OBJECTIVE: Impulsivity is a core feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) that likely arises from combined genetic and environmental influences. The interaction of the low activity variant of the monoamine oxidase-A (MAOA-L) gene and early childhood adversity has been shown to predict aggression in clinical and non-clinical populations. Although impulsivity is a risk factor for aggression in BPD and ASPD, little research has investigated potential gene-environment (G×E) influences impacting its expression in these conditions. Moreover, G×E interactions may differ by diagnosis. METHODS: Full factorial analysis of variance was employed to investigate the influence of monoamine oxidase-A (MAO-A) genotype, childhood abuse, and diagnosis on Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 (BIS-11) scores in 61 individuals: 20 subjects with BPD, 18 subjects with ASPD, and 23 healthy controls. RESULTS: A group×genotype×abuse interaction was present (F(2,49)=4.4, p=0.018), such that the interaction of MAOA-L and childhood abuse predicted greater BIS-11 motor impulsiveness in BPD. Additionally, BPD subjects reported higher BIS-11 attentional impulsiveness versus ASPD participants (t(1,36)=2.3, p=0.025). CONCLUSION: These preliminary results suggest that MAOA-L may modulate the impact of childhood abuse on impulsivity in BPD. Results additionally indicate that impulsiveness may be expressed differently in BPD and ASPD.
Aggression ; Antisocial Personality Disorder ; Borderline Personality Disorder* ; Diagnosis ; Genotype ; Impulsive Behavior ; Monoamine Oxidase ; Risk Factors

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the structural abnormalities of brain in patients with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) but without alcoholism and drug abuse. METHODS: Volunteers from Hunan Reformatory (n=36) and the matched healthy subjects (n=26) were examined by high-spatial resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Voxel-based morphometry and fractional anisotropy (FA) maps were generated for each subject to reveal structural abnormalities in patients with ASPD. RESULTS: Compared with the healthy controls, ASPD patients showed significantly higher gray matter volumes in the inferior parietal lobule (P≤0.001, uncorrected), white matter volumes in the precuneus (P≤0.001, uncorrected), FA in the left lingual gyrus, bilateral precuneus, right superior frontal gyrus and right middle temporal gyrus (P≤0.01, uncorrected). CONCLUSION Our results revealed the abnormal neuroanatomical features in ASPD patients, which might be related to the external behavioral traits in ASPD patients.
Anisotropy ; Antisocial Personality Disorder ; diagnosis ; Brain ; anatomy & histology ; Case-Control Studies ; Diffusion Tensor Imaging ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging

OBJECTIVE: To seek and ascertain indicators that can be used in the civil competence assessment of the mental disorders involved in compensation of personal injury. METHODS: A retrospective study was made on the data related to the interviewee's mental status assessed by forensic experts during the period from 2003 to 2005 in Institute of Forensic Science, Ministry of Justice, P.R.China. The 6 indicators, including awareness of situation, factual understanding of issues, appreciation of likely consequences, rational manipulation of information, functioning in one's own environment, and communication of choice, were graded and statistically analyzed using SPSS 11.5 software. RESULTS: The 6 indicators correlated well with the assessment of forensic experts ,with the related coefficient between 0.632 and 0.876, and the inter-related coefficient among the 6 indicators between 0.575 and 0.911. CONCLUSION The 6 indicators could be used for the civil competence assessment and may also be taken as the basis for further standardization and quantification of civil competence.
Antisocial Personality Disorder/diagnosis* ; Compensation and Redress/legislation & jurisprudence* ; Expert Testimony/legislation & jurisprudence* ; Forensic Psychiatry ; Humans ; Insanity Defense ; Mental Competency/legislation & jurisprudence* ; Psychotic Disorders/diagnosis* ; Wounds and Injuries/economics*