Monoamine Oxidase Activity and Tri-Iodothyronine Level in Violent Offenders with Early Behavioural Problems

Abstract

The focus is on evaluating the relationships between early behavioural problems and biochemical variables at adult age and their significance for early criminality and violent behaviour in a life perspective. In the present study, using prospective longitudinal data, a sample of males with a history of early criminal behaviour and male controls (n = 103) were investigated concerning (1) teacher-rated behaviours at age 11–14 years; (2) platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity and tri-iodothyronine (T₃) level at adult age; (3) registered early criminality (11–14 years); (4) records of violent offending up to age 35 years, and (5) interview data on smoking. The main finding was that a combined risk level pattern of low MAO activity and high T₃ level was found significantly more frequently than expected in violent offenders with an early behavioural risk pattern. Furthermore, there was a significant interaction effect between early attention difficulties and smoking on MAO activity, as well as an effect by smoking on MAO activity. The findings are discussed in terms of the possible influence of biological vulnerability to certain behaviours, which in combination with possible childhood stress, enhance the risk for antisocial behaviours and subsequent violence.

Relationship between Thyroid Hormone Levels and Crime Type: A Controlled Study in Prisoners

“…A study conducted by Eklund et al evaluated the relationship between behavioural disorders at early ages and biochemical variables in adulthood and their importance in terms of early crime and lifetime violent behaviours. e results showed a significant combined risk level pattern of low MAO activity and high T3 level in violent offenders with early behavioural risk patterns [15].…”

Aggressive behavior, related conduct problems, and variation in genes affecting dopamine turnover

“…Models effective in group differentiation are likely to generalize to independent datasets and are characterized by high CVC and accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity greater than .5. MDR is a relatively new approach, and the software, although it has been successfully applied [Andrew et al, 2006;Coutinho et al, 2007;Huang et al, 2007;Li et al, 2008;Ni et al, 2009;Park et al, 2007], has not yet penetrated the psychological literature, although there have been analogous attempts to consider multiple configurations of various risk, even if not genetic, factors for theory [Magnusson, 1999], for methodology [Lienert et al, 1990], and for illustration [Eklund et al, 2005]. The issue of multiple comparisons was handled differently for the different types of analyses (see below).…”

Association study between the monoamine oxidase A gene and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in Taiwanese samples

“…Eklund et al [6] found that low MAO activity and high tri-iodothyronine (T3) level were significantly associated with violent offenders with an early behavioural risk pattern. They further reported that attention difficulties were associated with low MAO activity.…”