in normals and psychopathic personalities of a hysterical type. It was established that different in their genesis the components of evoked potentials change differently in a change of the stimula intensity. The highest intensity of the stimula is reflected in the early sensory component of evoked potentials, the amplitude of which in normals in an increase of intensity successionaly rises. In hysterical personalities the amplitude of early sensorial components of evoked potentials in an increase of stimula intensity increases only to a certain limit, after which it begins to drop. This phenomenon called "reducing" indicates to a weakness of the sensory systems and relative prevalence of nonspecific brain systems in hysterical psycopathy.