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PubMed1990

MMPI configural interpretation as applied to posttraumatic stress disorder in Vietnam veterans.

This study investigated the systems of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) configural interpretation of Skinner and Jackson (1978) and Kunce (1979) with Vietnam veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). MMPI profiles of four groups differing in combat exposure were compared on four MMPI configural variables from Kunce (1979) and Skinner and Jackson (1978). The four groups were (a) PTSD sufferers, (b) Vietnam combat veterans without PTSD, (c) Vietnam noncombat veterans, and (d) Vietnam era veterans. All groups were further divided into hospitalized versus nonhospitalized subgroups. Dependent variables were Skinner and Jackson's (a) sociopathic modal profile, (b) neurotic profile, (c) psychotic profile, and (d) Kunce's emotional expression (enthusiastic-reserved) dimension. Results indicated that hospitalized PTSD subjects had significantly higher scores on Skinner and Jackson's neurotic profile; both hospitalized and nonhospitalized PTSD subjects had higher scores on the psychotic profile and were more "reserved" on Kunce's emotional expression dimension. Results were interpreted in terms of configural MMPI interpretation systems and the adjustment of Vietnam veterans with PTSD. PTSD was viewed as exhibiting cognitive, somatic, and affective features.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Aversive conditioning in the sociopath.

Results of two experiments on differential conditioning of the skin conductance (SCR) in sociopaths and normal control subjects are described. In the first experiment it was found that an equal number of sociopaths and control subjects were aware of the conditioning contingency. However, only the normal subjects displayed reliable differential SCR conditioning. Sociopaths showed a dissociation between verbal learning and conditioning of a physiological change. The second experiment examined the differential conditioning of normal subjects and sociopaths in partial remission. The number of aware subjects in the two groups did not differ. Aware subjects in both groups showed differential SCR conditioning. Differential conditioning in sociopaths did not persist over trials as it did in control subjects. A deficiency in ACTH 4--10 as well as neurological dysfunctions were considered possible factors in the etiology of sociopathy. Further research on the relation of neuropeptides to the etiology and treatment of sociopathy is suggested.

Adrenocorticotropic Hormone↗

PubMed1968

[Character disorders and social maladjustment].

1020 juvenile delinquents were subjected to psychiatric examinations between 1960 and 1965 which in about 50 percent of them showed certain deviations from the psychic standard. The largest group (372) was that with disorders of the central nervous system (characteropathy). By special examinations (pneumoencephalography, arteriography, and electroencephalography) it was possible to find variations in the form of an internal hydrocephaly, cerebral atrophy, or anomaly in the electroencephalogram. The investigations also showed that characteropathic individuals more easily succumb to the demoralizing influence of a specific environment and also yielded to a secondary sociopathization. They constituted the most difficult element in the reformatories. From a scientific investigation of the problem of juvenile delinquents the practical conclusion is to be drawn that it is absolutely necessary to create medicopedagogic reform schools, the activities of which are based upon the latest achievements in psychopharmacology, psychotherapy, and therapeutic education.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1978

The use of the Goldberg Indices with alcoholics: a cautionary note.

Applied Goldberg's (1972) regression equation for the classification of MMPI profiles to the MMPI profiles of 173 alcoholic male veterans. All Ss also completed a detailed alcoholic life history questionnaire. It was hypothesized that there would be differences between the life history responses of those Ss classified as sociopathic and those classified as normal neurotic, or psychotic. However, analysis revealed no significant differences between the groups. This finding is discussed in terms of the relationship of life events to diagnosis and the validity of the use of Goldberg Indices with alcoholic patients.

Alcoholism↗

PubMed1978

Milieu therapy with the adolescent sociopath.

This paper defines sociopathy, presents current research experimentation being conducted and findings as to its causes and treatment. Also presented is a description of a milieu therapy program for the adolescent sociopath. Both preventive and active treatment methods in this program are discussed. The value of the milieu therapy approach is shown in its attempt to keep the adolescent sociopath engaged in constructive activities and relationships in order to overcome antisocial behavior patterns. With the failure of individual therapy alone to reinforce normal living patterns and overcome lack of socialization functions in the adolescent sociopath, a more comprehensive and effective approach is required. Such an approach is described in which the following are stressed: 1) prevention of incarceration, 2) prevention of rejection by parents, peers and teachers, 3) active treatment of hyperkinesis and specific learning disabilities, 4) utilization of "sponsors," and 5) multiple therapist (family, group, individual) programs.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1987

Alcohol and drug use and involvement in automobile accidents.

This study examined a hypothesis first presented in the medical literature that persons who drink greater amounts of alcohol are more frequently involved in automobile accidents even though they were not under the influence of alcohol at the time of their accidents. Subjects were 130 undergraduates who contributed self-reports of automobile accidents in the preceding three years, near-miss accidents per week, and questionnaire measures of sociopathy, alcohol and drug use, and distortion (lie scale). No support was found for the alcohol hypothesis or a similar drug hypothesis. A very marginal link, however, was observed between accident involvement and sociopathic tendencies.

