Running head: DIFFERENTIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY AND BPD 1 Perspective: Differential Susceptibility to the Environment and Borderline Personality Disorder Charlie Rioux, BSc,1 Jean R. Séguin, PhD,2 Joel Paris, MD3 1 Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal; CHU Ste-Justine Research Centre 2 Department of Psychiatry, Université de Montréal; CHU Ste-Justine Research Centre 3 Department of Psychiatry, MCGill University; Department of Psychiatry, Jewish General Hospital Correspondence: Charlie Rioux, CHU Ste-Justine Research Centre, Université de Montréal, 3175 Chemin de la Côte Sainte-Catherine, Montréal (QuébeC), Canada, H3T 1C5. Tel: 514-345- 4931 ext. 7472; Fax: 514-345-2176; Email:
[email protected]. Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding: All authors report no confliCt of interest. This artiCle was supported by the Fonds de la ReCherche du QuébeC - Santé through a sCholarship to CR. The funding source had no role in writing the manusCript, or the deCision to submit the paper for publiCation. Accepted manuscript published in Harvard Review of Psychiatry - Full reference: Rioux C., Séguin, J. R. & Paris, J. (2018). Differential susCeptibility to the environment and borderline personality disorder. Harvard Review of Psychiatry. 26(6), 374-383. doi: 10.1097/HRP.0000000000000182. DIFFERENTIAL SUSCEPTIBILITY AND BPD 2 Perspective: Differential Susceptibility to the Environment and Borderline Personality Disorder Abstract Evolutionary models of psychopathology can shed light on gene-environment interaCtions. Differential susCeptibility to the environment means that heritable traits can have positive or negative effeCts depending on environmental context. Thus, traits that increase risk for mental disorders when the environment is negative can be adaptive when the environment is positive.