T.A. Ridenour1, A.C. Heath1, K.K. Bucholz1, P.A.F. Madden1, & N.G. Martin2.
The reliability of DSM-III, -IIIR, and -IV antisocial personality disorder (APD) criteria was improved over earlier DSM criteria because of their behavioral orientation. Elements of the psychopathic personality were not explicitly included, however, which has led to questioning the validity of APD as a measure of anti-social (rather than a-social) tendencies (Hare, Hart, and Harpur, 1991,Journal of Abnormal Psychology100,391-398; Stalenheim and von Knorring, 1996,Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica94,217-223; Widiger et al., 1996,Journal of Abnormal Psychology105,3-16). Psychopathy scores, based on the Psychopathy Checklist, Revised (R.D. Hare, 1991,The Hare Psychopathy Checklist - Revised Manual, N. Tonawanda:NY), were extracted from telephone interview survey data collected with the Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism (SSAGA-OZ; similar to widely-used epidemiological instruments such as the Diagnostic Interview Schedule and the Composite International Diagnostic Interview) in 628 same-sex male, female, and opposite-sex Australian twins in which at least one twin evidenced alcohol dependence. The concurrent validity of the psychopathy scale (Cronbach's alpha=.83) was supported when correlated with APD adult, child, and total symptom counts using Pearson correlations. Associations between alcohol dependence, marijuana use, and major depression were larger for psychopathy scores than for APD symptom counts using Pearson correlations and logistic analyses. The discriminant validity of the psychopathy scale was supported by nonsignificant associations with social phobia, agoraphobia, and panic disorder. Differences in psychopathy score correlations among monozygotic twin pairs and dizygotic twin pairs suggested genetic influence for males, but not for females. Psychopathy may be preferable to APD for investigating genetic mechanisms that influence antisocial tendencies.
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1Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis and 2Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Australia. Supported by NIH grants AA07535, AA07728, AA10249 and MH17104.