Antisocial personality disorder and alcohol-induced aggression

This study compared the effects of alcohol on aggressive responding between subjects with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and subjects without ASPD. Eighteen alcohol drinking subjects (10 subjects without ASPD and 8 subjects with ASPD) underwent testing on a laboratory measure of aggression, the Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm, after consumption of placebo and three doses of alcohol (0.25 g/kg, 0.5 g/kg, and 1.0 g/kg). There was a significant difference in the effect of alcohol on aggressive responding on the Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm between subjects with ASPD and subjects without ASPD. Subjects with ASPD had a greater increase in aggressive responding after alcohol, compared with non-ASPD subjects. There was no difference between the two groups in the effect of alcohol on monetary-reinforced responding.     

Antisocial personality disorder, conduct disorder, and substance abuse in schizophrenia.

The validity of subtypes based on antisocial personality disorder (APD) or childhood conduct disorder without adult APD (CD only) in patients with schizophrenia (or schizoaffective disorder) and a substance use disorder (abuse or dependence) was examined. APD patients scored lower on personality measures related to socialization and higher on antisocial bebavior, psychopathy, and aggression. APD patients also reported higher rates of aggression and legal problems. APD, and to a lesser extent CD only, was associated with more severe psychiatric symptoms, an earlier age of onset of substance abuse, more severe symptoms of substance abuse, and a stronger family history of substance abuse and psychiatric hospitalization. The findings suggest that schizophrenia patients with APD represent a high-risk subgroup vulnerable to more severe substance abuse, psychiatric impairment, aggression, and legal problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

School performance and disciplinary problems among abused and neglected children.

Investigated the relationship of child abuse and neglect to academic achievement and discipline problems in a school-age population. A representative community sample of 420 maltreated children in kindergarten through Grade 12 were matched with 420 nonmaltreated children in the same community. Using social service and school records as the sources of data, the authors found maltreated children performed significantly below their nonmaltreated peers in standardized tests and grades and were more likely to repeat a grade. Maltreated children also had significantly more discipline referrals and suspensions. Of the maltreated children, neglected children showed the poorest outcomes on academic performance, and physically abused children showed the most discipline problems. Variations in maltreatment effects by grade level, public assistance status, and gender are also described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Antisocial personality disorder as a prognostic factor for pharmacotherapy of cocaine dependence

OBJECTIVES: The effects of verapamil (VRP), prostaglandin F2 alpha (PGF2 alpha), phenylephrine, and noradrenaline on upper urinary tract dynamics were studied in vivo, using a pig model involving 12 miniswine which were subjected to acute pharmacologic perfusion studies of the upper urinary tract. METHOD: Changes in renal pelvic pressure (Ppvs) and ureteral peristalsis frequency were recorded at 2 mL/min perfusion rate premedication, and then during perfusion with different concentrations of each drug tested in three experiments. RESULTS: Ppvs showed no significant variations with VRP perfusion when compared with premedication readings, whereas ureteral peristalsis frequency was decreased significantly by 10(-3) mol/L of VRP. PGF2 alpha perfusion caused no statistically significant changes in Ppvs when compared with premedication values, but increased ureteral peristalsis frequency from 3 to 6.5/min at a concentration of 2 x 10(-1) mg (200 micrograms). Phenylephrine HCl and noradrenaline perfusion increased Ppvs from 8 +/- 1.1 to 11.9 +/- 1.6 cm water at a concentration of 100 micrograms. They augmented the frequency of ureteral peristalsis from about 2.5 +/- 1.2 to 4.1 +/- 1.3/min. No systemic effects were recorded since pulse, respiration, and left ureteral activity were unchanged during pharmacologic perfusion of the right side. CONCLUSION: Pharmacologic manipulation of ureteral activity can be achieved via direct perfusion with no significant modulation of Ppvs or systemic impact. VRP-induced smooth muscle relaxation of the upper urinary tract may be useful in percutaneous surgery for stones.     

Antisocial personality disorder, childhood delinquency, and frontal brain functioning: EEG and neuropsychological findings

This experiment examined the ability of EEG activity and neuropsychological testing to predict both antisocial personality disorder (ASP) and retrospective self-ratings of early childhood problem behaviors (CPB). Regression analyses found that increased frontal left-hemisphere EEG activation was associated with a decreased likelihood of the diagnosis of ASP or CPB. An association was also found between several motor tests of the Luria-Nebraska and Porteus Maze Test scores and CPB/ASP. The current findings suggest that ASP and CPB are associated with variations in frontal lobe functioning. They further suggest that disturbances in prefrontal functioning may be a common biological ground that links ASP, substance abuse, and biological mechanisms of reinforcement.     

