Antisocial Personality Disorder

Antisocial Personality Disorder

Antisocial personality disorder describes an ingrained pattern of behavior in which individuals consistently disregard and violate the rights of others around them. The more egregious, harmful, or dangerous behavior patterns are referred to as sociopathic or psychopathic. There has been much debate as to the distinction between the two descriptions. Sociopathy is chiefly characterized as something severely wrong with one's conscience; psychopathy is characterized as a complete lack of conscience regarding others.

 

Features

1.      Individuals with antisocial personality disorder fail to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behavior

2.      Persons with this disorder disregard the wishes, rights, or feelings of others. They are frequently deceitful and manipulative in order to gain personal profit or pleasure

3.      They may repeatedly lie, use an alias, con others, or malinger. A pattern of impulsivity may be manifested by a failure to plan ahead

4.      For this diagnosis to be given, the individual must be at least age 18 years and must have had a history of some symptoms of conduct disorder before age 15 years

5.      These individuals also display a reckless disregard for the safety of themselves or others.

Symptoms

1. Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors, as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest.

2. Deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or conning others for

personal profit or pleasure.

3. Impulsivity or failure to plan ahead.

4. Irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults.

5. Reckless disregard for safety of self or others.

6. Consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations.

7. Lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another.

Treatment

Antisocial personality disorder is one of the most difficult personality disorders to treat. Individuals rarely seek treatment on their own and may initiate therapy only when mandated to do so by a court. 
There is no clearly indicated treatment for antisocial personality disorder. Recently, the antipsychotic medication clozapine has shown promising results in improving symptoms among men with antisocial personality disorder.