TDNet Discover

Background: Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) is a type B personality disorder, which are trademarked by dramatic, unpredictable, and/or hyper emotional behavior. ASPD is characterized by a maladaptive thought process in which the individual lacks remorse for violating the rights of others. People who have antisocial personality disorder perceive the environment around them as a dog-eat-dog world. They have ruthless self-interest, consider themselves superior to the rest of the population, and consider the world an opportunity to acquire their materialistic gains. ASPD is prevalent in approximately 1-4% of the general population, with a 3-5% greater likelihood of occurring in males compared to females. In the realm of psychiatric illnesses, treatments and management can take on various forms, including pharmaceuticals, behavioral therapy, and group therapy, among others. Objective: To determine if family-centered interventions are an effective preventative measure for the development of antisocial behavior in children and adolescents. Methods: An evidence-based medicine literature review study design was completed by searching databases including Google Scholar, PubMed, Science Direct, UpToDate, and Medline Complete using search phrases such as “antisocial personality disorder treatment” and “prevention of antisocial personality disorder.” The following limitations were applied: last ten years, English, review articles, full text, systematic review, meta-analysis, randomized controlled trial, and peer-reviewed. Patients with comorbid psychiatric illness were excluded from the analyses. The individual researchers completed a quality assessment and review for each selected article. Results: Two meta-analyses and three randomized controlled trials were included in this review. Each of the evaluated studies consisted of participants in childhood ranging from younger than five years old to twelve years of age placed in a family-centered or social training intervention v and evaluated in increments of years to evaluate for antisocial behaviors. Each of the five articles was rated “good” using the quality assessment tool. The studies suggest that parental training and family-centered programs and approaches are beneficial and effective tools in preventing and/or reducing conduct disorder and antisocial behavior in youth. Conclusion: Family-centered approaches and parental training that target parental involvement, supervision, and management of negative behaviors are an asset to aiding children in navigating their early years positively, developing advanced social cognitive and emotional skills, academic advancement, and ultimately preventing deviant, delinquent, antisocial behaviors, and traits.