The present study sought to examine the current mental representations of early attachment relationships in 24 psychopathic criminal offenders, incarcerated in a forensic psychiatric hospital or a medium-security prison. The participants had been assessed on Hare's Psychopathy Checklist, Revised: Screening Version (PCL-R, sv, 1997) and scored either high or low. They were interviewed with the Main and Goldwyn Adult Attachment Interview (1998) and completed the EMBU, a Swedish self-report questionnaire tapping memories of the parent's rearing techniques. The results pointed to an extensive over-representation of individuals who were dismissing of attachment and attachment-related experiences (close to three times as many as in the normal population), no secure individuals, and with the remainder being either unclassifiable or unresolved with regard to severe early abuse/trauma. In addition, an examination of the EMBU data revealed an association between a higher psychopathy score and a family constellation of a rejecting father and an emotionally very warm (idealized) mother. The discussion will focus on the unique discourse of the dismissing individuals and on clinical implications.

The objectives of this study were to systematically review and meta-analyze the research literature on the association of common neurological disorders and violence. Keywords relating to neurological disorders and violence were searched between 1966 and August 2008. Case-control and cohort studies were selected. Odds ratios of violence risk in particular disorders compared with controls were combined using fixed-effects meta-analysis with the data presented in forest plots. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to identify possible differences in risk estimates across surveys. Information on risk factors for violence was extracted if replicated in more than one study. Nine studies were identified that compared the risk of violence in epilepsy or traumatic brain injury compared with unaffected controls. For the epilepsy studies, the overall pooled odds ratio for violent outcomes was 0.67 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.46-0.96]. For traumatic brain injury, the odds ratio was 1.66 (95% CI 1.12-2.31). An additional 11 case-control studies investigated factors associated with violence in epilepsy and traumatic brain injury. It was not possible to meta-analyze these data. Comorbid psychopathology was associated with violence. Data on other neurological conditions was limited and unreplicated. In conclusion, although the evidence was limited and methodological quality varied, epilepsy and traumatic brain injury appeared to differ in their risk of violence compared with control populations. Longitudinal studies are required to replicate this review's provisional findings that epilepsy is inversely associated with violence and that brain injury modestly increases the risk, and further research is needed to provide information on a broader range of risk factors.

OBJECTIVEThe ventral intermediate nucleus (VIM) of the thalamus is currently the established target in the use of deep brain stimulation (DBS) to treat essential tremor (ET). In recent years, the caudal zona incerta (cZi), a brain target commonly used during the lesional era, has been revived as the primary target in a number of DBS studies that show evidence of the efficacy of cZi targeting in DBS treatment for controlling the symptoms of ET. The authors sought to obtain comprehensive neuropsychological data and thoroughly investigate the cognitive effects of cZi targeting in patients with ET treated with DBS.METHODSTwenty-six consecutive patients with ET who received DBS with cZi as the target at our department from December 2012 to February 2017 were included in this study. All patients were assessed using a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery covering the major cognitive domains both preoperatively and 12 months postoperatively.RESULTSThe results show no major adverse effects on patient performance on the tests of cognitive function other than a slight decline of semantic verbal fluency.CONCLUSIONSThis study indicates that the cZi is a safe target from a cognitive perspective in the treatment of ET with DBS.

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