Translational Approaches to the Study of Emotion in Self-Injury

描述（由申请人提供）：非自杀性自伤（NSSI）描述了出于社会不认可的目的故意和直接伤害身体组织，而没有自杀意图（国际自伤研究学会; ISSS）。越来越多的证据表明，NSSI最常见的功能是调节负面情绪体验（例如，停止不好的感觉）。事实上，自伤者比非自伤者报告更频繁和强烈的负面情绪，自伤行为后负面情绪的减少，以及更多的情绪失调。总之，研究表明，NSSI为那些努力调节情绪的人提供了情绪调节功能。因此，仔细检查NSSI中的情绪失调可以大大提高有关病因、预防和治疗的知识。到目前为止，我们对NSSI中情绪的大部分了解都是基于自我报告的研究，可以说这些研究只提供了对情绪缺陷的粗略理解。由情感科学框架指导的研究可以提供更多关于NSSI中情感的细微差别和临床有用的信息。具体来说，情绪可以分为多个组成部分，每一个组成部分都代表了以情绪失调为特征的疾病的潜在损害来源。本研究将采用眨眼惊吓反射，一个行之有效的生理措施，用于研究情绪处理的研究框架，在NSSI的情绪的研究。更具体地说，将检查情绪失调的两个可能来源：1）在呈现情绪和中性图片期间（即，以指示情绪反应性）和2）呈现这些刺激后的几秒钟（即，回到情绪基线）。在第二项研究中，将进一步研究厌恶刺激后情绪恢复的时间过程。研究方案将施用于自伤和两个非损伤对照样品（即，长期目标是产生关于NSSI中情绪失调的来源和性质的更精确的知识，其可以指导治疗的设计和实施。公共卫生相关性：青少年和年轻人的NSSI率不成比例地高。除了辩证行为疗法（DBT），这是一种针对边缘型人格障碍自伤者的强化，最常见的住院治疗方案，目前还没有治疗自伤的方法。该项目代表了研究的纲领性路线的第一步，以产生临床上有用的模型，情绪失调的NSSI，以指导有效的干预措施的发展。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) describes the deliberate and direct injuring of body tissue without suicidal intent for purposes not socially sanctioned (International Society for the Study of Self-injury; ISSS). Converging evidence suggests that the most common function of NSSI is to regulate negative emotional experiences (e.g., to stop bad feelings). In fact, self-injurers report more frequent and intense negative emotions, a reduction in negative emotions following a self-injurious act, and more emotion dysregulation than non-injurers. Taken together, research suggests that NSSI serves an emotion regulation function for individuals who struggle to regulate emotion. Therefore, careful examination of emotion dysregulation in NSSI could substantially improve knowledge about etiology, prevention, and treatment. Thus far, most of what we know about emotion in NSSI is based on self-report studies, which arguably provide only a crude understanding of emotional deficits. Research guided by an affective science framework could provide more nuanced and clinically useful information about emotion in NSSI. Specifically, emotion can be separated into multiple components, each of which represents a potential source of impairment in disorders characterized by emotion dysregulation. The present study will apply this framework to the study of emotion in NSSI by employing the eyeblink startle reflex, a well-validated physiological measure used to study emotional processing. More specifically, two possible sources of emotion dysregulation will be examined: the magnitude of the startle reflex will be measured 1) during the presentation of emotional and neutral pictures (i.e., to index emotional reactivity) and 2) several seconds following the presentation of these stimuli (i.e., to index return to emotional baseline). The time-course of emotional recovery following aversive stimuli will be further examined in a second study. The study protocol will be administered to a self-injuring and two non-injuring control samples (i.e., affectively distressed non-injurers and non-affectively distressed non-injurers).The long-term goal is to generate more precise knowledge regarding the source and nature of emotional dysregulation in NSSI that can guide the design and implementation of treatments. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Rates of NSSI are disproportionately high in adolescents and young adults. Other than Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), which is an intensive, most often inpatient, treatment program for self-injurers with borderline personality disorder, there is currently no treatment for self-injury. This project represents the first step in a programmatic line of research to generate clinically useful models of emotion dysregulation in NSSI to guide the development of effective interventions.