Sexually and physically abused foster care children and posttraumatic stress disorder.

Considerable debate exists regarding the possible relationship between child abuse and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In this study, 3 groups of foster care children were compared. The groups included 50 sexually abused, 50 physically abused, and 50 nonabused foster care children. Participants completed the Child Post-Traumatic Stress Reaction Index, the Childhood PTSD Interview, and the Modified Stroop Procedure (MSP), which included sexual abuse and nonsexual abuse stimuli. The MSP has not been previously used in child abuse research. Results indicated that sexually and physically abused children demonstrated PTSD at a high level. The MSP discriminated between the sexually abused children with PTSD and those without PTSD. Responses to the MSP sexual abuse stimuli resulted in significantly longer color-naming times than responses to nonsexual abuse stimuli. Preadolescents demonstrated more severe PTSD than early adolescent children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rethinking the comparison of borderline personality disorder and multiple personality disorder

This article has made a number of points that assert what is today a minority position within the fields of MPD/DID and BPD. We hope our views will stimulate attempts by others to rethink their positions and test our assertions, so that issues surrounding these two disorders can be sharpened. For the sake of the clarity of future work, we summarize in outline form the essence of our viewpoint. 1. BPD and MPD/DID have similar appearing symptoms, such as identity problems, unstable affect modulation, self-destructive behaviors, chaotic impulse control, and troubled interpersonal relationships, but they have decisive differences in underlying dynamics, process, and structure. 2. DSM tends to blur these two disorders by its emphasis on phenomenology over inner structure, thus fostering misleading conclusions when DSM criteria are used to test for comorbidity or overlap between BPD and MPD/DID. 3. BPD and MPD/DID are both described dynamically as using the defense of splitting, but we contend that the splitting in each disorder is fundamentally different from the splitting in the other. BPD uses a polarization form of splitting, whereas MPD/DID uses ego splitting or identity division. 4. Both disorders partake in the process of dissociation, but the quality of dissociation in BPD is a "low-tech" spaced out type, whereas that of MPD/DID is a "high-tech" waking dream. 5. BPD structure is also "low tech," with polarization of self, object, and relationship. MPD/DID structure is "high tech," with heavily symbolic, highly nuanced variations of self, object, and relationship. 6. Although both conditions have etiologic elements of trauma, BPD has a larger degree of developmental deficiency, with a failure to complete the task of entering a repression hierarchy of defenses. MPD/DID, by use of primary process-linked symbolic dissociation, is able to continue development to the repression hierarchy, although at a profound cost of simultaneous suspension of reality testing. BPD patients suffer from the rigid use of too few defenses; MPD/DID patients suffer from the obsolete use of too many defenses. 7. BPD patients grow up in homes in which overtly expressed aggression is more tolerated, or at least more openly experienced. MPD/DID patients grow up in homes in which the fact of aggression is kept a secret. This has consequences for the formation of psychic structure in each disorder.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

Emotional and cognitive adjustment in abused children

Research on the impact of maltreatment on children has increased in the last years, as there is a need to design appropriate treatment strategies. Social, cognitive, and emotional areas may be affected in these children. This research is aimed to study the psychological functioning of child victims, particularly in their emotional and cognitive adjustment. Nineteen children (10.3 years old) with case histories of at least 2 years of physical and emotional parental abuse and a group of 26 nonmaltreated children (9.4 years old) matched in socio-economic characteristics and coming from the same community area were compared in depressive symptomatology and attributional style by using the standardized measures from Kovacs' Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and Kaslow's Children Attributional Style Questionnaire (CASQ). General and detailed statistical analyses on the emotional and cognitive areas assessed showed significant differences between groups. Child victims showed greater feelings of sadness, lower self-esteem and self-worth, and they perceived the aversive events in their lives as unpredictable which generated helplessness. This is a result of their lack of control of those aversive events. Results are contrasted with those obtained by other researchers who used similar methodology and are discussed in terms of the learned helplessness' model proposed and developed by Seligman, Kaslow, Alloy, Peterson, Tanenbaum, and Abramson (1984). Implications for the child abuse victims' emotional and cognitive rehabilitation are also analyzed and discussed.     