Accidents, Traffic↗

PubMed1990

The frequency and significance of additional self-reported psychiatric diagnoses in children with attention deficit disorder.

The frequency of additional self-reported diagnoses in a large, heterogeneous sample of attention deficit disorder (ADD) children (N = 182) was determined using the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents (DICA). Over half the children had additional DICA diagnoses, with oppositional disorder and anxiety/mood disorders the most frequent. ADD boys with internalizing-type diagnoses had lower verbal IQs and arithmetic scores and performed more poorly on attention tasks than those without; parents also rated them more adversely. Those with externalizing-type diagnoses were rated as more aggressive by teachers and had sociopathic, thrill-seeking profiles on paper-pencil self-ratings. Over 40% of the children were dyslexic or slow learners but they had no higher rate of DICA diagnoses than those who read adequately.

Achievement↗

PubMed1976

Completed suicide: a taxonomic analysis of clinical and social data.

A post mortem enquiry has been made into the social family and clinical circumstances of 50 individuals who, according to a coroner's verdict, killed themselves in Brighton. A dimensional analysis of the 123 variables thus collected suggested the possibility of three distinct types of suicide: "depressive suidice', "sociopathic suicide' and "physical illness suicide'. The reliability of this typology has been checked by the analysis of 55 selected variables for a total of 193 cases considered by the same coroner. A cluster analysis has confirmed that the data contained at least three independent types of suicide. Some implications for the prevention of suicide are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1976

Sociopathy, self-actualization, and time.

Male sociopaths (n = 15), and self-actualizers (n = 15) ages 18-30, were compared on 18 measures of temporal behavior obtained from estimation, projective, and questionnaire techniques. Subjects differed significantly on half of these measures including time accuracy, delay, dominance, relatedness, and evaluation of the various time modes. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical notions of time, positive levels of coping, and therapeutic modifications of time-linked behavior.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

NETER alcoholic typology (NAT).

AIMS: To establish an alcohol-dependent drinker's clinical typology, based on patients attending the Alcoholism Unit of Santa Maria's General Hospital in Lisbon, Portugal. METHODS: A multivariate statistical analysis was used to extract the typology solution. RESULTS: We obtained five factors: Anxiopathic, typifies anxious functioning; Heredopathic, congregates familiar and genetic influences on alcoholism; Thimopathic, typified by affective symptomatology; Sociopathic, characterized by disruptive behaviours under alcohol influence; and Adictopathic, isolates younger individuals who consume alcohol and other types of psychoactive substances. CONCLUSIONS: There are increasingly alcoholic polymorphic subtypes derived from the interactive complexity between genetic/family and psychosocial factors.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

[Anxiety and depression levels in rape offenders].

Whether the active subject of rape possesses a particular personality trait is a much debated matter. It is an accepted fact that a small amount of rapists fall into the sadistic diagnostic category. Other psychopatologic traits likely to identify a rapist are, however, unknown. The present study was carried over at a jail near the city of Xalapa (Veracruz) Mexico. Hamilton, IDARE, and Zung scales, in their modified Spanish version were applied to a sample of imprisoned adult rapists. Compared to their control group (men serving sentences for other felonies), rapists scored higher in anxiety, and depression scales. In the light of these results, it is suggested that some rapists are likely to be anxious-depressive subjects that, after having "acquired" a sociopathic repertoire, offend other people in conditions of indefensiveness, contrary to depressive subjects who aggress themselves.

Adult↗

PubMed1985

Stressful life events and alcohol misuse in women: a critical review.

The literature on stressful life events and alcohol misuse in women is critically reviewed. Many researchers have suggested that women begin to misuse alcohol in response to stress linked to precipitating circumstances or life events. Middle-aged women are felt to be especially at risk because of the nature of the events that they are likely to experience, e.g., divorce, bereavement and departure of children from the home. Evidence for these views has been collected by asking patients to recall particular events in their past that they considered may have caused their heavy drinking. This approach has several methodological problems, most notably the failure to deal with the possibility that heavy drinking produced an increased frequency of stressful life events rather than vice versa. It has been speculated that women are more likely to attribute their heavy drinking to causes that are more likely to elicit sympathy than condemnation. None of the studies discussed has considered the possibility that the link between life events and heavy drinking reflects the activities of a sizable subgroup of women described as "sociopathic" alcoholics, the disturbance producing an excess of both events and excessive alcohol consumption. Considerable criticism has been leveled at the use of poorly validated concepts such as "mid-life crisis" and the tendency to use terms such as "menopausal syndrome" as an explanation for almost any difficulty experienced by women in middle age. It is concluded that the hypothesis that stressful life events cause excessive drinking remains to be empirically demonstrated.

Alcoholism↗

PubMed1996

Elevated tryptophan levels in post-withdrawal alcoholics.

