Characteristics Of Antisocial Personality Disorder Research Articles

An Epidemiologic Survey and Violent Behavior Analysis of Antisocial Personality Disorder in Young Men in Chengdu.

To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) in young men in Chengdu and explore the characteristics and risks of violence. Stratified random sampling was used to conduct a self-assessment questionnaire survey in 4 108 males aged from 18 to 34 in Chengdu, including general demographic characteristics, structured clinical interview for the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders-Ⅳ axis Ⅱ disorders (SCID-Ⅱ) personality disorder screen questionnaire, violence questionnaire, psychosis screening questionnaire (PSQ), Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and drug use. χ2 test, univariate and multivariate logistic regression were used for analysis and odds ratio (OR) was calculated. The positive rate of ASPD was 5.91%, which was associated with young age, unmarried, unemployment state, low educational level, violent behavior, psychotic symptoms, alcohol and drug use (P<0.05). Young men with ASPD also had a risk (P<0.05) of violence (OR was 8.51), multiple violence (OR was 16.57), injury (OR was 6.68), intentional violence (OR was 11.41), etc., the risk decreased after controlling for psychotic symptoms and substance abuse, but was still statistically significant. The risk of violence, severe violence and intentional violence in young men in Chengdu is high, and psychotic symptoms and substance abuse increase the risk of ASPD violence and relate characteristics.

The Relevance of Hostility and Self-Control as Mediators of the Relationship Between Antisocial Personality Disorder and Offending

Hostility and low self-control are two hallmark characteristics of antisocial personality disorder and are also risk factors for offending. This study tested for mediating effects of these concepts for explaining the antisocial personality disorder-offending relationship. The Pathways to Desistance data were used in analyses. Generalized structural equation modeling was used to estimate these relationships. A Clogg Z test was used to test the equivalence of the mediation effects. Results indicated that antisocial personality disorder diagnosis was associated with offending. Inclusion of hostility and self-control in the model accounted for 65% of the antisocial personality disorder-offending relationship and attenuated it to non-significance. Only self-control was a significant mediator of this relationship and the magnitude of this effect was significantly greater hostility.

The Sociopathic Behaviour In Gone Girl

Gone Girl tells the story of a woman named Amy Elliott Dunne, a woman who wants to have a perfect marriage like in a book Amazing Amy. However, real life is different from her expectation. Her husband has an affair with his student. It pushes her to do some controlling acts to manifest her wish about perfect marriage. And that is the time when Amy shows her personality as a sociopath. To know more about Amy, this study focuses on the cause and the trigger of Amy’s sociopath and to identify the characteristics of Amy’s sociopath through her actions and the ways she thinks. There are two results for this research. The first one is Amy shows four out of seven characteristics of antisocial personality disorder. There are failure to conform to social, deceitfulness, reckless disregard for safety, and lack of remorse. Amy is a person with sociopathic behaviour that is portrayed through her actions, such as lying, manipulating, even killing other in order to get what she wants. The second one is Amy’s sociopath is caused by her parents that always give pressure to her and Amy’s husband affair triggers her sociopathic behaviour. It is clear that people with antisocial personality disorder have different characteristics with normal people. The way they think and solve the problems are different from normal people. Keywords: Antisocial personality disorder, Sociopath, Pressure

Do adult males with antisocial personality disorder (with and without co-morbid psychopathy) have deficits in emotion processing and empathy? A systematic review

Abstract Background A lack of concern for the feelings, needs or suffering of others and lack of remorse after hurting or mistreating others are key characteristics of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), otherwise identified as dissocial personality disorder (DPD) and suggest that impaired emotion processing and empathy may contribute to antisocial behaviour. Whilst psychopathy is more commonly associated with an absence of empathy and emotional affect, the nature of emotion processing and empathy deficits specific to adult male ASPD populations with and without co-morbid psychopathy has not been systematically reviewed. Aim To determine the nature of emotion processing and empathy deficits specific to adult male ASPD populations with and without co-morbid psychopathy. Method We conducted a literature search across seven electronic databases and a range of grey literature sites, hand-searched reference lists of relevant papers and contacted fourteen authors of published studies related to this topic. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied and quality assessments undertaken on eligible studies. Results Searches located 10,217 records and 205 were eligible for full assessment. 22 studies were identified as suitable for inclusion in this review and 19 reported evidence of emotion processing deficits in ASPD/DPD groups with and without co-morbid psychopathy. Conclusion This review found no evidence of empathy deficits in ASPD/DPD groups with or without co-morbid psychopathy and only limited evidence of diminished startle reactivity in those with ASPD alone. In contrast, ASPD groups with co-morbid psychopathy were found to exhibit aberrant patterns of affective reactivity and difficulty when processing negative/aversive stimuli which lends support to the notion that these groups may be differentiated in terms of emotional dysfunction. However, as the majority of reviewed studies employed ASPD/DPD groups that included participants with co-morbid psychopathy/psychopathic traits and did not delineate effects for ASPD/DPD groups with and without co-morbid psychopathy, the degree to which emotion processing deficits were mediated by co-morbid psychopathy or evident in ASPD/DPD alone could not be established. Therefore, further research to compare emotion processing and empathy in these groups is required before firm conclusions can be drawn about the extent of overlap between these populations and/or the differences that exist between them.

