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Disorders characterized by poor impulse control.

BACKGROUND: Impulse Control Disorders (ICDs) are an eclectic group of conditions in which a person has a drive, urge, or temptation, to perform a potentially harmful act, or fails to resist an impulse. METHODS: Authors reviewed the current medical literature addressing this diverse group of disorders. RESULTS: Although the behaviors associated with these conditions can cause a great deal of suffering for patients and their families, they have remained relatively under-researched and poorly characterized. CONCLUSIONS: Recent studies have explored both pharmacological and psychosocial treatments, giving rise to greater hope for the development of more effective treatments for these challenging disorders.

Diagnosis, Differential↗

Behavioural effects of long-term multi-sensory stimulation.

OBJECTIVES: Regular access to a multi-sensory environment (MSE or Snoezelen room) was compared with a non-complex sensory environment for individuals with learning disabilities. We also tested the prediction that those individuals whose challenging behaviour was maintained by sensory consequences would benefit most from exposure to the MSE. DESIGN: The conditions were compared over 16-week periods using a double crossover design, and were matched for social contact and attention from the enabler. Participants were randomly assigned to orders of treatments. METHODS: Participants were 27 adults with severe/profound learning disabilities who exhibited challenging behaviour. Behaviour was assessed before and after each treatment phase using both direct observation and standardized assessments (the Functional Performance Record and the Problem Behaviour Inventory). The behavioural observations formed the basis of a functional analysis of each individual's challenging behaviour. RESULTS: Some participants became more calm and relaxed while in the MSE, however, the objective measures of behaviour outside the treatment settings revealed no difference between the MSE and control conditions. Challenging behaviour maintained by sensory consequences showed no greater responsivity to the MSE than to the control condition. CONCLUSIONS: The multi-sensory environment had no effects beyond those that could be ascribed to the social interaction between participant and enabler. Anecdotal evidence of favourable responses within the MSE itself could not be confirmed outside the environment.

Adult↗

Clinical features and psychiatric comorbidity of subjects with pathological gambling behavior.

OBJECTIVE: Sociodemographic features, phenomenology, and psychiatric comorbidity of 30 subjects reporting pathological gambling behavior were examined. METHODS: Twenty-three men and seven women were recruited by advertisement and word-of-mouth. They all scored higher than 5 points on the South Oaks Gambling Screen, indicating problematic gambling behaviors. They completed structured and semistructured assessments, including the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for DSM-III-R disorders (DIS), the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire, Fourth Revision (PDQ-IV), and the Minnesota Impulsive Disorders Interview. RESULTS: The typical subject was a 44-year-old white married man with a mean income of $34,250 who visited a casino once or more weekly. All 30 subjects reported gambling more money than they intended to. Twenty subjects (67 percent) reported gambling as a current problem, and nine (30 percent) reported it as a past problem. Twenty-one subjects (70 percent) wanted to stop gambling but did not feel they could. According to DIS results, 18 subjects (60 percent) had a lifetime mood disorder, 19 (64 percent) a lifetime substance use disorder, and 12 (40 percent) a lifetime anxiety disorder. Based on the PDQ-IV, 26 subjects (87 percent) had a personality disorder, the most common being obsessive-compulsive, avoidant, schizotypal, and paranoid personality disorders. The sample also had a relatively high rate of antisocial personality disorder. Impulse control disorders were common, especially compulsive buying and compulsive sexual behavior. CONCLUSIONS: The results confirm that individuals with pathological gambling suffer substantial psychiatric comorbidity. They support continued inclusion of pathological gambling in the diagnostic category of impulse control disorders.

Adult↗

Impulsivity: a discussion of clinical and experimental findings.

Impulsivity can often be an important clinical problem in psychiatry and neurology. In psychiatry, the manifestation of impulsive behaviour in syndromes such as personality disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and in substance abuse may be different, and this has led to conflicting definitions. There has also been a tendency to concentrate on the nature of the behavioural manifestation (problems with the law, aggression, drug use, behavioural problems in school) rather than shared psychological processes, and to ignore the fact that impulsivity can also have positive aspects. In a normal population, the personality trait of impulsivity has been analysed using personality inventory questionnaires. Analysis of these data lead to the suggestion that impulsivity as commonly defined and understood may be made up of several independent factors, which may have separate biological bases. These self-rating questionnaires have been complemented by objective tests that are now often computerized, and which have been used in man (e.g. with criminal offenders, children, or patients who have undergone brain surgery). Some of these tests, such as the differential reinforcement of low rates procedure or the delay of reinforcement procedure, have also been used to study impulsivity in animals. Analysis of the behavioural principles of these tests suggests that they too may reflect different aspects of impulsivity. Many different biological systems have been proposed to contribute to the neurobiological basis of impulsivity. The serotonergic neurotransmitter system has recently received the most attention, with evidence of its involvement coming from animal studies as well as from studies in psychiatric patients. The frontal lobes have been proposed to play an important role in regulating impulsivity, although it unclear how specific this is. None of this biological knowledge has yet led to reliable pharmacotherapy for excessive impulsivity and, as yet, there is little understanding of the mechanisms by which those drugs, which have been found empirically to have some efficacy (e.g. the psychomotor stimulants in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), exert their therapeutic effect. By bringing together knowledge from different areas of research it is hoped that a cross fertilization will be achieved, which will lead to a sharpening of concepts, an improvement in methodology and the stimulation of biological studies.

