News Early-intervention For Sociopaths?

[joeylittle]

In another thread, there's been a really interesting debate about the complexities surrounding the term "mental illness", and (I think) a struggle to understand how we all go under one umbrella: people with PTSD, depression, bi-polar, schizophrenia, personality disorders...it's a big, big list.

It made me remember this article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/m...ear-old-a-psychopath.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

It's the story of a family - and a study - and the debate about whether sociopathy can in fact be identified in early development and successfully treated. The article isn't really biased one way or another - but it's really, really thought-provoking.

An interesting factoid excerpted from it:

The benefits of successful treatment (for psycopathy) could be enormous. Psychopaths are estimated to make up 1 percent of the population but constitute roughly 15 to 25 percent of the offenders in prison and are responsible for a disproportionate number of brutal crimes and murders. A recent estimate by the neuroscientist Kent Kiehl placed the national cost of psychopathy at $460 billion a year — roughly 10 times the cost of depression — in part because psychopaths tend to be arrested repeatedly.

 

[nursenurse]

Excellent piece.

 

[Eleanor]

Wow. Scary and interesting at the same time. I wonder about the 50% don't become psychopathic adults tho. How did they determine which adults were psychopathic?

 

[nursenurse]

Hard to think that those who did not turn out to be psychopaths came through unscathed.

 

[scout86]

Here's a probably weird, random question/thought. If these people experience a decreased functioning in the amygdala, do they ever get PTSD? Is there a chance that trying to GIVE them PTSD might actually help them? (Ok, that's 2 weird, random questions. :wideeyed:)

 

[Friday]

My sister works in this field (primary & secondary psychopathy) and we were just having this chat the other night, regarding that very thread. Inherent vs acquired

My understanding from her, though, is that 1% of the population worldwide stat comes from a 5%-7% childhood base. Which means that 4-6% (hundreds of millions) literally outgrow it all on their own with no directed intervention whatsoever. Brain plasticity, outside influence, no one knows what/why... As nearly always... It's probably a combo of factors.

That the problem isn't identifying it in childhood, it knowing whether it's going to be pervasive and lifelong... When it usually isn't. Only 1/5th to 1/7th are.

 

[rightkindofme]

This was a fascinating article. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[radicalgratitude]

Thanks for sharing this article. Being a teacher has had a direct impact on how I view psychopaths. I cannot watch a news story about a psychopath without thinking, "Somewhere there is a teacher who is watching this story on TV, and thinking, 'I feared this day would come.'"

Yes, we can see signs of it early on. It's scary, but sadly, at least where I teach, it's hard to get these children help. The family has to be open to it.

 

[Eleanor]

I don't know why I think this exactly, but I am thinking in a confident tone that psychopaths DONT get PTSD, and that is part of why the trait has persisted - in extremely traumatic times it is adaptive. In this case it seems like an ounce of prevention is worth about a ton of cure. This is one of those things that once they figure it out will Change The World in a major way...

 

[scout86]

@Eleanor , I've kind of been thinking the same thing. Weird idea, isn't it?

 

[radicalgratitude]

Wow! My mind is blown. If what @Eleanor and @scout86 are thinking is correct, then I think I am almost thankful for having PTSD. :sick: I never thought I'd say that.

 

[Eleanor]

So the briefest of glancing at stuff on this teaches me that there are type one and type two psychopaths - the former is apparently genetic the latter somehow experientially induced (perhaps on the addiction to violence sort of model) In any case, the suppression of amygdala activity (which is over the top in PTSD) seems antithetical to developing PTSD.

How ironic if it turned out that a genuine "cure" (normalizing amygdala activity) could treat/cure both!