The battered, abused and neglected child and the Crisis Center for Children

The syndrome of the battered, abused and neglected child is becoming manifest also in our country with increasing frequency and severity, not only because much more attention is paid to it than ever before. Our system of child care and protection is, however, by far not yet ready to resolve this serious problem in the life of children, families and society as a whole and therefore ways and means must be sought how to face it, how to recognize it, treat it and in particular how to prevent it. One of the important means how to tackle this dangerous social phenomenon is a specialized department concerned in a comprehensive way on an interdisciplinary basis, with skilled and effective clinical work with every single abused child and its family in close association with all disciplines and institutions interested in the problem as well as by conceptual work, research, training and expert opinions etc. The crisis centre for children in Prague 4-Michle wants to serve with its experience and findings as a model workplace for building special institutions within the framework of a rational, interdisciplinary network of child care and protection in this country. The results of its two-year work and the great interest in it on the part of many localities and regions justify its efforts.     

A call for integrating a mental health perspective into systems of care for abused and neglected infants and young children.

A system of care for abused and neglected infants and young children should adopt a comprehensive perspective, with mental health considerations systematically incorporated into policies and decisions affecting children and their families. Children age birth to 5 years have disproportionately high rates of maltreatment, with long-term consequences for their mental and physical health. Research on normal development and developmental psychopathology has shown that early development unfolds in an ecology of transactional influences among biological, interpersonal, and environmental domains. Psychologists should collaborate with other early intervention disciplines to create systems of care based on an ecological–transactional model of development that includes early mental health principles in order to serve the needs of these young children. Didactic courses, practicums, and internships in infant and early childhood mental health should become integral components of undergraduate and graduate curricula in psychology in order to build capacity to achieve this goal. Recommendations are offered for systemic change by integrating infant and early childhood mental health principles into existing systems of care for young children and their families. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Suicidality in borderline personality disorder

Pathogenic fungi that cause systemic mycoses retain several factors which allow their growth in adverse conditions provided by the host, leading to the establishment of the parasitic relationship and contributing to disease development. These factors are known as virulence factors which favor the infection process and the pathogenesis of the mycoses. The present study evaluates the virulence factors of pathogenic fungi such as Blastomyces dermatitidis, Coccidioides immitis, Cryptococcus neoformans, Histoplasma capsulatum and Paracoccidioides brasiliensis in terms of thermotolerance, dimorphism, capsule or cell wall components as well as enzyme production. Virulence factors favor fungal adhesion, colonization, dissemination and the ability to survive in hostile environments and elude the immune response mechanisms of the host. Both the virulence factors presented by different fungi and the defense mechanisms provided by the host require action and interaction of complex processes whose knowledge allows a better understanding of the pathogenesis of systemic mycoses.     

Gender differences in abused children with and without disabilities

OBJECTIVE: Two questions were posed: (1) What are the proportions of boys and girls in various categories of substantiated child abuse? (2) Do the gender proportions differ for children with and without disabilities? METHOD: Data collected by previous researchers from a demographically representative sample of U.S. child abuse reporting districts was analyzed. This included 1,249 case files involving 1,834 children. The number of girls and boys who did and did not have disabilities was identified for three age categories and for several categories of abuse. Chi-square analyses were used to determine whether there was a relationship between disability and gender for the various age and abuse categories. RESULTS: More boys were physically abused and neglected, but more girls were sexually abused. Boys with disabilities, however, were over-represented in all categories of abuse. Moreover, gender proportions among abused children with disabilities differed significantly from those found among other abused children. Although slightly more than half of abused children without disabilities were girls, 65% of abused children with disabilities were boys. CONCLUSIONS: Boys represented a significantly larger proportion of physically abused, sexually abused, and neglected children with disabilities than would be expected from their respective proportion of abused and neglected children without disabilities. Several possible explanations for the observed gender and disability status interaction are discussed.     

Reliability of personality disorder symptoms and personality traits in substance-dependent inpatients.

