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PubMed1989

Wilson's disease: a prospective study of psychopathology in 31 cases.

A prospective neuropsychiatric study of 31 consecutive subjects with Wilson's disease is reported. Exploratory factor analysis yielded four factors: neurological, cognitive, hepatic/depressive and psychiatric. Significant associations were found between a 'psychopathic' personality factor and neurological and dysarthria scores. The d' and beta coefficients of a signal-detection memory task dissociated: the former correlated only with Mini-Mental State and Benton visuospatial task; and the latter with depressive symptoms. Using discriminant function analysis, there was efficient classification of 'psychopathic' personality by dysarthria, and of individual depressive symptoms by disturbance of gait. Biochemical markers of hepatic dysfunction were significantly associated with certain depressive symptoms. No evidence emerged to support the putative association with schizophrenia-like psychosis.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Selected Rorschach variables of psychopathic juvenile offenders.

Despite the widely accepted utility of assessing psychopathic personality features in forensic and clinical settings, the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 1991) stands virtually alone in its ability to do so with adequate reliability and validity. Recent studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of the Rorschach Inkblot Method in assessing psychopathy in adult samples, but almost no studies are currently available investigating the Rorschach's ability to assess the condition in younger samples of precisely defined psychopathic groups. In this study, 66 male juvenile offenders, ages 14 to 17, were placed into 3 groups according to level of psychopathy as measured by the youth version of the PCL-R (PCL:YV; Forth, 1995). Nine Rorschach variables conceptually related to various psychopathic features were investigated. Two of the variables (Reflections and Texture Responses) demonstrated statistically significant differences across groups (p < .05). Two additional variables (Vista and White Space) were produced in patterns consistent with existing research, although only to a weak degree. The remaining variables (Egocentricity Index, Form Dimension, Pure Human Content, Inanimate Movement, and Diffuse Shading) did not differ across groups in the predicted directions. Overall, these results offer some support for the validity of the Rorschach as a method of detecting certain psychopathic personality features, including pathological narcissism and interpersonal detachment, in adolescent male offenders.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Psychopathy across cultures: North America and Scotland compared.

Differences in the prevalence and presentation of psychopathic personality disorder between North America and Scotland were evaluated. R. D. Hare's (1991) Psychopathy Checklist--Revised ratings obtained from a sample of 2,067 North American male prisoners and forensic patients were compared with ratings obtained from 246 Scottish male prisoners. Item response theory methods were used to examine differences in the performance of items and to equate the scale across settings. The items had equal relevance to the description of psychopathic personality disorder in both settings; however, the Scottish prisoners had to have higher levels of the underlying latent trait before certain characteristics became apparent. The prevalence of the disorder appears to be lower in Scotland. Explanations for the observed differences in terms of enculturation, socialization, and migration are explored.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Psychopathy and drug addiction].

The author presents a study comparing psychopathic personality and drug addiction with regard to diagnosis, aethiopathogenia and treatment. Two third of drug addicts have associated personality disorders related to psychopathic disorders. Treatment on Therapeutic Communities provides a good alternative to both treatments in out patients or in open care units. The results obtained support the value of such a system in discussions about the taking over of patients in Social Defense Institutes and in jails.

Ambulatory Care↗
PubMed1980

An attempt at an empirical delimitation of neurasthenic neurosis and its relation with some character traits.

This research examines empirically: 1) The existence and delimitation of a clinical neurasthenic neurotic syndrome as defined by van Dantzig & Waage (1962), consisting of feelings of impotence, fatigue, exhaustion and accompanying functional complaints, by means of a hierarchical cluster analysis of the rating answers to a questionnaire. 2) The relation between neurasthenic neurosis and character traits relating to different neurotic personality types and a psychopathic personality type. The results do not confirm the existence of this theoretically defined neurasthenic neurosis, but we find a cluster of somatic complaints which can easily be identified with what most authors consider as a neurasthenic syndrome. This empirically found neurasthenic syndrome has a significant positive relation with an anal-obsessive character trait "over-tidiness and over-cleanliness" and not with a neurotic-inhibited obsessoid character in general, other specific neurotic character traits, or a psychopathic character. On differentiating between patients presenting the syndrome for more or less than 6 months, it is seen that in the category of more than 6 months there is a tendency to an increase of a neurotic-inhibited obsessoid character in general, an anal-obsessive character trait "over-tidiness and over-cleanliness" and a so-called psychasthenic character relating to an intense ego-ideal and narcissistic tendencies.

Humans↗
PubMed2004

Dimensions of personality disorders in offenders.

