Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)NCT06880640
Affect-based Impulsivity in Borderline Personality Disorder
A study testing Stress Induction in people with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Healthy Controls Group - Age and Sex-matched, run by University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill at 1 site in United States.
Trial summary
The purpose of this research study is to investigate how personality traits and neuroendocrine systems relate to decision-making patterns in individuals 18-45 years old. The main question it aims to answer is how neuroendocrine activity impacts decision-making. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 to 45 yearsHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), Healthy Controls Group - Age and Sex-matched
- What is being tested?
- Stress Induction
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 76 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited States
- Study dates
- 21 Sep 2025to 13 Aug 2026
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- None posted in the registry
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 to 45 years
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Adult
Who may be able to join
- Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) group:
- Score of 38 or higher on Personality Assessment Inventory-Borderline Scale (PAI-BOR)
- Participants in the BPD group will be primarily recruited from the two
- DEPENd lab studies that maintain large samples of BPD participants. To ensure maximal similarity between BPD participants recruited from other DEPENd lab studies and BPD participants recruited through other recruitment sources, the investigators will use the same criteria for the BPD group in the current study as the criteria used in the other DEPENd lab studies. BPD participants in the two DEPENd lab studies from which the investigators will be recruiting must meet the following criteria:
- 3+ BPD symptoms, one of which must be affective instability, per clinical interview
- Participants must score at least 80 on the Reynolds Intellectual Screening Test (RIST).
Show all 17Show fewer
- Health Control (HC) Group:
- Score of 12 or lower on PAI-BOR
- Score below 50th percentile on World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS)
- Absence of any current or lifetime psychiatric disorder, including personality disorders as determined by diagnostic interviews (SIDP and SCID), if the participant had participated in the lab's other studies (IRB Nos. 20-1735 and 21-0602).
- Combined Inclusion Criteria:
- Ages 18-45
- Provision of signed and dated informed consent form
- Stated willingness to comply with all study procedures and lifestyle considerations and availability for the duration of the study
- Willingness to participate in all components of the study
- Participants must be able to speak, understand and read English.
- Participants must have at least 20/40 visual acuity (correct or uncorrected).
Who cannot join
- Use of as needed antihypertensive agents within 12 hours prior to lab visit
- Inability to refrain from using as needed psychotropic medications for 12 hours prior to lab visit
- History of psychotic disorder, Bipolar I disorder, autism spectrum disorder, reactive attachment disorder, pervasive developmental disorder, motor disorder, head injury, mental retardation, neurological disorder, or current substance dependence
- Family history of Bipolar I disorder in a first degree relative.
- Participants are also excluded for any of the following: cardiac pacemaker, aneurysm clip, cochlear implants, pregnancy, shrapnel, history of metal fragments in eyes, neurostimulators, weight of 250 lbs. or more, or claustrophobia.
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
United States1 site
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27514
About this study
Official title: Affect-based Impulsivity in Borderline Personality Disorder: Developing a Neurocomputational Phenotype
The purpose of this research study is to investigate how personality traits and neuroendocrine systems relate to decision-making patterns in individuals 18-45 years old. The main question it aims to answer is how neuroendocrine activity impacts decision-making.
Participants will complete online behavioral tasks, a stress induction procedure, self-report surveys, and a cognitive assessment. During the session, psychophysiological measures will be collected, including electrocardiogram (ECG) and cardiac impedance (ICG) to monitor heart rate and blood flow, as well as electrodermal activity (EDA), blood drop samples, and saliva collection to assess nervous system activity.
- Being tested
- Stress Induction
- Medical subject headings
- Borderline Personality Disorder
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Stress InductionBehavioural
Also called Trier Social Stress Test (TSST)
Participants will complete the Trier Social Stress Test to induce stress, which includes a public speaking simulation and mental arithmetic.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Stress | Experimental | Participants will undergo a controlled stress induction approximately 1 hour and 35 minutes into Session 1. Receives: Behavioral: Stress Induction |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Goal-directed decision-making in the Social Decision Tree Task (SDTT)
Measured by choice behavior in SDTT, which is based on the decision tree framework. After each action, participants receive feedback about the effect of that action and the extent to which it added to or took away from their points. If participants make a given choice, the subsequent actions that they can choose are different than if they were to initially make a different choice.
An action in SDTT is goal-directed if the possible net gain an individual can earn before the end of the current epoch (a "day" in the SDTT) is equal to or higher than the amount they could gain by choosing the alternative action. The investigators will subset trials so that 1 is coded as choosing the immediately valuable action at the expense of the optimal and 0 is coded as choosing the optimal at the expense of the immediately valuable action. This outcome variable is binary.
Measured: Collected for 40 minutes ~2 hours into one-time study visit
Secondary outcomes (1)
Bias toward social actions in the Social Decision Tree Task (SDTT)
Measured by choice behavior in SDTT, which is based on the decision tree framework. An action in SDTT is defined as social if it is paired with a visual cue with a face on it and non-social if not. This outcome variable is binary.
Measured: Collected for 40 minutes ~2 hours into one-time study visit
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted18 Mar 2025
- Study start21 Sep 2025
- Primary completion13 Aug 2026
- Study completion13 Aug 2026
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Publications (1)Papers the sponsor has linked to this study.
