Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T06:50:38.411Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Neurological soft signs in homicidal men with antisocial personality disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

Nina Lindberg ,
Pekka Tani ,
Jan-Henry Stenberg ,
Björn Appelberg ,
Tarja Porkka-Heiskanen  and
Matti Virkkunen
Nina Lindberg*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Helsinki, Finland Department of Physiology, Institute of Biomedicine, Biomedicum Helsinki, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 63, Helsinki 00014, Finland
Pekka Tani
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Helsinki, Finland Department of Physiology, Institute of Biomedicine, Biomedicum Helsinki, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 63, Helsinki 00014, Finland
Jan-Henry Stenberg
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Helsinki, Finland
Björn Appelberg
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Helsinki, Finland
Tarja Porkka-Heiskanen
Affiliation:
Department of Physiology, Institute of Biomedicine, Biomedicum Helsinki, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 63, Helsinki 00014, Finland
Matti Virkkunen
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Helsinki, Finland
*
*Corresponding author. Email addresses:[email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Neurological soft signs (NSS) are characterized by abnormalities in motor, sensory, and integrative functions. NSS have been regarded as a result of neurodevelopmental dysfunction, and as evidence of a central nervous system defect, resulting in considerable sociopsychological dysfunction. During the last decade there has been growing evidence of brain dysfunction in severe aggressive behavior. As a symptom, aggression overlaps a number of psychiatric disorders, but it is commonly associated with antisocial personality disorder. The aim of the present study was to examine NSS in an adult criminal population using the scale by Rossi et al. [29]. Subjects comprised 14 homicidal men with antisocial personality disorder recruited from a forensic psychiatric examination. Ten age- and gender-matched healthy volunteers as well as eight patients with schizophrenia, but no history of physical aggression, served as controls. The NSS scores of antisocial offenders were significantly increased compared with those of the healthy controls, whereas no significant differences were observed between the scores of offenders and those of patients with schizophrenia. It can be speculated that NSS indicate a nonspecific vulnerability factor in several psychiatric syndromes, which are further influenced by a variety of genetic and environmental components. One of these syndromes may be antisocial personality disorder with severe aggression.