Changes in serotonin function and disturbances in tryptophan availability have been implicated in many psychiatric disorders, including alcoholism. In the present study we took serum free tryptophan samples from 31 healthy volunteer controls and from 42 DSM-III-R alcohol-dependent subjects who had abstained from alcohol for at least 2.5 weeks (range 2.5-104 weeks). We also measured the basal serum cortisol level at 09.00 hours for the same subjects and controls. There was a significant increase in the serum tryptophan level of the alcoholic subjects, by 43.7 mumol l-1 (range 29-63 mumol l-1), regardless of age of onset of alcoholism, family history of alcoholism or sociopathic traits, compared to the controls (33.0 mumol l-1, range 19-60 mumol l-1). There was also an increase in the basal serum cortisol level in the alcoholic subjects compared to the controls, but this was not related to the increase in tryptophan levels. These findings indicate a disturbance in serotonin precursor availability in post-withdrawal alcoholics, and contribute to the evidence for involvement of the serotonin system in alcoholism.

Adult↗

PubMed1982

Hospitalized adolescents who act out: a treatment approach.

The general propensity of hospitalized adolescents to act out and to become locked in conflict with the staff is well documented. The fact that these patients are adolescent and incarcerated all but guarantees that disruptions will take place, and when these disruptions reach impasse proportions, collective distress and disturbance will generally result (Crabtree and Cox 1972; Marohn, Dalle-Molle, and Offer 1973; Levinson and Crabtree 1979; Crabtree and Levinson 1980). Often the catalyst for this type of ward tension is the borderline or sociopathic delinquent. The sensitivity of these patients to injustice and their capacity to provoke abuse exacerbates the ever-present tendency of their fellow adolescent patients to rebel and oppose. This paper will provide guidelines which can help to maximize the treatability of severely acting-out adolescent patients in the hospital setting and protect the treatment program from their destructiveness. First, I will focus on a specialized unit in a general psychiatric hospital. The unit consisted of approximately 20 patients, male and female, in their teens to early 20s, with an average stay of three months. One-fourth were psychotic, one-fourth had marked problems of behavior with school, family and the law, and one-half were suicidally depressed or afflicted with other self-destructive personality disorders. Next I will explore aspects of handling the "outlaw leader"--the persistent delinquent who initiates and orchestrates a process of disruptive transformation of the therapeutic community, characterized by the dominance of frustration, provocation, and retaliation by the staff.

Acting Out↗

PubMed1985

Schizophrenia in early adolescence. A study illustrated by long-term cases.

The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to schizophrenias starting in early adolescence, before age 15. Diagnosis may be difficult because such early manifestations may differ from the classical schizophrenias and from the traditional subgroups. The authors caution against a too liberal interpretation of normal problems in adolescence. In comment on the literature, particular weight is placed on descriptions of schizophrenias in adolescence. Some typical early manifestations of schizophrenia are described including, among other traits, depressive states and sociopathic behaviour. Key symptoms such as thought disturbances or flattening of affect may be lacking. Five long-term cases were chosen. None was classified in childhood as infantile borderline. A diagnosis of schizophrenia was made in adolescence. In the cases where Schneider's criteria are not fulfilled, other hard evidence of schizophrenia is given. Emphasis is placed on the importance of early diagnosis.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1980

Psychometric comparisons of sociopathic and psychopathological behaviors of alcoholics and drug abusers versus a low drug use control population.

Scales derived from a self-administered questionnaire were used to assess the degree of sociopathy, alcohol/drug abuse, low moods, and sleep disturbances in 53 outpatient alcoholics, 11 prisoner-addicts, and 54 controls. Separate preadult and adult scales assessed pre- and postaddiction behaviors. Methodology differs from previous studies in that scaling permitted assessment of sociopathy, alcoholism, and drug abuse as graded phenomena; and drug scoring, as a function of number, frequency, and seriousness, was established prior to data collection. Data provide support for an affective-antisocial spectrum disorder characterized by early onset, low moods, and alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and/or antisocial behaviors.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Significance of a single tattoo in dyssocial probands. Statistical comparison of socially maladjustment, male delinquents with and without tattoos].

Although tattooing is not confined to the circle of sociopaths and delinquents, it is widely known, that criminal offenders always had heightened tendencies towards this kind of body ornamentation. The author makes an attempt to clarify the significance of a single tattoo in a sample of male delinquents by comparing the tattooed and the non-tattooed individuals. In spite of the popular prejudice, the results of this trial show, that delinquents with one tattoo stem from comparatively more favourable familiar backgrounds, are less loaded with mental disorders and delinquency among blood relatives, show better scholastic and professional accomplishments. However, tendencies toward addictive and delinquent behavior were comparable in the two groups.

Adult↗

PubMed1980

Sociopathic adaptations in psychotic patients.

Many chronic psychotic patients make pathological adaptations to the environments imposed on them as a result of their illnesses, and those adaptations often distort the clinical picture and make it difficult for the psychiatrist to make a satisfying diagnosis and treatment plan. An example is the hospitalized patient who makes a dramatic recovery from his psychosis on the day his public assistance check is scheduled to arrive in the mail. The patient has developed the capacity to bend the course of his psychosis to his will, forcing it to serve his practical needs. The author presents several examples of patients who shift the focus of their activity from the manipulation and distortion of internal reality to the idiosyncratic manipulation of their external environments.

Adaptation, Psychological↗