Getting to the heart of it

Interpersonal and Affective Features of Psychopathy in Children and Adolescents: Advancing a Developmental Perspective Introduction to Special Section

“…However, in a review of 42 treatment studies, Salekin (2002) found that the existing evidence did not support the notion that individuals with these psychopathic features were untreatable in adulthood. Also, several psychophysiological and functional neuroimgaing studies have produced evidence supporting the importance of affective processing deficits in adult psychopathy (for reviews see Hare, 2003;Patrick, 2007), with results suggesting that the interpersonal=affective dimension may be uniquely associated with decreased responsiveness to unpleasant and threatening stimuli (Patrick, Bradley, & Lang, 1993;Vanman, Mejia, Dawson, Schell, & Raine, 2003;Verona, Patrick, Curtin, Bradley, & Lang, 2004). Although substantial work is left to be done, these studies have begun to suggest that the interpersonal=affective features of psychopathy are relatively stable, but not immutable, and are related to deficits in the processing of emotional stimuli.…”

The Mad, the Bad, and the Psychopath

“…Secondary psychopaths are known to be more violent than primary ones. 17 Interestingly, one of the studies measuring psychopaths' fear/stress reaction to others' distress showed secondary psychopaths, but not primary ones, to be unimpaired on this task [59,60]. In other words, the more violent psychopaths have more intact responses to others' distress!…”

“…Christopher Patrick [59] has also measured psychopaths' reactions to others' distress, using a startle reflex paradigm. Startle reflex does not reflect empathy, but fear or anxiety.…”

Die Antisoziale Persönlichkeitsstörung des DSM-IV-TR - Befunde, Untergruppen und Unterschiede zu Psychopathy

“…Personen mit Psychopathy weisen mehr Anklagen und Verurteilungen aufgrund von Gewaltverbrechen auf als andere Straftäter und zeigen häu-figer polytrope Delinquenzmuster [44,54]. In psychologischen Untersuchungen [85] war ihre Fähigkeit anzugeben, ob eine Reihe von Buchstaben ein Wort ergibt, weniger durch emotional behaftete Wörter beeinflusst als bei anderen Gruppen von Straftätern (Antisoziale sowie Gelegenheitstäter). Bei Straftätern, die sowohl die Kriterien für Psychopathy als auch für ASPD erfüllen, war die kriminelle Vergangenheit umso schwerwiegender, je weniger ihre Leistung durch emotional behaftete Wörter beeinflusst wurde.…”