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African American women are at heightened risk for intimate partner violence (IPV) and its negative consequences, including health-compromising behaviors. Deliberate self-harm (DSH) is one clinically-relevant behavior that has been understudied among African American women generally and those with exposure to IPV in particular. To date, no studies have examined factors that may account for the relationship between IPV and DSH. Therefore, the goal of the present study was to examine the intercorrelations among IPV (physical, psychological, and sexual), PTSD, and DSH history and versatility, and the potentially mediating role of PTSD symptoms in the IPV-DSH relation. Participants were 197 African American community women currently experiencing IPV. Sixty participants (31%) reported a history of DSH. Among participants who reported DSH, there was an average endorsement of 2.3 unique forms of deliberate self-harm (i.e., DSH versatility). Significant positive associations were detected among physical IPV severity, psychological IPV severity, PTSD symptom severity, and DSH history and versatility. PTSD symptom severity mediated the relationships between physical and psychological IPV severity and DSH history and versatility. Results highlight the relevance of PTSD symptoms to DSH and suggest that treatments targeting PTSD symptoms may be useful in reducing DSH among IPV-exposed African American women.

Elevated rates of borderline personality disorder (BPD) have been found among individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs), especially cocaine-dependent patients. Evidence suggests that cocaine-dependent patients with BPD are at greater risk for negative clinical outcomes than cocaine-dependent patients without BPD and BPD-SUD patients dependent on other substances. Despite evidence that cocaine-dependent patients with BPD may be at particularly high risk for negative SUD outcomes, the mechanisms underlying this risk remain unclear. The present study sought to address this gap in the literature by examining cocaine-related attentional biases among cocaine-dependent patients with (n = 22) and without (n = 36) BPD. On separate days, participants listened to both a neutral and a personally-relevant emotionally evocative (i.e., trauma-related) script and then completed a dot-probe task with cocaine-related stimuli. Findings revealed a greater bias for attending to cocaine-related stimuli among male cocaine-dependent patients with (vs. without) BPD following the emotionally evocative script. Study findings suggest the possibility that cocaine use may have gender-specific functions among SUD patients with BPD, with men with BPD being more likely to use cocaine to decrease contextually induced emotional distress. The implications of our findings for informing future research on cocaine use among patients with BPD are discussed.

Emotional reactivity has been theorized to play a central role in borderline personality (BP) pathology. Although growing research provides evidence for subjective emotional reactivity in BP pathology, research on physiological or biological reactivity among people with BP pathology is less conclusive. With regard to biological reactivity in particular, research on cortisol reactivity (a neurobiological marker of emotional reactivity) in response to stressors among individuals with BP pathology has produced contradictory results and highlighted the potential moderating role of PTSD-related pathology. Thus, this study sought to examine the moderating role of PTSD symptoms in the relation between BP pathology and both subjective (self-report) and biological (cortisol) emotional reactivity to a laboratory stressor. Participants were 171 patients in a residential substance use disorder treatment center. Consistent with hypotheses, results revealed a significant main effect of BP pathology on subjective emotional reactivity to the laboratory stressor. Furthermore, results revealed a significant interaction between BP pathology and PTSD symptoms in the prediction of cortisol reactivity, such that BP pathology was associated with heightened cortisol reactivity only among participants with low levels of PTSD symptoms. Similar findings were obtained when examining the interaction between BP pathology and the reexperiencing and avoidance/numbing symptoms of PTSD specifically. Results highlight the moderating role of PTSD symptoms in the BP–reactivity relation.