Antisocial Personality Disorder

Abstract

The paper discusses antisocial personality disorder in details. It discusses causes, complications, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of the disorder. It classifies antisocial personality disorder as the mental problem where a person with the disorder cannot relate well with other members of the society due to their aggressive nature. The causes of antisocial personality are genes and mental damage. Family chaos and low-income family context in childhood are major risk factors for the condition. The condition has various complications like; inability to work, imprisonment, depression and anxiety and premature death. Symptoms of the condition are as a result of egocentric and violence. The condition is diagnosed using psychological evaluation using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) and International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD) (Sperry, 2013). The treatment of the condition is through various steps, which are personal psychotherapy, medication administration, and addiction family or counseling.

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Introduction

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is mental problem characterized by inhumane behaviors. It is easy to diagnose the condition, but psychiatrists find it challenging to treat the condition. The diagnostic tools used to classify ASPD, as disorders are a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) and International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD) (Sperry, 2013). The diagnostic tool shows two types of psychosocial disorders, which are psychopathy and sociopathy. Persons suffering from this condition they usually have aggressive character and unable to socialize with others well. People with antisocial personality do not care about the social lives of others. They cannot relate well to the society or the community because of their ignorance and egocentrism. Persons with antisocial behavior they are unable to control their ego. Their ego surpasses their super ego that could enable them to control their aggressiveness and intermingle with other without harming them (De Brito & Hodgins, 2009) Most of the victims of antisocial personality disorder are the violent criminals jailed once in their lifetime. From the study, there are more men than women with antisocial personality disorder. The majority of persons with antisocial they usually do not work and use force to get their desire fulfilled. They are usually arrogant, ignorant, and subjective and never consider the views of others. According to them, they are usually right and no one including the law that can prove them wrong. The majority of people who abuse alcohol and substances they suffer from the antisocial behavior.

Causes and Complications of Antisocial Personality Disorder

The personality of an individual begins to form at childhood. Personality at adulthood is as a result of interaction between inherited traits and environmental factors that one come across with in the process of growth. Thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are the major things that make the personality of a person unique. There is no documentation of the exact causes of antisocial personality disorders. Many scholars argue that genes and brain development they are major causes of antisocial personality. There are many risk factors proven to predispose a person to antisocial personality. Thus, the risk factors include; diagnosis of childhood behavior syndrome, the family antiquity of mental illness, chaotic family during early life, and abuse or neglect during childhood (Meloy & Yakeley, 2011). Antisocial personality disorders have many complications and problems. Examples are; family abuse, alcohol and drug abuse, imprisonment, depression and anxiety, homicidal or suicidal thoughts, low esteem, low social-economic status and gang relation. If there is no treatment of complications of the antisocial disorder, it results in premature death.

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Symptoms Antisocial Personality Disorder

The symptoms of antisocial disorders appear in adult from 18 years and above. Even if the adolescences show some of the symptoms related to antisocial personality, they are excluded from antisocial personality disorder classification. This is because of various mental and body changes that take place in their body due to puberty. These changes may sometimes make them wild and aggressive. Constitution of many nations in the world regard a person who is 18 years and above as an adult. At this age, a person is mature, responsible and can sustain himself or herself independently. There are various symptoms used by a psychiatrist in the diagnosis of antisocial behavior. The symptoms include;

• Neglect for right and wrong
• Lying persistently
• Being heartless, pessimistic and lack of respect for others
• Being charismatic in manipulation for individual gain to fulfill personal pleasure
• Recklessness and failure to plan for the future
• Recurring irritating behavior and failure to change one’s criminality
• Continuous intimidating others
• Ruthless personal characters like hostility, irritability, aggressiveness and violence
• Lack of sympathy to other and lack of regret when hurting others
• Failure to learn from consequences of negative behavior
• Lack of self-control and involving in risky activities
• Inability to relate well with others
• Persistent inability to fulfill financial and work obligation due to aggression

Adults with persistent antisocial personality particularly show the symptom of antisocial disorders as early as the age of fifteen years. Although the symptoms are not as severe as in adulthood, it is easy to note them. The common symptoms to note at this age are; violence toward persons and animals, damage of property, deceitfulness, theft, and severe abuse of rules (Beach et.al.2010). Most of the antisocial symptoms are lifelong, but some like criminality and destruction decrease with aging. The decrease of these symptoms is a controversy because there is no research that distinguishes if they decrease due to aging or increase on awareness.

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Diagnosis and Treatment of Antisocial Personality Disorder

Psychiatrists find it challenging in the treatment of an individual with the antisocial symptoms. Very few of the individuals with the disorder seek treatments of their condition. The majority of those seeking treatment are drug and substance addicts and those required to seek treatments by the court or the family. Even if the symptoms are a clear majority of the patients for this condition denies their symptom. Diagnosis of the antisocial disorder is made through psychological evaluation using DSM and ICD. After diagnosis, the person starts the treatment, which is mainly outpatient. Inpatient treatment only applies to an individual who is potential of harming others or themselves. Inpatient treatment of a person with antisocial character should take place in the secluded ward since they are potential of manipulating and intimidating other patients. The person with antisocial personality needs support from their loved one so as they complete the treatment process (Sperry, 2013). The treatment mainly comprises of personal psychotherapy, medication administration, and addiction family counseling.

Cognitive therapy is the first step enacted in the treatment of psychological conditions. At this step, the psychiatrist should come up with the guidelines for the patient to follow. The major aim of doing therapy is to enable the individual with antisocial to change their perception and attitude toward themselves and others. Cognitive therapy is not productive if the patient submits to the therapy just to elude the consequences. Therapist when administering the cognitive therapy they should be cautious to inhibit their emotional reactions since antisocial patients they have recurring irritation behavior. The best way of treating the antisocial patients is coming up with a professional way of withstanding the intimidation and tackling the problem without demoralizing them (Beck, Davis & Freeman, 2015). Medication of the antisocial personality is the second step used in the treatment of the condition. There are various medicines used to suppress the aggressiveness of antisocial persons. Examples are lithium carbonate, Phenytoin, and Antipsychotic; these three medicines control the anger of antisocial patient. Physicians use anti-depressant to suppress anxiety to antisocial patients. The stimulants are used to reduce attention to a particular phenomenon that leads to the aggressiveness of individual with an antisocial personality. A good example of stimulant medicine is injections of medroxyprogesterone acetate use to control testosterone to men with uncontrollable sexual desire (Sperry, 2013). The last step of antisocial treatment is addiction or family counseling. If a person is addicted to drugs and alcohol that result to antisocial, personality is advised on the best way to avoid and stop the addiction. The counselor comes up with a good counseling plan with goal and objective that patient needs to meet so as to stop the addiction. Marital and family counseling is important to people recovering from antisocial personality. Counseling guides them on how they to interact with other family members. The family members or the spouse needs to avoid the thing that irritates the patient to avoid reoccurrence of the disorder.

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