Adult↗

Evaluation of pharmacological treatment of impulsivity in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

We used an assessment that involved competing reinforcer dimensions in a concurrent-schedules arrangement to examine the effects of stimulant medication on impulsivity (i.e., sensitivity of choices to reinforcer immediacy relative to rate, quality, and effort) with 4 students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The assessments were administered in the context of a double-blind, placebo-controlled, counterbalanced reversal design. Reinforcer immediacy was the most influential dimension for 3 of the students and the second most influential dimension for 1 of the students across placebo and medication conditions; medication did not affect these sensitivities.

Adolescent↗

Pathological gambling. Identification and treatment.

1. Social gamblers view gambling as a form of entertainment or recreation and gamble with no harmful effects, while problem gamblers' behavior causes disruption or harm to themselves or others in major life areas. Pathological gamblers fail to resist the impulse to gamble, with the resulting loss of control in their gambling behavior. 2. Pathological gambling is a primary mental health disorder of impulse control. 3. Treatment for pathological gamblers should be individualized, and interventions should address both the gambling disorder and any comorbid disorders.

Adult↗

Incurable psychopaths?

Treatment, comprising pharmacotherapy and an educational program based on cognitive behavior therapy, of four psychopathic, criminal men fulfilling the criteria for borderline personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder is described. The diagnoses were made during a forensic psychiatric evaluation. An estimation of the capacity of the central serotonergic system was performed by analysing the platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity. The pharmacotherapy was combined with an educational program involving strategies for developing better impulse control. All four men had earlier been regarded as resistant to conventional therapy. In the present cases, a combined psychosocial and biological approach seemed to be effective in developing an increased control of impulses, leading to improved coping strategies. Controlled studies are needed in order to clarify whether the described treatment program proves beneficial.

Adult↗

[Acting out and psychoactive substances: alcohol, drugs, illicit substances].

In humans, some psychotropic agents (alcohol, drugs, illicit substances) have been suggested to play a role in the occurrence of major behavioural disorders, mainly due to the suppression of psychomotor inhibition. Behavioural disinhibition is a physiological mechanism which allows humans to behave appropriately according to a given environmental situation. The behavioural disinhibition induced by either therapeutic dosage or misuse involves the loss of restraint over certain types of social behaviour and may increase the risk of auto or hetero-aggression and acting out. The increased use of psychotropic agents in recent years and the occurrence of unwanted effects are worrying and must be detected and evaluated. The objective of the present study was to establish a causal relationship between psychoactive substance use and occurrence of major behavioural disorders, such as paradoxical rage reactions and suicidal behaviour, based on a literature analysis. It consisted of reviewing reports of drug-induced violent reactions in healthy volunteers and demonstrating, where possible, a cause-effect relationship. Patients with schizophrenia and psychopathic personalities were not included in our study since psychiatric comorbidity could influence behavioural responses. Psychotropic agents included drugs, licit and illicit substances already associated with violence in the past. Many reports used the "Go/No Go test" to evaluate the disinhibiting effect of psychotropic substances; this allows the "cognitive mapping" of drugs. The results suggest that only alcohol, antidepressants, benzodiazepines and cocaïne are related to aggressive behaviour. The best known precipitant of behavioural disinhibition is alcohol, which induces aggressive behaviour. However, there are large differences between individuals, and attentional mechanisms are now recognised as being important in mediating the effects of alcohol. Suicidal tendency as an adverse antidepressant reaction is rare, especially with atypical antidepressants. However, the risk of acting out exists and the responsibility of antidepressant agents in the genesis of suicidal tendencies is now established. The disinhibiting effects of benzodiazepines are well-known and proven by clinical trials. It's a "model" of acting out, and the causal relationship is undeniable. That cocaïne is related to violent behaviour is demonstrated by its pharmacological actions on CNS. The chronic use of cocaïne induces "a limbic dyscontrol syndrome" based on the altered activity of limbic structures. On the contrary, we could not demonstrate a causal relationship between aggression and either cannabis, ecstasy or phencyclidine. Cannabis abusers look particularly for euphoria and relaxing effects. Aggression as an adverse cannabis reaction is very rare and occurs in most cases in association with other drugs and in predisposed individuals. Ecstasy use may lead to long-term alterations of neuronal function in the human CNS and cause psychiatric disorders. However, there is insufficient information about long-term use of ecstasy to estimate its role in the occurrence of behavioural disorders. Clinical and forensic assumptions about phencyclidine and violence were not warranted. However, the substance-effect relationships can be criticized in the case of alcohol, antidepressants, benzodiazepines and cocaïne. In fact, individual, social and psychiatric factors exert an influence on behaviour that is superior to the pharmacological effect of psychotropic agents. The most important parameter in drug-induced behavioural disinhibition is dosage, but mode of administration is also important. In addition, polysubstance abuse is very common. Substances may be taken simultaneously and alcohol is frequently combined with drugs. The combinations of substances result in multiple interactions, and very little is known about the effects of these interactions on violence in humans. Co-occurrence of substance abuse and other mental disorders is also very frequent. Multiple substance abuse should be avoided, because potential interactions between two or more drugs are more likely to cause violent behaviour. In the future, a specific treatment of these deleterious phenomena will have to be considered in order to reduce drug-induced iatrogenic behavioural disorders.