BACKGROUND: Owing to criticisms of current concepts of personality disorders such as high comorbidity, criteria overlap and arbitrary thresholds of categorical diagnoses, a dimensional assessment is proposed that considers interrelations between different personality disorders. Results of previous factor analyses using dimensional personality disorder scores have indicated that one underlying dimension shows strong similarities to the concept of psychopathy and is similarly related to criminal recidivism. AIM: The authors examined the underlying dimensions of ICD-10 personality disorders, to analyse their association with criminal behaviour in general, and with specific criminal history variables. METHOD: Study samples included 105 offenders and 80 non-criminal controls. Personality disorders were measured using a clinical structured interview (IPDE), measures of personality using self-report (NEO-FFI, IPC, HDHQ), and criminal history variables obtained from court records. RESULTS: Three underlying personality disorder factors could be identified, which showed identical structures in both the forensic and the non-forensic sample. Factor 1 comprised emotionally unstable, histrionic, paranoid and dissocial traits and showed strong similarity to the construct of psychopathy. Factor 2 was defined by anankastic personality disorder scores and an inverse relation to schizoid personality features. Factor 3 showed high negative loadings of anxious and dependent personality disorders. Self-report measures of personality and criminal history variables yielded different associations with the three PD dimensions. Offenders with high scores on factor 1 were highly aggressive, violent and impulsive. CONCLUSIONS: The findings generally replicated previous analyses using DSM-III personality disorder scores. Differences can be explained by the different constructs of personality disorders included in ICD-10. Although a diagnosis of psychopathy is not currently included in these diagnostic systems, the authors' findings indicate that a highly inter-related pattern of personality disorder scores constitutes psychopathic personality disorder and can be used to identify impulsive, hostile and violent offenders.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Intentional false responding shares neural substrates with response conflict and cognitive control.

The ability to deceive others is a high-level social and cognitive function. It has been suggested that response conflict and cognitive control increase during deceptive acts but this hypothesis has not been evaluated directly. Using fMRI, we tested this prediction for the execution of an intentional false response. Subjects were instructed to respond truthfully or falsely to a series of yes/no questions that were also varied in autobiographical and nonautobiographical content to further examine the influence of personal relevance when lying. We observed an interference effect (longer reaction times for false versus true responses) that was accompanied by increased activation within the anterior cingulate, caudate and thalamic nuclei, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), a circuit that has been implicated in response conflict and cognitive control. Behavioral and neural effects were more robust when falsifying autobiographical responses relative to nonautobiographical responses. Furthermore, a correlation between reaction time and left caudate activity supported the presence of increased response inhibition when falsifying responses. When presented with self-relevant (autobiographical) stimuli regardless of response condition, the mesial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices were recruited. Neural activity within these two regions and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) also showed correlations with self-report personality measures from the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI). Overall, we conclude that the process of interference is inherent to the act of falsifying information and that the amount of conflict induced and cognitive control needed to successfully execute false responses is greater when dealing with personal information.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Psychopathic traits and autonomic responding to concealed information in a prison sample.

We examined the role of psychopathic traits on physiological responding during a concealed information polygraph test among prison inmates (n = 40). The Psychopathic Personality Inventory (Lilienfeld & Andrews, 1996) was used to assess psychopathic traits. Cardiac, electrodermal, and respiratory responses were measured while participants were presented with personal and control names and asked to conceal recognition of personal information. We first piloted the present concealed information test in a sample of undergraduates (n = 27). Enhanced orienting to concealed information compared to control information was observed in both prisoners and undergraduates. However, prisoners scoring high on the Impulsive Antisociality factor of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI-II) exhibited reduced electrodermal responding. This finding indicates that the sensitivity of the concealed information test may be decreased in antisocial offenders.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Personality, personality disorders, and defense mechanisms.

The prototype approach was used to assess the presence of personality features associated with borderline, narcissistic, histrionic, and psychopathic personality syndromes in a sample of 91 young adults from the Block and Block (1980) longitudinal study. These personality prototypes were found to be related to the use of denial and projection, and especially to the immature manifestations of those defenses, in ways consistent with theory.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Understanding the abnormal by studying the normal.

OBJECTIVE: In the present paper we ask whether it is meaningful to study psychopathic traits in non-referred youths and whether this kind of research can be used to understand the development of criminal full-blown psychopathy. METHOD: We review studies that have investigated the utility of assessing psychopathic traits in non-referred samples of youths. RESULTS: Research shows that psychopathic traits in non-referred youths manifest similarly to how they are manifested among incarcerated offenders, as indicated by similarities in factor structures. Also, psychopathic traits relate similarly to frequent, violent antisocial behavior in non-referred youths as among adult and adolescent institutionalized criminal offenders. Thus, the differences between the non-referred conduct-problem youths exhibiting a psychopathic personality pattern and the incarcerated, criminal youths identified as psychopathic seem to be quantitative rather than qualitative. CONCLUSION: It is concluded that research on non-referred youth samples can provide important knowledge about the processes that underlie the development of psychopathic traits and how this development can be prevented. Implications for future research and intervention and prevention are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

[Do the results of reduction-plasties of the breast justify indications for operation?].

