Antisocial Personality Disorder (Nursing)

Excerpt

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is a deeply ingrained and rigid dysfunctional thought process that focuses on social irresponsibility with exploitive, delinquent, and criminal behavior with no remorse. Disregard for and violation of the rights of others are common manifestations of this personality disorder, which displays symptoms that include failure to conform to the law, inability to sustain consistent employment, deception, manipulation for personal gain, and incapacity to form stable relationships.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5) classifies all ten personality disorders into three clusters (A, B, and C). ASPD falls into 1 of 4 cluster-B disorders, which also includes borderline, narcissistic, and histrionic. All of these disorders characteristically demonstrate by dramatic, emotional, and unpredictable interactions with others.[2] Antisocial personality disorder is the only personality disorder that is not diagnosable in childhood. Before the age of 18, the patient must have been previously diagnosed with conduct disorder (CD) by the age of 15 years old to justify diagnostic criteria for ASPD.

Many researchers and clinicians argue this diagnosis, with concerns of significant overlap with other disorders, including psychopathy. However, others counter that psychopathy is simply a subtype of ASPD, with a more severe presentation. Recent literature states that although a heterogeneous construct that can subdivide into multiple subtypes that share many similarities and are often comorbid but not synonymous, individuals with antisocial personality disorder must be characterized biologically and cognitively to ensure more accurate categorization and appropriate treatment.[3]

The estimated lifetime prevalence of ASPD amongst the general population falls within 1 to 4%.[4][5] Due to the predicting factor of the initial diagnosis of conduct disorder before the age of 15, this assumption can be quite broad as CD is not always evaluated properly.[6] Gender distribution tends to be skewed towards males, with 3 to 5 times more likelihood of being diagnosed with ASPD than females, with 6% men and 2% women within the general population. Substance abuse has been found to show a significant correlation to the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, while education and intelligence displays a negative correlation, with a higher prevalence of ASPD amongst those with lower IQs and reading levels . Research shows reductions in the prevalence rate with increasing age in criminal populations,[11] as well as epidemiological samples. Changes in personality traits with age and increased mortality with the behavior of ASPD have been hypothesized to justify this age-dependent alteration.[12]