Alcohol and drug abuse-dependence disorders in psychopathic and nonpsychopathic criminal offenders.

Abstract

Co-occurrence of psychopathy (assessed with the Psychopathy Checklist) and lifetime Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed.) alcohol and drug disorders (assessed with the National Institute of Mental Health Diagnostic Interview Schedule) was examined in a sample of 360 male inmates. Consistent with previous research that used diagnoses of antisocial personality disorder, psychopaths were more likely than nonpsychopaths to have lifetime diagnoses of alcoholism, any drug disorder, and multiple drug disorders. We also examined the relation between substance abuse and the 2 factors of the Psychopathy Checklist. Substance abuse was significantly related to general social deviance (Factor 2) but was unrelated to core personality features of psychopathy (Factor 1). We present two possible models of psychopathy (unitary syndrome vs. dual-diathesis model) that may account for the association between psychopathy and substance abuse.

Risky decisions and response reversal: is there evidence of orbitofrontal cortex dysfunction in psychopathic individuals?

“…For example, one of the criteria of psychopathy, stimulation seeking, is often associated with drug use [31]. Studies suggest that psychopathy is associated with higher rates of drug abuse, dependence, and poly-drug use [36,64]. Crucially, studies also show impaired performance on the gambling task in alcohol and drug dependent individuals [7,29].…”

Neurocognitive elements of antisocial behavior: Relevance of an orbitofrontal cortex account

“…Such a case has been made for ADHD, for example (Farrington, 2000;Farrington & Loeber, 2000;Nagin & Tremblay, 1999;Stouthamer-Loeber, Loeber, Wei, Farrington, & Wikstrom, 2002). Psychopathy is mainly related to alcohol and drug abuse (Hemphill, Hart, & Hare, 1994;Mailloux, Forth, & Kroner, 1997;Smith & Newman, 1990), inversely related to depression (Stalenheim & von Knorring, 1996), the callous/unemotional component of psychopathy appears to be unrelated to ADHD , and the base-rate for psychopathy in a schizophrenia population was similar to that of a normal population (Nolan et al, 1999). Nonetheless, one particularity of poor frontal lobe functions is that they have been implicated in all of these comorbid conditions, although some may be predominantly dorsolateral frontal rather than OFC.…”

Relations between Psychopathy Facets and Externalizing in a Criminal Offender Sample

“…However, the current data suggest that the two literatures can profitably inform one another. For example, in their initial report of a selective association between PCL-R Factor 2 and alcohol/drug abuse, Smith & Newman (1990; for a subsequent replication, see Reardon et al, 2002) speculated that: " [An] interesting and potentially important possibility is that Factor 2 of the PCL taps into a pattern of behavior related to a general disinhibitory diathesis" (p. 437). Recent twin studies have shown that the systematic covariance between DSM substance-related, antisocial behavior disorders, and disinhibitory personality traits, embodied in the externalizing factor, reflects the presence of a shared underlying vulnerability that is predominantly (∼80%) heritable Young et al, 2000).…”

“…This is perhaps unsurprising in view of criterion overlap between the two. However, Factor 2 also shows selective associations with alcohol and drug abuse (Reardon, Lang, & Patrick, 2002;Smith & Newman, 1990)-even though substance problems are not prominent in the scoring criteria for this factor. Additionally, PCL-R Factor 2 shows selective relations with self-report indices of disinhibitory personality, including MPQ-Constraint, conscientiousness, sensation seeking, and various impulsivity scales (Hare, 1991(Hare, , 2003Harpur et al, 1989;Widiger & Lynam, 1998;Patrick, 1994;Verona et al, 2001).…”