The deficit of decision-making in male subjects with antisocial personality disorder

Abstract

Objective To investigate the capabilities of decision-making in male subjects with Antisocial personality disorder(ASPD). Methods A total of 76 male ASPD subjects were compared with matched 60 healthy controls on the Iowa Gambling Task.At the same time, All of them were evaluated with Self- Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the MMPI Personality Disorder Scales (MMPI-Pd) and The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11). Results The ASPD group selected less advantageous cards (the number of cards selected from the advantageous decks minus the number of cards selected from disadvantageous decks) than healthy controls ((-4.13±18.27)time, (6.03±19.43) time respectively, t(134)=-3.132, P=0.002). A 2(group)×5(block) ANOVA (analysis of variance) on the cards of net advantageous from the gambling task revealed a significant main effect of group (F(1, 134)=9.811, P=0.002). Meanwhile, the ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of block(F(4, 536)=15.456, P<0.001). The results showed that healthy controls and ASPD group gradually shifted their selections toward the good decks as the game progresses.The study indicated the total number of advantageous cards for subjects with antisocial personality disorder were negative correlation to the MMPI-Pd(r=-0.232, P=0.006). Conclusion The present study suggests that the decision-making impairment might be in the male subjects with antisocial personality disorder.The deficit of decision-making for ASPD might be attributed to the dysfunction of the orbitofrontal, dorsolateral frontal, and anterior cingulate cortex. Key words: Antisocial personality disorder; Decision making; Cognition