Autonomy-connectedness mediates sex differences in symptoms of psychopathology.

ObjectivesThis study aimed to examine if autonomy-connectedness, capacity for self-governance under the condition of connectedness, would mediate sex differences in symptoms of various mental disorders (depression, anxiety, eating disorders, antisocial personality disorder).MethodParticipants (N = 5,525) from a representative community sample in the Netherlands filled out questionnaires regarding the variables under study.ResultsAutonomy-connectedness (self-awareness, SA; sensitivity to others, SO; capacity for managing new situations, CMNS) fully mediated the sex differences in depression and anxiety, and partly in eating disorder -(drive for thinness, bulimia, and body dissatisfaction) and anti-social personality disorder characteristics. The mediations followed the expected sex-specific patterns. SO related positively to the internalizing disorder indices, and negatively to the anti-social personality disorder. SA related negatively to all disorder indices; and CMNS to all internalizing disorder indices, but positively to the anti-social personality disorder.ConclusionTreatment of depression, anxiety, but also eating disorders and the antisocial personality disorder may benefit from a stronger focus on autonomy strengthening.

Online trolling: The case of Madeleine McCann

Despite the sustained media attention surrounding internet trolling, academic studies investigating its occurrence are rare. This study aimed to provide a case study analysis of the behaviours and strategies of a group of alleged Twitter trolls referred to as the anti-McCanns due to their continual abuse of Kate and Gerry McCann as well as those who support them and thus identify as pro-McCann. The way in which language was used to construct the anti-McCanns group identity, enhance in-group cohesion and facilitate out-group disassociation from the pro-Mccann group was additionally explored, given that previous research has implicated group processes in the propagation of aggressive online conduct. A multi-method approach involving a combination of ethnographic observations and the collection of online commentary was employed. The data was then analysed using quantitative content analysis and discourse analysis, which indicated that language was utilised in a variety of ways by the anti-McCanns to construct a salient group identity and negatively stereotype and disassociate from the pro-McCann group. Findings additionally revealed that several strategies were employed by the anti-McCann trolls to provoke and derogate members of the pro-McCann group, supporting previous findings which have linked trolling to both western media culture and the characteristics of anti-social personality disorder. The implications of these findings both theoretical and practical are discussed, alongside recommendations for future research.

The Relationship between Aggression and Serum Thyroid Hormone Level in Individuals Diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder.

Aggression is one of the leading clinical characteristics of antisocial personality disorder (APD). Studies aiming to clarify and control the biological basis of aggression are ongoing. Thyroid hormones have been indicated to play a role in the development of aggression. The aim of this study was to examine the level of aggression and serum thyroid hormone in a sample of APD and to make contributions to this field with the current findings. The sample consisted of 96 subjects with a diagnosis of APD and 97 subjects as a control group. Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis (SCID) 1 and 2 were used for the diagnosis, and the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire was administered. Based on criminal patterns, the APD group was then divided into two subgroups: "criminal" and "noncriminal" APD groups. The day after the interview, after one night of fasting, blood was collected from the subjects between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m.. Thyroid function tests and other biochemical analyses related to the confounding variables were also administered. The study group and the control group were compared in terms of their aggression scores and thyroid hormone levels. The mean score of free T3 level in the criminal APD group was found to be significantly higher than that in the noncriminal APD group. APD subjects with higher free T3 levels also had higher aggression scores. In the noncriminal APD group, as serum free T3 and T4 levels increased, there was also an increment in the aggression scores. However, in the criminal APD group, there was no significant correlation between thyroid hormone levels and aggression. The findings of this study indicated that criminal and noncriminal APD groups actually show different properties.

Complex case: A biofeedback intervention to control impulsiveness in a severely personality disordered forensic patient by Rick Howard, Klaus Schellhorn and John Lumsden

With this case report of successful biofeedback treatment for a severely disordered and treatmentrefractory forensic patient, the authors contribute to arguments for consideration of the inclusion of biofeedback for a group of extremely challenging patients. The term ‘complex patient’ barely captures the patient MN, whose psychopathology cuts across diagnostic borders and includes a mixed personality disorder with borderline, antisocial and histrionic features, paedophilia, attentional difficulties that may meet criteria for Attention Deficit Disorder/ Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, borderline intellectual functioning and an unspecified mood disorder. Prior to his transfer from a prison to a forensic hospital, the unremitting severity of his sexual deviance led to placement on a testosteronelowering agent, and his level of mood instability resulted in treatment with carbamazepine. Strengths of this case report include the extensive initial psychometric and psychological evaluation of the patient and the documentation of significant post-treatment improvement in biobehavioral (Flanker test) and electrophysiological (Go/No Go contingent negative variation) measures, as well as patient self-report of decreased impulsivity and improvement in attention/cognition at the study endpoint and at 3months of follow-up. This paper is a welcome addition to the literature on therapeutic interventions in severely personality disordered patients from several perspectives. Much of this patient’s history and behavioural presentation are characteristics of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and accompanying paedophilia, areas of psychopathology much neglected in psychiatric literature, with diagnoses for which therapeutic pessimism bordering on nihilism has led in the US to relegation of these patients to the criminal justice system. Patients with ASPD have significant deficits in mentalization, attachment and impulse control (Leichsenring et al., 2003), ego weaknesses that make them poor candidates for many psychotherapies and that render these patients destructive to a hospital-based therapeutic milieu. Indeed, MN had shown poor motivation and compliance with routine psychotherapies in the past. An advantage for forensic-type patients of neurofeedback treatments is that they work at basic neurophysiologic levels and focus on brain functioning rather than psychopathology; consequently these procedures largely bypass the need