Alcoholism↗

Algorithms for pharmacological treatment of personality dimensions: symptom-specific treatments for cognitive-perceptual, affective, and impulsive-behavioral dysregulation.

A pharmacological approach to treating patients with personality disorders (PD) is based on evidence that some dimensions of personality are mediated by variations in neurotransmitter physiology and are responsive to medication effects. Target symptoms for pharmacotherapy in the PD patient are derived from expressions of cognitive-perceptual, affective, and impulsive-behavioral dysregulation of central neurotransmitter functions. Pharmacotherapy is directed at state symptoms during periods of acute decompensation and at trait vulnerabilities, which represent the diathesis to future episodes. A basic assumption of this approach is that neurotransmitter biology transcends Axis I and Axis II definitions and that closely related symptoms may share a common pathophysiology, independent of categorical definition. A common pathophysiology implies the possibility of shared responsiveness to medication. Using a dimensional definition of symptom domains, the author has developed treatment algorithms for cognitive-perceptual symptoms, affective dysregulation, and impulsive-behavioral dyscontrol in personality disorder patients.

Affective Symptoms↗

The relationship between substance use disorders, impulse control disorders, and pathological aggression.

The authors examine the relationship between substance use disorders, impulse control disorders (ICDs), and pathological aggression. Phenomenologic evidence, neurobiologic evidence, and comorbidity data, as well as evidence from the pharmacotherapy of aggression and impulse control and substance use disorders, suggest links between substance use, impulsivity, and pathologic aggression. There also is evidence suggesting that dysfunction in common neurotransmitter systems, particularly the serotonin and GABAergic systems, may be involved in both disorders. Serotonergic agents have been explored in the treatment of ICDs, pathological aggression, and substance use disorders. Mood-stabilizing anticonvulsant have GABAergic activity, have received preliminary exploration in the treatment of ICDs and aggression in a number of psychiatric disorders. There is also evidence that these agents may be useful in subgroups of individuals with substance use disorders.

Aggression↗

Prevalence estimates of pathological gambling in Switzerland.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of pathological gambling in the Swiss adult population before the introduction of new forms of gambling, and the link between pathological gambling and alcohol abuse. METHOD: 2526 telephone interviews were completed using standardized assessment instruments for identifying potential and probable pathological gamblers (SOGS) and alcohol abuse (CAGE). RESULTS: The current prevalence of probable and potential pathological gamblers were estimated to be 0.8% and 2.2%, respectively. The results also show a clear correlation between alcohol abuse and gambling behaviours. CONCLUSION: For the first time estimations are available of the Swiss prevalence rates of pathological gambling. Considering the link between gambling availability and increases in the prevalence of pathological gambling and the correlation between alcohol abuse and pathological gambling, the implications of these results for the prevention and treatment of this debilitating disorder are discussed.

Adult↗

Classification of amok in DSM-IV.

Culture-bound syndromes have been described worldwide in many individuals and, for certain syndromes, in epidemic proportion, yet these disorders have been classified as rare and exotic conditions warranting minimal attention. Development of the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the tenth edition of the International Classification of Diseases offers an opportunity for providing a more sophisticated classification of these phenomena. The authors examine amok, a syndrome first described in Malaysia that consists of homicidal frenzy preceded by a state of brooding and ending with somnolence and amnesia. They discuss the concept of and criteria for a culture-specific disorder and propose that amok be classified as a culture-specific explosive behavioral disorder in DSM-IV.

Antisocial Personality Disorder↗

Diagnosis, neurobiology, and treatment of pathological gambling.

Pathological gambling is a disabling disorder that affects at least 2 1/2 million Americans and their families. Although pathological gambling has been characterized as an impulse control disorder, it has also been associated with compulsivity. Essential features of pathological gambling include constantly recurring gambling behavior that is maladaptive, in that personal, familial, and/or vocational endeavors are disrupted. Affective disorders and substance abuse often co-occur. Incidence of suicidality is extremely high. Despite the fact that this disorder is a widespread public health problem, few controlled studies of causes or treatment have been conducted. Preliminary neurobiological studies implicate serotonergic dysfunction in pathological gamblers. Treatment with serotonin reuptake inhibitors, such as clomipramine and fluvoxamine, may be effective in treating this disorder. Well-defined and controlled clinical trials in large samples of pathological gamblers are needed.

Adolescent↗