Classification and treatment of antisocial individuals: From behavior to biocognition

• Published in: Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews Vol. 91; pp. 259 - 277
• Main Authors: Brazil, I.A., van Dongen, J.D.M., Maes, J.H.R., Mars, R.B., Baskin-Sommers, A.R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Ltd 01-08-2018
• Subjects: Antisocial personality; Antisocial Personality Disorder - diagnosis; Antisocial Personality Disorder - drug therapy; Antisocial Personality Disorder - psychology; Antisocial Personality Disorder - therapy; Biological and cognitive fingerprinting; Cognition; Cognitive endophenotype; Computational psychiatry; Humans; Individuality; Molecular Targeted Therapy; Neuroimaging; Psychopathy; Psychotherapy; RDoC; Treatment; Neuroimaging; RDoC; Treatment; Computational psychiatry; Antisocial personality; Cognitive endophenotype; Psychopathy; Biological and cognitive fingerprinting
• ISSN: 0149-7634; 1873-7528
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.10.010

•Antisocial personality and psychopathy are severe personality conditions.•Inconsistencies in the characterization of these conditions plague research.•Over-reliance on scoring behavior may account for these failures.•These conditions account for the majority of failed treatment efforts.•Biocognitive approach provides better classification and treatment options.
Antisocial behavior is a heterogeneous construct that can be divided into subtypes, such as antisocial personality and psychopathy. The adverse consequences of antisocial behavior produce great burden for the perpetrators, victims, family members, and for society at-large. The pervasiveness of antisocial behavior highlights the importance of precisely characterizing subtypes of antisocial individuals and identifying specific factors that are etiologically related to such behaviors to inform the development of targeted treatments. The goals of the current review are (1) to briefly summarize research on the operationalization and assessment of antisocial personality and psychopathy; (2) to provide an overview of several existing treatments with the potential to influence antisocial personality and psychopathy; and (3) to present an approach that integrates and uses biological and cognitive measures as starting points to more precisely characterize and treat these individuals. A focus on integrating factors at multiple levels of analysis can uncover person-specific characteristics and highlight potential targets for treatment to alleviate the burden caused by antisocial behavior.