Characterization of Mentalization Profiles Related to Emotional Regulation Among Teenagers With Behavioral Disorders

Behavioral disorders in adolescents are defined by a set of diverse behaviors (such as aggressiveness, agitation, clastic crisis, running away and endangerment) whose common characteristic is the predominance of action/ mentalization. These disorders are associated with significant morbidity and high mortality linked to a high rate of suicide or attempted suicide. Behavioral disorders are also associated with an alteration of mentalizing capacities, that is the psychic process by which the adolescent imagines and interprets his behavior and that of others on the basis of mental states such as needs, desires, beliefs or feelings. The disorders are also associated with emotional dysregulation. To date, the psychopathological processes underlying behavioral disorders in adolescents are unknown and prevent from offering appropriate psychological care. Thus, it seems essential to characterize this clinical population by integrating both its intrapsychic representations and the physiological parameters of emotional regulation associated with it.

This project is a first step towards a larger-scale research project aimed at evaluating treatment by TBM (therapies based on mentalization) in adolescents with behavioral disorders.