Background: Previously, we found that patients with
borderline personality disorder (BPD) but not healthy controls (HC) showed improved memory retrieval after
hydrocortisone administration. Objective: In this study, we examined whether increases in endogenous
cortisol after psychosocial stress are associated with memory function in patients with BPD and in healthy individuals. Methods: We recruited 49 female patients with BPD and 49 female HC. All participants were exposed to a psychosocial stressor, the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and a control condition (Placebo (P-)TSST) in randomized order. Salivary
cortisol,
alpha amylase (sAA) and blood pressure were measured in response to stress. Subsequently, we examined free recall of a previously learned word list, autobiographical memory, and working memory. Results: We found a stress*time*group interaction effect for the
cortisol response and for sAA to stress, which is mainly triggered by a slightly different increase in
cortisol between groups from pre to post TSST. Furthermore, BPD patients showed a less pronounced increase in diastolic blood pressure compared to HC after stress. There was no effect of stress on memory performance in any tests, either in healthy controls or in patients with BPD. Conclusion: Our results suggest a slightly blunted response of the HPA axis and the sympathetic nervous system to stress in BPD compared to healthy women. In contrast to
hydrocortisone administration, psychosocial stress did not improve memory retrieval in BPD patients. This might be explained by lower
cortisol concentrations and parallel increases in
norepinephrine and negative affect after stress.