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Jun 30, 2006
Antisocial Personality Disorder
by SirGan
 Antisocial personality disorder is a specific psychiatric disorder that is characterized with antisocial and impulsive behaviors as symptoms of a personality disorder. It must be understood that this is pathological disorder which means that modern psychiatry defines no potential benefits of positive antisocial behavior. Professional psychiatry generally compares Antisocial Personality Disorder to sociopathy. That’s why the terms sociopath is sometimes used to describe an individual with anti-social personality disorder. People with anti-social personality disorder show a chronic lack of concern for the rules and expectations of society, and repeatedly violate the rights of others. Bad thing about all this is that anti-social personality disorder is difficult to treat. Group counseling and treatment of coexisting conditions may help some people. Personality disordersA personality disorder is a severe disturbance in the character logical constitution and behavioral tendencies of the individual, usually involving several areas of the personality, and nearly always associated with considerable personal and social disruption. Personality disorder tends to appear in late childhood or adolescence and continues to be manifest into adulthood.
Currently, there are 10 distinct personality disorders identified in the DSM-IV:
Incidence if the conditionApproximately 3% of men and 1% of women are thought to have some form of antisocial personality disorder according to DSM-IV. The numbers of persons with this disorder are much higher than generally thought, with nearly 6% of men and over 1% of women having this disorder.
The cause of Antisocial Personality DisorderThe cause of this disorder is unknown, although most of the experts believe that the biological or genetic factors may play a role.
Several researches done in the past have shown that the incidence of antisocial personality is higher in people who have antisocial biological parents. There is almost always a history of similar behaviors before age 15, such as repetitive lying, truancy, delinquency, and substance abuse. Several researches have confirmed the genetic factors of antisocial behavior in adults and shown that genetic factors are more important in adults than in antisocial children. Antisocial Personality Disorder in the biological parents predicted antisocial disorder in the adopted away children.
Symptoms of the condition
Several researches done in the past have shown that people with this disorder appear to be charming at times, and make relationships, but to them, these are relationships are not filled with true emotions. They are ended whenever necessary or when it suits them and the relationships are without depth or meaning, including marriages. They have an ability to find the weakness in people, and are ready to use these weaknesses to their own ends through manipulation.
The characteristic thing is that these people appear to be incapable of any true emotions. They are quick when it comes to anger, but just as quick to let it go, without holding grudges.
The rarely are able to have jobs that last for any length of time. They live for the moment, forgetting the past, and not planning the future, not thinking ahead what consequences their actions will have. They want immediate rewards and gratification.
Most commonly, the sociopath:
Five-factor model of personality
Some of the common symptoms are:
This is characterized by social isolation, interpersonal detachment, and lack of support networks; flattened affect; lack of joy for life; social inhibition and shyness.
It is characterized by Low tolerance or understanding of different points of lifestyles; emotional blandness and inability to understand and verbalize own feelings.
Most common symptoms are cynicism and paranoid thinking; inability to trust even friends or family.
The person is hardly fulfilling intellectual or artistic potential. It is characterized by poor academic performance relative to ability.
Aggressive sociopathsThese people derive strong gratification from harming others. It is proven that they like to hurt, frighten, tyrannize, bully, and manipulate. They do it for a sense of power and control, and will often only drop subtle hints about what they are up to. Because of all this -they seek out positions of power, such as parent, teacher, bureaucrat, supervisor, or police officer.
Diagnosis of APDMost of the manuals for diagnosing mental and behavioral disorders, defines antisocial personality disorder as a pervasive pattern of three (or more) of the following:
Differential DiagnosisSome disorders have similar symptoms. The clinician, therefore, in his diagnostic attempt has to differentiate against the following disorders which need to be ruled out to establish a precise diagnosis.
These conditions are:
Treatment of Antisocial personality disorderTreatment Goals
Experts are saying that proposes of the treatment for all individuals with personality disorders should include:
Another treatment goal for this condition client population is to assist family members and significant others to set limits.
Unfortunately- the effective treatment of antisocial behavior and personality is limited but it is proven that group psychotherapy can be helpful.
Unfortunately- there is no research that supports the use of medications for direct treatment of antisocial personality disorder. It is proven that medications should only be utilized to treat clear, acute and serious diagnoses. However the problem is that no research has suggested that any medication is effective in the treatment of this disorder.
Important thing to know is that these are several self-help methods for the treatment of this disorder. Unfortunately- they are often overlooked by the medical profession because very few professionals are involved in them. Group therapy could be the key because individuals feel more at ease in discussing in front of their peers in this type of supportive modality.
PrognosisImportant thing to know is that the prognosis is not very good because of two contributing factors. It is mostly because the disorder is characterized by a failure to conform to society's norms. People with this disorder are often incarcerated because of criminal behavior. Another important thing is that a lack of insight into the disorder is very common. People with antisocial personality disorder rarely seek treatment and rarely see that they have any problem what so ever!
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