Emotion Dysregulation Research: A Narrative Review

In this narrative review, research on emotion dysregulation that was published in 2024-2025 is briefly summarized. The negative effects of emotion dysregulation include externalizing behavior, excessive social media use, decreased well-being, non-suicidal self-injury behavior and suicidality. In several of the studies, emotion dysregulation was treated as a mediating variable. The risk factors/predictors that have been reported for emotion dysregulation include childhood problems, childhood abuse, peer victimization, lifetime sexual violence and cognitive deficits. Several comorbidities have also been noted for emotion dysregulation including the cognitive disorders attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as well as addictions including eating disorder and substance use disorder. Diagnosed psychiatric disorders were also comorbid with emotion dysregulation including depression and anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), PTSD/generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). and borderline personality disorder (BPD). Methodological limitations of this literature include the cross-sectional studies that are inconclusive about directionality of effects and the confounding of emotion dysregulation effects by its many comorbid disorders.