From 1961-1985 we have made by cause of hyperplasia 226 mammaplasties. By continuous follow-up examinations we found out that more than 90% of our patients were quite satisfied with the result and its remarkable that in some cases the women were more happy than the doctor. At all times we have seen a medical indication in order to do a mammaplasty. But before such an operation it seems necessary to analyse the structure of personality. For sake of the surgeon and the surgical method psychopathic personalities should be refused.

Breast↗
PubMed2006

Neuropsychological implications of selective attentional functioning in psychopathic offenders.

Several core characteristics of the psychopathic personality disorder (i.e., impulsivity, failure to attend to interpersonal cues) suggest that psychopaths suffer from disordered attention. However, there is mixed evidence from the cognitive literature as to whether they exhibit superior or deficient selective attention, which has led to the formation of several distinct theories of attentional functioning in psychopathy. The present experiment investigated participants' abilities to purposely allocate attentional resources on the basis of auditory or visual linguistic information and directly tested both theories of deficient or superior selective attention in psychopathy. Specifically, 91 male inmates at a county jail were presented with either auditory or visual linguistic cues (with and without distractors) that correctly indicated the position of an upcoming visual target in 75% of the trials. The results indicated that psychopaths did not exhibit evidence of superior selective attention in any of the conditions but were generally less efficient in shifting attention on the basis of linguistic cues, especially in regard to auditory information. Implications for understanding psychopaths' cognitive functioning and possible neuropsychological deficits are addressed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

The contingent negative variation, personality and antisocial behaviour.

Using a classical click/flash paradigm the contingent negative variation (CNV) was recorded from 60 consecutive male admissions to Broadmoor Hospital. Clinical and psychometric Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) assessments were made independently of the electroencephalography (EEG) data. A trend for higher amplitude CNV's to be recorded from patients with a clinical diagnosis of antisocial (psychopathic) personality was observed. Patients with a Mental Health Act diagnosis of psychopathic disorder had significantly higher voltage CNV's than those in the mental illness category. These CNV differences were only found in the primary (non-anxious, sociable) psychopaths. Secondary (neurotic, unsociable) psychopaths did not differ from staff controls. A positive association between CNV voltage and the personality factor of sociability(sociable-shy dimension) was observed. A weak, negative correlation between CNV amplitude and impulsivity (impulsive-controlled dimension) was also apparent. All subjects showed an habituation effect across trials. No difference in response variability between successive series of trials was apparent in any of the patient groups.

Antisocial Personality Disorder↗
PubMed1994

Personality disorders: conceptual issues and responsibility.

The historical roots of the concepts of abnormal personality, social deviance, delinquency and penal responsibility are described, demonstrating that former concepts of psychopathic personality often included negative social evaluations. Modern classification systems such as DSM-III-R and ICD-10 prefer a behavior-oriented definition of personality disorders, which increases reliability but may lead to a reductionistic and purely criteriological assessment of personality. A checklist for the assessment of personality disorders (AMPS) according to ICD-10 and DSM-III-R is presented, including four subaffective forms derived from the typology of personality disorders described by Kurt Schneider and Kretschmer. To justify statements of diminished legal responsibility or irresponsibility under the German Penal Code, a differentiation between psychopathological phenomena in personality disorders and pure social deviance is needed. The three notions of psychopathy, sociopathy and dissocial behavior are suggested to guide necessary decisions concerning prognosis and therapy chances.

Antisocial Personality Disorder↗
PubMed2001

Construct validity of psychopathy in a community sample: a nomological net approach.

The construct validity of psychopathy was examined within a sample of 326 male and female university students. The interpersonal circumplex served as a nomological net for the examination of convergences between psychopathy measures and convergent and discriminant validity with a measure of personality disorders was examined using a matrix approach. Measures included: (a) Antisocial scale of the Personality Assessment Inventory (Morey, 1991); (b) Self-Report Psychopathy scale (Hare, 1991); (c) Psychopathic Personality Inventory (Lilienfeld & Andrews, 1996); (d) Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4 (Hyler, 1994); and (e) Interpersonal Adjective Scales Revised-Big 5 (Trapnell & Wiggins, 1991). Results indicated (a) substantial convergence between psychopathy measures; (b) high convergent validity between psychopathy measures and antisocial personality disorder; and (c) high discriminant validity from other personality disorders. The prevalence of psychopathy within this non-forensic sample is also discussed.

Adult↗