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PubMed1983

[Features of emotional disorders in psychopathic personalities].

Emotional disorders were explored in patients with hysteric and psychoasthenic psychopathies and in those with hysteric pathocharacterologic development (a total of 154 patients) are present. Clinical and neurophysiologic research methods were employed. The results obtained suggest that an elevation in emotivity of both group patients represents the leading characteristic of pathocharacterologic disturbances playing the major role in the desadaptation of patients. The evidence also shows a general regularity in the organization of their higher nervous activity in the form of the tension of the adrenergic cerebral mechanism of adaptive reactions regulation which leads to a higher affectiveness.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1993

Living with a psychopathic personality: case history of a successful anti-social personality.

Anti-social personalities may be successful in life to a great extent. This is obscured by the tendency to study only those anti-social personalities who are imprisoned, in hospital, or undergoing therapy. We present a case history of Tom, a successful anti-social personality. He was 21 years old when the author lived with him for about 1 year. Tom used his skills to manipulate others and never went to prison nor was he ever ordered into therapy, although he did seek it out voluntarily for a brief period of time. Perhaps what kept him out of trouble with the law was that Tom stole only from friends and acquaintances, and not from strangers. He appeared to be an anti-social personality, but one who was fairly successful at it. Of course, the failure to develop non-manipulative close attachments to others means that the antisocial personality loses out by not having the kind of love, closeness, or stability of friendships that normal people can have.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Personality patterns among hospitalized vs. incarcerated psychopaths.

Subjected MMPI profiles of 80 hospitalized and 80 incarcerated white, male psychopathic personalities to a formal clustering procedure from which five primary types emerged. These types differed along four dimensions of profile pattern, and patients were distinguished from prisoners by a greater frequency of types in which psychopathic features were combined with nonpsychopathic forms of psychopathology. A higher average profile elevation also was obtained for hospitalized than incarcerated Ss, although frequencies of common two-point codes failed to discriminate significantly between these two groups. The results were seen to highlight the heterogeneity of psychopathy, to illustrate the potential of comparative studies of similarly diagnosed Ss from different clinical populations for clarifying this diversity, and to support the practice of deriving MMPI profile types by empirical methods rather than the currently popular two-point code approach.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

[Mechanisms of disorders in the assessment of external signals in psychopathies].

The author discusses some results of studies in evoked brain potentials of excitative and inhibitive psychopathic personalities. The evoked brain potentials to signal significant stimula in psychopaties are changed these changes being different in the groups of excitative and inhibitive psychopaths. In psychopathic personalities the amplitude changes to a significant stimula, not so much of the late but of the early components of response. The changes of early waves in the excitative and inhibited groups are differently directed. It can be supposed that these changes reflect the disturbances in the informational brain processes in psychopathic personalities which can be most distinctly seen in emotionally significant situation.

Antisocial Personality Disorder↗
PubMed1992

[Dysthymic disorder and depressive personality].

Depressive personality is a clinic category of Kurt Schneider psychopathic personalities. Despite definition of DSM III Axe II personality disorders criteria is Kurt Schneider' definition of psychopathic personalities, no depressive personality disorders is mentionned in Axe II. Axe I dysthymic disorder is a chronic state of depression with depressive traits. The hypothesis that some depressive personality disorders are included in this category cannot be rejected. More generally, DSM III classification regulation discriminate states, but, less operationally, traits which include affective variables with questionnable inter-rating reliability.

Depressive Disorder↗
PubMed2000

Neurocognitive function in antisocial personality disorder.

Recent neuroimaging studies and neuropsychological test findings support the contention that prefrontal dysfunction is associated with psychopathic personality traits and antisocial behavior. However, conflicting results have arisen regarding performance on measures of frontal executive function. We administered a neuropsychological test battery consisting of measures sensitive to frontal lobe dysfunction and a battery of personality questionnaires and clinical scales sensitive to antisocial personality disorder (APD) subjects presenting with prominent psychopathic personality features and matched control subjects. We also monitored the subjects' electrodermal activity during the presentation of emotionally charged stimuli. APD subjects showed greater neuropsychological deficits on measures sensitive to orbitofrontal dysfunction in comparison to control participants. Moreover, APD subjects were electrodermally hyporesponsive to aversive stimuli relative to control group members. APD subjects did not demonstrate performance deficits on classical tests of frontal executive function. Participants also underwent clinical assessment. As expected, APD subjects were less conscientious, self-reproaching, guilt-prone, and socially anxious than matched control subjects. Moreover, the scores indicated that APD subjects were more venturesome and uninhibited relative to control subjects. Contrary to expectations, APD subjects and community control subjects did not differ on a self-report measure of sensitivity to specific phobic situations.

Antisocial Personality Disorder↗
PubMed1983

Alcohol-abusing teenage boys. Testing a hypothesis on alcohol abuse and personality factors, using a personality inventory.

