Personality disorder and violence in the national household population of Britain

Abstract

IntroductionViolence is believed to be more common in people with personality disorder (PD). Patients with these conditions were previously excluded from health care services due to concerns over potential violence and disruptive behaviour (National Institute for Mental Health in England, 2003). Subsequent policy required mental health professionals to take action to protect the public from people with PD. Epidemiological evidence supports concerns over PD, ABSTRACT Background: Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is strongly associated with violence but the effects of other personality disorder (PD) categories are uncertain. Purpose: To investigate associations between 10 DSM-IV PD categories and effects of co-occurring disorders on self-reported violence. Method: Cross-sectional survey of 8397 adults aged 16-74 years in households in Great Britain. Results: ASPD contributed strongly to the burden of violence in the British population. Paranoid and obsessive-compulsive PD made additional independent contributions, and narcissistic PD contributed to intimate partner violence. The prevalence of violence correlated with the number of PD categories. Comorbid alcohol dependence further increased the risk. Conclusions: Risk of violence increases with increasing severity of PD, measured by the number of PD categories, and with co-occurring alcohol dependence. Not all PD categories are associated with violence, and avoidant PD was protective. Identification of targets for future interventions may be obscured using a classification based solely on severity.

Violence and mental disorders: a structured review of associations by individual diagnoses, risk factors, and risk assessment

“…It should be noted that, although there is some overlap, psychopathy 43 is a distinct construct, which has criteria, such as callousness, that overlap more with ICD dissocial personality disorder. Other work in personality disorder is cross-sectional, 27 and has found links with ASPD, paranoid, narcissistic and obsessivecompulsive personality disorder, and, in men, increased risk in borderline personality disorder cannot be excluded, 44 albeit limited by reliance on self-report for diagnosis and outcome. Other data suggested co-existing ASPD and psychiatric comorbidity contribute to violence risk in borderline personality disorder.…”

Cluster B Personality Traits and Psychological Intimate Partner Violence: Considering the Mediational Role of Alcohol

“…Empirical findings suggest that men with borderline PDs displayed reactive IPV tendencies (characterized by emotional volatility; Armenti & Babcock, 2018; Cascardi et al., 2018; Peters et al., 2017; Ross & Babcock, 2009), whereas those with antisocial PDs displayed both reactive and proactive IPV tendencies (premeditated and instrumentally; see Cascardi et al., 2018; Ross & Babcock, 2009). Regarding the link between narcissistic personality traits and IPV perpetration, some authors have pointed out that the presence of such traits is related to IPV perpetration (Blinkhorn et al., 2019; Coid et al., 2017; Ménard et al., 2018); however, other researchers have questioned these results. Once a psychopathic personality is considered, there is mixed empirical evidence on the narcissism–IPV link, identifying a specific association with restrictive emotional abuse (Carton & Egan, 2017), or absence of association between narcissistic traits and IPV (Kiire, 2017).…”

“…The empirical study of violent men—both in general and against their female partners—has produced abundant empirical evidence on their main psychological characteristics. An important part of these studies has given special attention to the analysis of the role of psychopathological personality traits and personality disorders (PDs) in the explanation of both general violence (see Bayes & Parker, 2017; Coid et al., 2017) and IPV (see Cascardi et al., 2018; Sesar et al., 2018). The analysis of the potential explanatory role of Cluster B personality traits (antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic) in IPV is remarkable.…”

Association of prior depressive symptoms and suicide attempts with subsequent victimization: analysis of population-based data from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey

“…Self-completion items in the Domestic Violence and Abuse section of the APMS questionnaire assessed recent IPV, in the form of experiencing, in the previous 12 months, a partner or ex-partner: [28]. Drug use was measured by an item for use of an illicit drug in the lifetime (illicit drugs included cannabis, amphetamines, cocaine, crack, ecstasy, heroin, acid, magic mushrooms, tranquilizers, amyl nitrite, anabolic steroids, and glue), and hazardous use of alcohol in the previous year was measured using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scale [29], with a cutoff of 8.…”