- Other trials for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)Studies of the same condition, open and under way.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Basic science
- Allocation
- Not applicable
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 76 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute
- Responsible party
- Sponsor
- Investigators
- Keely Muscatell, PhD, Principal investigator, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT06880640
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- 24-3120
- Other IDs
- CTSC0406
- Status last verified
- Sep 2025
- First submitted
- 11 Mar 2025
- Last updated
- 2 Oct 2026
- Results posted
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- Yes: Deidentified individual data that supports the results will be shared beginning 9 to 36 months following publication provided the investigator who proposes to use the data has approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB), Independent Ethics Committee (IEC), or Research Ethics Board (REB), as applicable, and executes a data use/sharing agreement with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).
Publications
Huys QJ, Eshel N, O'Nions E, Sheridan L, Dayan P, Roiser JP. Bonsai trees in your head: how the pavlovian system sculpts goal-directed choices by pruning decision trees. PLoS Comput Biol. 2012;8(3):e1002410. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002410. Epub 2012 Mar 8.
PubMed 22412360
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 2 Oct 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Affect-based Impulsivity in Borderline Personality Disorder: Developing a Neurocomputational Phenotype
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT06880640
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- 24-3120
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Enrolment
- 76 participants (actual)
- Lead sponsor
- University of North Carolina, Chapel HillUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute
- Study start
- 21 Sep 2025 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 13 Aug 2026 (actual)
- Study completion
- 13 Aug 2026 (actual)
- First posted
- 18 Mar 2025 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
The purpose of this research study is to investigate how personality traits and neuroendocrine systems relate to decision-making patterns in individuals 18-45 years old. The main question it aims to answer is how neuroendocrine activity impacts decision-making.
Participants will complete online behavioral tasks, a stress induction procedure, self-report surveys, and a cognitive assessment. During the session, psychophysiological measures will be collected, including electrocardiogram (ECG) and cardiac impedance (ICG) to monitor heart rate and blood flow, as well as electrodermal activity (EDA), blood drop samples, and saliva collection to assess nervous system activity.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Basic science
- Allocation
- Not applicable
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 1
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Stress | Experimental | Behavioral: Stress InductionParticipants will undergo a controlled stress induction approximately 1 hour and 35 minutes into Session 1. |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 to 45 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Adult
Key inclusion criteria (17 listed)
- Score of 38 or higher on Personality Assessment Inventory-Borderline Scale (PAI-BOR)
- Participants in the BPD group will be primarily recruited from the two
- DEPENd lab studies that maintain large samples of BPD participants. To ensure maximal similarity between BPD participants recruited from other DEPENd lab studies and BPD participants recruited through other recruitment sources, the investigators will use the same criteria for the BPD group in the current study as the criteria used in the other DEPENd lab studies. BPD participants in the two DEPENd lab studies from which the investigators will be recruiting must meet the following criteria:
- 3+ BPD symptoms, one of which must be affective instability, per clinical interview
- Participants must score at least 80 on the Reynolds Intellectual Screening Test (RIST).
Key exclusion criteria (5 listed)
- Use of as needed antihypertensive agents within 12 hours prior to lab visit
- Inability to refrain from using as needed psychotropic medications for 12 hours prior to lab visit
- History of psychotic disorder, Bipolar I disorder, autism spectrum disorder, reactive attachment disorder, pervasive developmental disorder, motor disorder, head injury, mental retardation, neurological disorder, or current substance dependence
- Family history of Bipolar I disorder in a first degree relative.
- Participants are also excluded for any of the following: cardiac pacemaker, aneurysm clip, cochlear implants, pregnancy, shrapnel, history of metal fragments in eyes, neurostimulators, weight of 250 lbs. or more, or claustrophobia.
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Stress InductionAlso: Trier Social Stress Test (TSST)Participants will complete the Trier Social Stress Test to induce stress, which includes a public speaking simulation and mental arithmetic. | Behavioural | Stress |
Primary outcome
Goal-directed decision-making in the Social Decision Tree Task (SDTT)
Time frame: Collected for 40 minutes ~2 hours into one-time study visit
Measured by choice behavior in SDTT, which is based on the decision tree framework. After each action, participants receive feedback about the effect of that action and the extent to which it added to or took away from their points. If participants make a given choice, the subsequent actions that they can choose are different than if they were to initially make a different choice. An action in SDTT is goal-directed if the possible net gain an individual can earn before the end of the current epoch (a "day" in the SDTT) is equal to or higher than the amount they could gain by choosing the alternative action. The investigators will subset trials so that 1 is coded as choosing the immediately valuable action at the expense of the optimal and 0 is coded as choosing the optimal at the expense of the immediately valuable action. This outcome variable is binary.
1 secondary outcome
Bias toward social actions in the Social Decision Tree Task (SDTT)
Time frame: Collected for 40 minutes ~2 hours into one-time study visit
Results and safety
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 2 Oct 2026.
- Background: PubMed 22412360Huys QJ, Eshel N, O'Nions E, Sheridan L, Dayan P, Roiser JP. Bonsai trees in your head: how the pavlovian system sculpts goal-directed choices by pruning decision trees. PLoS Comput Biol. 2012;8(3):e1002410. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002410. Epub 2012 Mar 8.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: Yes. Deidentified individual data that supports the results will be shared beginning 9 to 36 months following publication provided the investigator who proposes to use the data has approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB), Independent Ethics Committee (IEC), or Research Ethics Board (REB), as applicable, and executes a data use/sharing agreement with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
Keely Muscatell, PhD principal investigator
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Stress Induction in people with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Healthy Controls Group - Age and Sex-matched, run by University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill at 1 site in United States.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 17 inclusion and 5 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 2 Oct 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Goal-directed decision-making in the Social Decision Tree Task (SDTT) (time frame: Collected for 40 minutes ~2 hours into one-time study visit). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT06880640, which also lists 1 linked publication.
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 2 Oct 2026.