Keywords

Neurological soft signsAntisocial personality disorderHomicide
Type
Original article
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 19 , Issue 7 , November 2004 , pp. 433 - 437
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 4th ed. Washington (DC): APA; 1994.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 4th ed. Washington (DC): APA; 2000 revised.Google Scholar
Bolton, D, Gibb, W, Lees, A, Raven, P, Gray, JA, Chen, E, et al. Neurological soft signs in obsessive compulsive disorder: standardised assessment and comparison with schizophrenia. Behav Neurol 1998; 11:197–204.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Breslau, N, Chilcoat, HD, Johnson, EO, Andreski, P, Lucia, VC. Neurologic soft signs and low birthweight: their association and neuropsy-chiatric implications. Biol Psychiatry 1999;47:71–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cantor-Graae, E, Mc Neil, TF, Rickler, KC, Sjostrom, K, Rawlings, R, Higgins, ES, et al. Are neurological abnormalities in well discordant monozygotic co-twins of schizophrenic subjects the result of perinatal trauma? Am J Psychiatry 1994;151:1194–9.Google Scholar
Cloninger, CR, Bohman, M, Sigvardsson, S. Inheritance of alcohol abuse. Cross-fostering analysis of adopted men. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1981;18:861–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cloninger, CR, Svrakic, DM. Personality disorders. 7th ed. In: Sadock, BJ, Sadock, VA, editors. Kaplan & Sadock’s comprehensive textbook of psychiatry, II. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2000. p. 1723–64.Google Scholar
Cuesta, MJ, Peralta, V, Zarzuela, A, Calvo, R, García, M, Serrano, F. Neurological soft-signs in psychosis: threshold criteria for discriminating normal controls and for predicting cognitive impairment. Schizoph Res 2002;58:263–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eronen, M, Hakola, P, Tiihonen, J. Mental disorders and homicidal behavior in Finland. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1996;53:497–501.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
First, MB, Spitzer, RL, Williams, JBW. Gibbon, M, Williams, JWB.Structured clinical interview for DSM-IV axis I disorders, clinical version (SCID-CV). Washington (DC): APA; 1996.Google Scholar
First, MB, Gibbon, M, Spitzer, RL, Williams, JBW. Benjamin, L. Struc tured clinical interview for SDM-IV personality disorders, (SCID-II). Washington (DC): APA; 1996.Google Scholar
Gurvits, TV, Gilbertson, MW, Lasko, NB, Orr, SP, Pitman, RK. Neurological status of combat veterans and adult survivors of sexual abuse PTSD. Ann NYAcad Sci 1997;21:468–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heinrichs, DW, Buchanan, RW. Significance and meaning of neurological signs in schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry 1988;145:11–8.Google Scholar
Ismail, BT, Cantor-Graae, E, Cardenal, S, McNeil, TF. Neurological abnormalities in schizophrenia: clinical, etiological and demographic correlates. Schizoph Res 1998;30:229–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaplan, HI, Sadock, BJ, Grebb, JA. Kaplan and Sadock’s synopsis of psychiatry: behavioral sciences, clinical psychiatry. 7th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 1994.Google Scholar
Keenan, E, O’Donnell, C, Sinanan, K, O’Callaghan, E. Severity of alcohol dependence and its relationship to neurological soft signs, neuropsychological impairment and family history. Acta Psychiatr Scand 1997;95:272–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kinney, DK, Yurgelun-Todd, DA, Woods, BT. Hard neurologic signs and psychopathology in relatives of schizophrenic patients. Psychiatry Res 1991;39:45–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kolakowska, T, Williams, AO, Jambor, K, Ardern, M. Schizophrenia with good and poor outcome III: neurological “soft” signs, cognitive impairment and their clinical significance. Br J Psychiatry 1985;146: 348–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lindberg, N, Tani, P, Appelberg, B, Stenberg, D, Naukkarinen, H, Rimón, R, et al. Sleep among habitually violent offenders with antisocial personality disorder. Neuropsychobiology 2003;47:198–205.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lindberg, N, Tani, P, Appelberg, B, Naukkarinen, H, Rimón, R, Porkka-Heiskanen, T. Human impulsive aggression: a sleep research perspective. J Psychiatr Res 2003;37:313–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moeller, FG, Barratt, ES, Dougherty, DM, Schimtz, JM, Swann, AC. Psychiatric aspects of impulsivity. Am J Psychiatry 2001;158:1783–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Neugebauer, R, Hoek, HW, Susser, E. Prenatal exposure to wartime famine and development of antisocial personality disorder in early adulthood. JAMA 1999;4:479–81.Google Scholar
Olsen, HC, Stressguth, AP, Sampson, PD, Barr, HM, Bookstein, FL, Thiede, K. Association of prenatal alcohol exposure with behavioural and learning problems in early adolescence. JAmAcad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 1997;36:1187–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pine, DS, Wasserman, GA, Fried, JE, Parides, M, Shaffer, D. Neurological soft signs: one-year stability and relationship to psychiatric symptoms in boys. JAmAcad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 1997;36:1579–91.Google ScholarPubMed
Pollin, W, Stabenau, JR, Mosher, LR. Life history differences in identical twins discordant for schizophrenia. Am J Orthopsychiatry 1966; 36:492–509.Google Scholar
Quitkin, F, Rifkin, A, Klein, DF. Neurologic soft signs in schizophrenia and character disorders. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1976;33:845–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Raine, A. Annotation: the role of prefrontal deficits, low autonomic arousal, and early health factors in the development of antisocial and aggressive behavior in children. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 2002;43: 417–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robins, LN. The intimate connection between antisocial personality and substance use. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 1998;33: 393–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rossi, A, de Cataldo, S, di Michele, V, Manna, V, Ceccoli, S, Stratta, P, et al. Neurological soft signs in schizophrenia. Br J Psychiatry 1990;157:735–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Räsänen, P, Hakko, H, Isohanni, M, Hodgins, S, Järvelin, MR, Tii-honen, J. Maternal smoking during pregnancy and risk of criminal behavior among adult male offspring in the northern Finland 1996 cohort. Am J Psychiatry 1999;156:857–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanders, RD, Keshavan, MS. The neurologic examination in adult psychiatry: from soft signs to hard science. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 1998;10:395–404.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shafer, SQ, Stokman, CJ, Shaffer, D, Ng, SK, O’Conner, PA, Schon-feld, IS. Ten-year consistency in neurological test performance of children without focal neurological deficit. Dev Med Child Neurol 1986;28:417–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Soderstrom, H, Tullberg, M, Wikkelso, C, Ekholm, S, Forsman, A. Reduced regional cerebral blood flow in non-psychotic violent offenders. Psychiatry Res 2000;98:29–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spitzer, RL, Williams, JBW. Gibbon, M, First, MB. Structured clinical interview for DSM-III-R, non-patients version, (SCID-NP). Washington (DC): APA; 1990.Google Scholar
Stein, DJ, Hollander, E, Cohen, L, Frenkel, M, Saoud, JB, DeCaria, C, et al. Neuropsychiatric impairment in impulsive personality disorders. Psychiatry Res 1993;48:257–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tani, P, Lindberg, N, Joukamaa, M, Appelberg, B, Rimón, R, Nieminen-von Wendt, T, et al. Asperger syndrome, alexithymia, and perception of sleep. Neuropsychobiology 2004;49:64–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tiihonen, J, Eronen, M, Hakola, P. Criminality associated with mental disorders and intellectual deficiency. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1993;50: 917–8.Google ScholarPubMed
Virkkunen, M, Rawlings, R, Tokola, R, Poland, RE, Guidotti, A, Nemeroff, C, et al. CSF biochemistry, glucose metabolism, and diurnal activity rhythms in alcoholic, violent offenders, fire setters, and healthy volunteers. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1994;51:20–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Virkkunen, M, Eggert, M, Rawlings, R, Linnoila, M. A prospective follow-up study alcoholic violent offenders and fire setters. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1996;53:523–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Woods, BT, Eby, MD. Excessive mirror movements and aggression. Biol Psychiatry 1982;17:23–32.Google ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.