This is the second part of an investigation of alcohol-abusing teenage boys, focusing on personality. One group of 50 High-consumers and one group of 50 0-consumers were selected from 862 18-year-old boys in the general population summoned to the Regional Recruiting and Replacement Office in Solna. These boys answered a personality inventory (KSP) to test a hypothesis on alcohol abuse and personality factors which might indicate psychopathy. The results support the hypothesis that alcohol-abusing teenage boys have psychopathic personality traits while the non-consuming boys have normal personalities. The study cannot reveal whether the differences in personality were the result of the high alcohol consumption or if the psychopathic personality traits preceded the high consumption. A reasonable hypothesis for further research is that vulnerable boys living under poor social conditions react to their situation with motoric restlessness, impulsiveness and aggressive acting-out behaviour. Due to this their social adjustment as grown ups is poor with consequent alcohol and drug abuse and criminality.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

[Pathomorphosis of classical forms of psychopathies].

The paper deals with questions concerning the modification of classical forms of psychopathy. The forms of psychopathy are not invariable, rigid. They can change during the life span of one psychopathic personality and be expressed in an interchange of obligatory (main) and facultative (supplementary) personality traits, as well as in different variations of the facultative traits of a psychopathic personality. Besides, the forms of psychopathy may gradually change during separate periods (if comparing the structure of separate forms), which indicate the dependence of the structure and dynamics of psychopathy from the changing environment, home conditions, urbanization, cultural level, etc. This should be held in mind in selecting methods of treatment in psychopathy, in recommendations of rehabilitative measures and in forensic-psychiatric exminations.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Computerized tomography studies on schizophrenic diseases.

Earlier clinical pneumoencephalographic studies showed a subgroup of schizophrenics that have small and dysplastic cerebral ventricles as well as a subgroup with a "pure defect", i.e., a slight internal brain atrophy. In echoencephalograms of pure and mixed residual schizophrenic syndrome patients, a significantly higher average transverse diameter of the third ventricle was demonstrated compared to that in patients with complete remissions. Correlations cannot be expected between certain groups of disease, e.g., epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, or schizophrenia on the whole, and pneumoencephalographic (PEG) and CT findings. Only schizophrenics with distinct signs of pure defect that had persisted for at least 3 years revealed deviations from normal by CT and PEG, but those with irreversible fixed deformations of personality structure ("Strukturverformungen" [9,10]) did not. In patients who were 50 years of age or less with psychic reactive and psychopathic personality disorders, CT showed an average third ventricle diameter of 4.2 mm (range 2-6 mm). Of 117 schizophrenics (average age 35.5 years), only 28% revealed pathological CT changes. However, of 36 schizophrenics with pure residual syndromes 69% showed pathological CT findings that always concerned the third ventricle, rarely the lateral ventricles, and in no case the cortex. The average transverse diameter of the third ventricle in this subgroup with pure defect was 7.6 mm, as compared to 4.6 mm in the subgroup of schizophrenics with complete remission. There was no increase in size with increasing years until the 50th year in schizophrenics, as well as in the control group of variations of psychic being (neuroses and psychopathic personality disorders).

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Males on the life-course-persistent and adolescence-limited antisocial pathways: follow-up at age 26 years.

This article reports a comparison on outcomes of 26-year-old males who were defined several years ago in the Dunedin longitudinal study as exhibiting childhood-onset versus adolescent-onset antisocial behavior and who were indistinguishable on delinquent offending in adolescence. Previous studies of these groups in childhood and adolescence showed that childhood-onset delinquents had inadequate parenting, neurocognitive problems, undercontrolled temperament, severe hyperactivity, psychopathic personality traits, and violent behavior. Adolescent-onset delinquents were not distinguished by these features. Here followed to age 26 years, the childhood-onset delinquents were the most elevated on psychopathic personality traits, mental-health problems, substance dependence, numbers of children, financial problems, work problems, and drug-related and violent crime, including violence against women and children. The adolescent-onset delinquents at 26 years were less extreme but elevated on impulsive personality traits, mental-health problems, substance dependence, financial problems, and property offenses. A third group of men who had been aggressive as children but not very delinquent as adolescents emerged as low-level chronic offenders who were anxious, depressed, socially isolated, and had financial and work problems. These findings support the theory of life-course-persistent and adolescence-limited antisocial behavior but also extend it. Findings recommend intervention with all aggressive children and with all delinquent adolescents, to prevent a variety of maladjustments in adult life.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Evaluation of typical psychopathic traits with juvenile offenders].

