Self-disgust in personality disorders V2
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Self-disgust and its relationship with early childhood experiences and self-harm.
IRAS ID
172486
Contact name
Janet Feigenbaum
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 1 days
Research summary
The primary aim of this research is to validate a revised psychometric scale (SDS-R) to assess self-disgust in individuals with a personality disorder (PD). In addition, the associations between self-disgust and a range of other constructs will be explored (Childhood Trauma, Shame, Anger, Deliberate Self-Harm, Childhood Invalidation).
Only a handful of studies have explored self-disgust in BPD despite the fact that it appears to be particularly elevated in this patient group (Schienle et al, 2013). Self – disgust appears to be a particularly distressing, pervasive and enduring emotion that leads to a host of negative outcomes including increased risk of self-harm (Powell, 2014; Kleindeist, 2008). Self-disgust is also difficult to treat and there are no known treatment recommendations for working with self-disgust. The few studies that have been conducted with BPD patients have utilised very small sample sizes and no other personality disorder types have been investigated. It is therefore necessary to gain greater knowledge of the prevalence of self-disgust to detect whether self-disgust is an important clinical feature across a range of personality disorders. Research has indicated that existing self-disgust scales are insufficient in capturing the essence of self-disgust (Powell, Overton & Simpson, 2014) and that a new scale may help to capture the visceral and behavioural consequences associated with self-disgust.
The study will employ a non-experimental, quantitative design and will involve administering a battery of on-line/paper questionnaires to a PD population and two control groups (healthy controls and general mental health population). Participants will be recruited from a wide range of NHS mental health services as well from the private and charity organisations.
REC name
London - Hampstead Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/LO/1032
Date of REC Opinion
3 Jul 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion