Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction – Biological factors in crime causation: the reactions of social scientists
- Part I Methodological questions and implications
- Part II Evidence for the role of genetics
- Part III Psychophysiological and neurophysiological factors
- Part IV Neurological factors
- Part V Biochemical factors
- Part VI Treatment issues
- 17 The role of psychosurgical studies in the control of antisocial behavior
- 18 Pharmacological approaches to the treatment of antisocial behavior
- Author index
- Subject index
18 - Pharmacological approaches to the treatment of antisocial behavior
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction – Biological factors in crime causation: the reactions of social scientists
- Part I Methodological questions and implications
- Part II Evidence for the role of genetics
- Part III Psychophysiological and neurophysiological factors
- Part IV Neurological factors
- Part V Biochemical factors
- Part VI Treatment issues
- 17 The role of psychosurgical studies in the control of antisocial behavior
- 18 Pharmacological approaches to the treatment of antisocial behavior
- Author index
- Subject index
Summary
Introduction
Drug therapy of antisocial behavior has yielded limited and inconsistent benefits in the past, but recent advances in diagnosis, neurophysiology, and neuropharmacology now offer considerable promise. Antisocial behavior syndromes are developmentally complex and composed of heterogeneous symptoms. Knowledge of the underlying neurophysiological and neurochemical processes has been limited, so that drug treatment for one target symptom has often led to a worsening of other parts of the clinical picture. Clinical drug trials have been carried out mainly with highly heterogeneous patient populations, so that results have usually been difficult to interpret and to replicate. Recent advances that will be described here make it possible now to specify drug-responsive target symptoms and more homogeneous clinical subgroups and to approach drug choice with rational guidance from knowledge of how to match the neuropharmacological properties of drugs with what is known about the neurochemical and neurophysiological basis of the target symptoms.
Despite optimism about recent advances, two points must be emphasized. First, antisocial behavior is developmentally complex with many different genetic and environmental determinants (1–6), so drugs are always merely an adjunct in a comprehensive treatment program. Second, all available treatment recommendations must be considered preliminary and tentative until long-term, double-blind, controlled trials are conducted that take into account available knowledge. Nevertheless, the recommended diagnostic and treatment procedures should both help clinicians refine their treatment strategy and stimulate further research in this important and challenging area.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Causes of CrimeNew Biological Approaches, pp. 329 - 350Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1987
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