The authors compared the internal consistency, 1-year temporal stability and self-informant agreement of ratings of personality trait (NEO Five-Factor Inventory; NEO-FFI; P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1992) and personality disorder symptom severity (Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R personality Disorders Questionnaire; SCID-II-Q ; R. L. Spitzer, J. B. W. Williams, M. Gibbon, & M. First, 1990) in 131 substance-dependent inpatients. Internal consistency coefficients were acceptable to very good for most NEO-FFI and SCID-II-Q scales, and temporal stability correlations were significant for all measures. Agreement between patient and informant ratings was more modest. Substance abuse and depression symptom severity moderated the temporal stability and self-informant agreement of several personality trait and disorder ratings. The authors did not find that the five factors were more reliable than the Axis II symptoms. Issues related to the reliability of personality assessment in multiply diagnosed patients are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Life events in borderline personality disorder

In order to examine the role of life events in the clinical presentation of borderline personality disorder, the Life Experience Survey was given to three groups of subjects; one consisting of patients suffering from borderline personality disorder and two consisting of control subjects for the purpose of comparison. The results showed that patients suffering from borderline personality disorder did not experience a greater number of life events, but those life events that they did report were related to their psychopathology, which were, in turn, associated with the break-ups of important relationships or with effects of impulsive actions.     

Conscientiousness and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.

A dimensional perspective on personality disorder hypothesizes that the current diagnostic categories represent maladaptive variants of general personality traits. However, a fundamental foundation of this viewpoint is that dimensional models can adequately account for the pathology currently described by these categories. While most of the personality disorders have well established links to dimensional models that buttress this hypothesis, obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) has obtained only inconsistent support. The current study administered multiple measures of 1) conscientiousness-related personality traits, 2) DSM–IV OCPD, and 3) specific components of OCPD (e.g., compulsivity and perfectionism) to a sample of 536 undergraduates who were oversampled for elevated OCPD scores. Six existing measures of conscientiousness-related personality traits converged strongly with each other supporting their assessment of a common trait. These measures of conscientiousness correlated highly with scales assessing specific components of OCPD, but obtained variable relationships with measures of DSM–IV OCPD. More specifically, there were differences within the conscientiousness instruments such that those designed to assess general personality functioning had small to medium relationships with OCPD, but those assessing more maladaptive variants obtained large effect sizes. These findings support the view that OCPD does represent a maladaptive variant of normal-range conscientiousness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comorbidity of bipolar and personality disorder

Tuft cells, a widespread cell type that is present in the mucosal epithelia of hollow organs, including the main excretory duct (MED) epithelia of the rat salivary gland, are well documented morphologically. However, studies of their development are few. The purpose of the present study was to examine the perinatal and postnatal development of tuft cells in the main excretory duct of the rat submandibular gland. Main excretory ducts of the submandibular gland were obtained from five male Wistar rats at the ages of 0, 1, 7, 14, 17, 21, 23, 28, and 56 postnatal days and were prepared for scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The tuft cells, which are distinguished easily by their long microvilli protruding into the lumen, were recognizable first at 17 postnatal days. They showed a remarkable increase in number between 3 and 4 postnatal weeks. The percentages of tuft cells were 0.4% at 17 postnatal days and 0.8% at 3 postnatal weeks. The number of tuft cells represented approximately 5% of the total epithelial cells by 4 postnatal weeks. There was a significant difference between 3 and 4 postnatal weeks (P < 0.01). The microvilli of the tuft cells at the time of weaning had almost the same width as in the adult, but they were shorter. Microfilaments extending from the tips of the microvilli and microtubules and many electron-lucent vesicles in the supranuclear cytoplasm also were observed. These results indicate that tuft cells appeared in the MED of the submandibular gland during weaning and had abundant vesicles in their apical cytoplasm.     

The undesired self: A neglected variable in personality research.

Personality theorists have given a great deal of attention to the relation between the real self and the ideal self with the implication that they are contrasting entities. The concept of an undesired self is introduced as a more compelling contrast with the ideal self. It is argued that the undesired self, in comparison with the ideal self, is the preferred reference point for making judgments of present-day life satisfaction. Hypotheses derived from this theoretical perspective were tested by using Identities?×?Features matrices generated by 45 college subjects. The distance between the real self and the ideal self and the distance between the real self and the undesired self were calculated. It is shown that the latter distance correlates more highly with ratings of life satisfaction than does the distance between the real and ideal selves, which suggests that satisfaction (in both male and female subjects) is more a function of one's subjective distance from unwanted affects and circumstances than a function of one's proximity to ideal states of existence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)