What should be done with antisocial personality disorder in the new edition of the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-V)?

Antisocial personality disorder, psychopathy, dissocial personality disorder and sociopathy are constructs that have generally been used to predict recidivism and dangerousness, alongside being used to exclude patients from treatment services. However, 'antisocial personality disorder' has recently begun to emerge as a treatment diagnosis, a development reflected within cognitive behaviour therapy and mentalisation-based psychotherapy. Many of the behaviour characteristics of antisocial personality disorder are, at the same time, being targeted by interventions at criminal justice settings. A significantly higher proportion of published articles focusing on antisocial personality concern treatment when compared to articles on psychopathy. Currently, the proposal for antisocial personality disorder for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, suggests a major change in the criteria for this disorder. While the present definition focuses mainly on observable behaviours, the proposed revision stresses interpersonal and emotional aspects of the disorder drawing on the concept of psychopathy. The present commentary suggests that developments leading to improvement in the diagnosis of this type of disorder should, rather than focusing exclusively on elements such as dangerousness and risk assessment, point us to ways in which patients can be treated for their problems.

Intimate Partner Aggression Reporting Concordance and Correlates of Agreement Among Men With Alcohol use Disorders and Their Female Partners

This study examined relationship aggression reporting concordance among 303 men with alcohol use disorders and their female partners enrolled in couples-based alcohol abuse treatment. Agreement for physical and psychological aggression was generally consistent with, or higher than, concordance rates reported among other populations. Men's antisocial personality disorder characteristics were the strongest predictor of higher concordance for male- and female-perpetrated aggression. Higher alcohol problem severity, poorer relationship adjustment, and higher psychopathic personality features were associated with better concordance in some analyses. Women reported experiencing more physical aggression than men reported perpetrating, and women reported perpetrating more psychological aggression than men reported experiencing. Findings highlight the importance of obtaining aggression reports from both partners and the need for research investigating methods for improving concordance.

Prototypical Analysis of Antisocial Personality Disorder

The diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD) remains controversial with its inclusion criteria substantially modified with each new version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Given the continued nonconsensus about this disorder, prototypical analysis has been proposed as a method of establishing the core and most representative APD characteristics. Building on earlier prototypical research, the current study examined APD prototype with 448 inmates from three correctional institutions. Inmates differed from forensic experts on prototypical ratings in their emphasis on behavioral manifestations, especially aggressive and antisocial behavior. On a principal components analysis with a varimax rotation, three dimensions were observed: impaired/dishonest relationships and impulsivity, aggressive behavior, and non-violent delinquency. A comparison of factor scores based on earlier research revealed that the salience of “manipulation and lack of guilt” for forensic experts was not shared by inmates. The implications of prototypical analysis for the conceptualization of APD are discussed.

Psychiatric disorders and accidental injury

Studies that have examined the relationship between psychiatric disorders and burn injuries, traffic accidents, and general accidents are reviewed. The prevalence of psychiatric disorders in accident victims has been found to be greater than estimates for the general population. However, not all psychiatric disorders appear to carry an increased degree of accident vulnerability. Personality disorders and alcohol abuse are seen in elevated numbers in accident victims, whereas anxiety and depressive disorders are not seen to be more prevalent than in the general population. Mechanisms through which certain psychiatric disorders may lead to an increased accident vulnerability are discussed. Characteristics of antisocial personality disorder and alcoholism may render a person particularly vulnerable to experiencing an accident, as may maladaptive ways of dealing with stress, such as the tendency to use emotion-focused coping. Evidence also indicates that once an accidental injury has been sustained, people with psychiatric disorders are likely to have a longer period of recovery.

Sociobiology and antisocial personality. An alternative perspective.

The clinical characteristics of antisocial personality disorder are well defined, but poorly explained in developmental or etiological terms. After reviewing basic tenets of sociobiology, a theory of the etiology of antisocial personality is developed. Predictions that flow from this etiological theory are compared with published data for the disorder. These comparisons suggest that sociobiological theory provides a powerful and predictive etiological hypothesis for antisocial personality disorder. Social and clinical implications and avenues for future study of antisocial personality are suggested, as are potential relationships of this theoretical approach to other psychopathological conditions.