There is ambiguity in how recurrent anger and aggression are accounted for by psychiatric nosology. One area of uncertainty is the extent to which Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED) overlaps with and is distinct from Personality Disorder (PD). Accordingly, we conducted a study of individuals with IED and PD in order to understand the nature of comorbidity relationships seen across these two areas of psychopathology. One-thousand-five-hundred-twenty-one adults were studied (441 Healthy Controls (HC), 430 Psychiatric Controls (PC), and 650 IED subjects) and assessed for DSM-5 psychiatric disorders, life history of aggressive behavior, trait aggression, state and trait anger reactivity, and impulsivity. While nearly half of IED study participants had a comorbid PD diagnosis, nearly half with a Cluster B PD, almost as many had other personality disorders. IED predicted anger symptoms and history of aggressive behavior above and beyond a PD diagnosis. Comorbidity between IED and either Antisocial (AsPD) or Borderline (BPD) PD was associated with the highest levels of aggressive behavior. However, having IED comorbid with either AsPD and/or BPD PD was not associated with higher levels of impulsivity. Underlying personality traits related to anger, affect, and social behavior, but not identity disturbance, contribute to the shared symptom profile of IED and PD. IED is usually comorbid with PD, but does not have a unique relationship with any single PD. When comorbid with PD, a diagnosis of IED predicts more severe anger and aggression, but not necessarily increased impulsivity. These results suggest that IED and PD diagnoses retain clinical utility when made in cases meeting criteria for both.

Psychopathy is a personality disorder that has emerged as a correlate of antisocial, impulsive, and violent behavior, including intimate partner violence (IPV). In the current study, we sought to explore the complex relationship between two factors of psychopathy and IPV perpetration. The Fearlessness-Dominance Factor 1 (PPI-I) assesses the affective-interpersonal traits of psychopathy, whereas the Impulsive-Antisociality Factor II (PPI-II) assesses the behavioral-lifestyle traits of psychopathy. Data from 114 couples was utilized in the current study. When using male self-report of IPV, all forms of violence were significantly correlated with PPI-I. No male self-report or female-report of any of the forms of violence were significantly correlated with PPI-II. Hierarchical regression was utilized to study the impact of psychopathy factors in predicting physical violence while controlling for demographic variables. In predicting women's report of men's violence, the addition of psychopathy factors to the model explained significantly more of the variance (F = 2.71; p < .05) above and beyond demographic variables. The addition of psychopathy factors to the model predicting men's self-reported physical violence was also significant (F = 4.78, p < .001). These results suggest that individuals high in PPI-I may be at higher risk of IPV perpetration compared to those high in PPI-II.

Identify correlates of nicotine dependence [lifetime (l) and ongoing (o)] in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in childhood. We conducted a 33-year prospective follow-up of boys (mean age 8) with combined type ADHD (n = 135/207, 65% original sample). Correlates of nicotine dependence in adulthood were selected from characteristics obtained in childhood and adolescence. Among selected childhood features, only immature behavior was significantly related to nicotine dependence (OR(o) = 0.29, p = 0.02), indexing decreased risk. In contrast, several adolescent variables significantly correlated (p < 0.01) with nicotine dependence at mean age 41, including alcohol substance use disorder (SUD, OR(l) = 4.97), non-alcohol SUD (OR(o) = 4.33/OR(l) = 10.93), parental antisocial personality disorder (OR(l) = 4.42), parental SUD (OR(l) = 3.58), dropped out of school (OR(l) = 2.29), impulsivity (OR(o) = 1.53/OR(l) = 1.59), hyperactivity (OR(o) = 1.38), and number of antisocial behaviors (OR(o) = 1.10/OR(l) = 1.14). Results highlight the role of adolescent psychopathology in the development of nicotine dependence, motivating prospective longitudinal efforts to better define the developmental trajectories of risk and protection.

To review recent studies investigating hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function in children and adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs) and adults with antisocial personality disorder. We consider key concepts and methodological issues in cortisol assessment and review studies investigating basal cortisol secretion and stress reactivity in antisocial populations. Lastly, we consider whether cortisol abnormalities predict prognosis or treatment outcomes and the impact of exposure to adversity on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrena (HPA) axis activity.

The cerebellum is a hindbrain structure which involvement in functions not related to motor control and planning is being increasingly recognized in the last decades. Studies on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have reported cerebellar involvement on these conditions characterized by social deficits and repetitive motor behavior patterns. Although such an involvement hints at a possible cerebellar participation in the social domain, the fact that ASD patients present both social and motor deficits impedes drawing any firm conclusion regarding cerebellar involvement in pathological social behaviours, probably influenced by the classical view of the cerebellum as a purely "motor" brain structure. Here, we suggest the cerebellum can be a key node for the production and control of normal and particularly aberrant social behaviours, as indicated by its involvement in other neuropsychiatric disorders which main symptom is deregulated social behaviour. Therefore, in this work, we briefly review cerebellar involvement in social behavior in rodent models, followed by discussing the findings linking the cerebellum to those other psychiatric conditions characterized by defective social behaviours. Finally, possible commonalities between the studies and putative underlying impaired functions will be discussed and experimental approaches both in patients and experimental animals will also be proposed, aimed at stimulating research on the role of the cerebellum in social behaviours and disorders characterized by social impairments, which, if successful, will definitely help reinforcing the proposed cerebellar involvement in the social domain.

Conduct disorder (CD) is a psychiatric disorder in either childhood or adolescence and is characterized by aggressive and antisocial behavior. Although CD has been shown to be associated with structural abnormalities by structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI), the classification ability of these structural abnormalities' spatial patterns remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to characterize these different spatial patterns, which may eventually serve as potential reliable imaging biomarkers in the classification of CD from healthy controls (HCs). High-resolution 3D sMRI was acquired from 60 CD and 60 HCs, and all subjects were male participants. The mean (standard deviation) age was 15.3 (1.0) years old and 15.5 (0.7) years old for the CD and HC group respectively. Multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) with searchlight algorithm combined with support vector machine (SVM) was used to characterize the different spatial patterns in grey matter (GM) and to assess the classification ability of such structural difference. Seven cortical and subcortical regions showed significant GM difference between CD and HCs, including the cerebellum posterior lobe, temporal lobe, parahippocampal gyrus, lingual gyrus, insula, parietal lobe and medial frontal gyrus. GM in these brain regions discriminated CD with accuracy of up to 83%. Multiple brain regions exhibited aberrantly different spatial patterns in CD. The spatial patterns might be objective and reliable imaging features that could help to improve the classification of CD.