UNLABELLED: The concept of psychopathy has received many definitions for the first days of psychiatry. Recently, the Hare's Psychopathy Check List Revised has been created. This scale has the advantage to investigate the classically characteristic traits of the syndrome (need of stimulation, lack of culpability, superficial activity, lack of empathy, impassivity) and to point out the early development of behavior disturbances. In the American classification (DSM IV), oppositional and aggressive behavior in child and adolescent is grouped under the Conduct Disorder diagnostic criteria. This trouble appears to be a strong predictive factor of psychopathy in adult. Identifying the high risk factors of evolution to psychopathic personality would allow an earlier intervention and prevention by multisystemic interventions for example. The present study aims to evaluate in what measure characteristic traits of psychopathy in adults are present in severe juvenile offenders and to point out, in a second time, the differences between adolescents meeting the DSM IV criteria for Conduct Disorder and a control population by a dimensional personality inventory. METHOD: The sample consists in 47 severe juvenile offenders referred for at least 3 months by a Youth Court to a Public Institution for Youth Protection (Belgium, Wauthier-Braine, 1999-2001), who have given an oral contentment and completely fulfilled the Temperament and Character Inventory-TCI. We have collected data about: schooling year by year, number of fails, changes of school; antecedents of oppositional defiant disorder with provocation (ODD, DSM IV criteria); antecedent of Conduct Disorder (CD, DSM IV criteria); penal antecedents (Youth Judge, works of general interest, placements); medico-psychological antecedents (consultation to a psychologist or a psychiatrist, hospitalization, illness, surgical intervention); psychoactive drug use or abuse. We used the TCI--Temperament and Character Inventory. This is a dimensional personality inventory. Based on biological, genetic and clinical hypothesis, it describes 2 types of variables defining personality: Variables of temperament (genetically transmitted and biologically controlled), and Variables of character (learned part of the personality reflecting the degree of adaptation and maturity, varying with environment through development). We have chosen this tool because of its dimensional aspect. Adolescence being a time of psychological and personality changes, such a tool is more useful than a categorical one. We also used this tool to verify the existence of the specific triad described by Cloninger and Svrakic. According to these authors, psychopathic personality in adult is characterized by a specific triad in which novelty seeking is high while harm avoidance and reward dependence are low. These observations are highly correlated to Hare's definition of psychopathy. We give the principal scores for the 7 personality dimensions expressed in global scores (total of the items for each dimension) and pondered ones (global scores divided by the number of items of the dimension x 100). RESULTS: Statistical analysis was performed with the Stateview 5.0 t-test program for data analysis. Statistical results show the absence of a statistically significant difference between the 2 groups for TCI 1, 4.5 and 7 but a statistically significant difference for TCI 2, 3 and 6 (p <.0001). DISCUSSION: The first limitation of our study is linked to the sample composed of young adolescents placed in an Institution for Youth Protection who doesn't reflect the whole population of offenders. A second limitation is correlated to the randomization system: randomization for age but not for sex, ethnical and cultural origin and socioeconomic status. Our results with adolescent offenders don't completely meet the Cloninger's psychopathy triad in adults. Moreover, in literature data, aggressive behavior is correlated to high novelty seeking and associated with low harm avoidance, reward dependence and persistence in children, these items are predictive of antisocial behavior in teenage and young adulthood. In our sample where antisocial behaviors are severe, we should be expecting a high novelty seeking but that is not the case. Our results should be explained by the fact that adolescence in itself is a more powerful factor of high novelty seeking than psychopathic trait. Harm avoidance and reward dependence seem to be a real problem in offending population and reflect aggressive behaviors in adolescents (lack of harm perception, sensitivity and empathy). Another interesting element is the cooperation factor that is significantly lower in the study group. This seems to comfort the hypothesis of a lower social maturity in institutionalized adolescents. CONCLUSION: Regarding to a control group subjects from 15 to 25 years old, adolescent offenders observed in an Institution for Youth Protection show a significantly different profile in the TCI for Harm Avoidance, Reward Dependence and Cooperation. Regarding to adult psychopaths, adolescent offenders partially meet the classical diagnostic triad of psychopathy, what should be indicating that such adolescents already show emotional perturbations: lower harm avoidance, reward dependence and cooperation than control population. This third factor is not characteristic of psychopathy but reflects relational difficulties, which are important in adolescent offenders. So, our study point out the complex psychopathology of adolescent offenders and the coexistence in such adolescents of attachment disorder and the difficulty to treat them because of their multiple lacks (cognitive, psychopathological, familial and scholar). We think important to discuss the necessity of approaches based on the development of personal creative abilities and involving all the professionals concerned in the young's universe. Future researches should compare adolescent offenders and controls randomized for age, sex, socioeconomic, ethnical and cultural status. They also should test specifically the diagnostic triad of psychopathology developed by Cloninger, especially the novelty seeking dimension. Moreover, it would be interesting to integrate these results in a wider protocol and to compare them with clinical, forensic and neurocognitive data, individually and within the familial context.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Psychopathy, conduct disorder, and stigma: does diagnostic labeling influence juvenile probation officer recommendations?

This study investigated the potential influence of labeling a juvenile as psychopathic. Juvenile probation officers (JPOs; N = 260) rendered hypothetical recommendations based on eight mock psychological evaluations. The evaluations varied the presence of two diagnostic criteria (antisocial behavioral history and psychopathic personality traits) and diagnostic labels (psychopathy, conduct disorder, no diagnosis) in order to distinguish criterion effects from labeling effects. The diagnostic criteria of antisocial behavior had a substantial effect on JPO recommendations (effect sizes .50-.79), while the diagnostic criteria of psychopathic personality traits had a more limited effect. Surprisingly, diagnostic labels had little effect, and there were no appreciable differences between conduct disorder and psychopathy diagnoses. These findings illustrate the importance of distinguishing diagnostic criterion effects from diagnostic labeling effects.

Adult↗