NCJ Number
57487
Date Published
1978
Length
22 pages
Annotation
A SAMPLE OF 93 RECIDIVIST AGGRESSORS INCARCERATED AT MARYLAND'S PATUXENT INSTITUTION WERE RANDOMLY SELECTED TO EVALUATE A MEDICAL MODEL OF PSYCHOPATHY AND EPISODIC DYSCONTROL.
Abstract
BROADLY SPEAKING THE HYPOTHESIS TO BE TESTED WAS AS FOLLOWS: LIMBIC SYSTEM DYSFUNCTION IN THE FORM OF CIRCUMSCRIBED OR FOCAL EXCESSIVE NEURONAL DISCHARGES MAY RESULT IN RECURRING VIOLENT ACTS OF DYSCONTROL, LEADING TO REPEATED ARRESTS, CONVICTIONS, AND INCARCERATIONS. EACH OF THE 93 SUBJECTS HAD 2 ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAMS, WITH A MAJORITY SHOWING AT LEAST BORDERLINE ABNORMALITIES AND A SIGNIFICANT MINORITY DISPLAYING A PERIOD OF HIGH AMPLITUDE PAROXYSMAL THETA ACTIVITY. EPISODIC SYMPTOMS WERE DETERMINED USING A SELF-RATING SCALE ON WHICH A CLEAR MAJORITY SHOWED A HIGH DYSCONTROL SYMPTOM. CROSSING THE EEG AND DYSCONTROL SCALE DATA YIELDED FOUR SUBGROUPS: EPILEPTOID DYSCONTROLS, HYSTEROID DYSCONTROLS, INADEQUATE PSYCHOPATHS, AND PURE PSYCHOPATHS. MINNESOTA MULTIPHASIC PERSONALITY INVENTORY PROFILES OF THE FOUR GROUPS INDICATED THAT EPILEPTOID AND HYSTEROID DYSCONTROLS AND THE INADEQUATE AND PURE PSYCHOPATHS SHOWED REMARKABLE SIMILARITIES, BUT THAT THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TWO PAIRS WERE MARKED. IN ALL GROUPS, HOWEVER, THE HEIGHT OF THE PSYCHOPATHIC DEVIATE SCALE WAS SIGNIFICANTLY ELEVATED. THE THERAPEUTIC IMPLICATIONS OF THIS SUBGROUPING SUGGEST THAT THE MOST DANGEROUS GROUP (I.E., EPILEPTOID DYSCONTROL) AND THE MOST SEVERELY DISTURBED GROUP (I.E., INADEQUATE PSYCHOPATHS) MIGHT BENEFIT MOST FROM A PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGIC REGIMEN AND THUS BE TREATABLE. TABULAR DATA AND REFERENCES ARE PROVIDED. (DAG)