No medications have been developed specifically to treat psychopathy, so medications initially developed to treat ADHD, mood and anxiety disorders, or thought disorders are used instead.
There are no medicines specifically approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat antisocial personality disorder. Health care providers may prescribe medicines for conditions that sometimes occur along with antisocial personality disorder, such as anxiety or depression, or for symptoms of aggression.
The most successful approaches to treating psychopathy are multimodal. This means they include multiple approaches at once, including psychotherapy, behavioral skills training, and recognition of the important roles of family, school, peers, and the community. They may also incorporate medication.
The best approach to pharmacotherapy is to target and treat comorbid psychiatric disorders. Although it may be daunting to encounter a patient with psychopathy in the general practice setting, this syndrome is well defined and can be approached clinically in a manner similar to other personality disorders.
And, just like in these people — although one can never be fully cured — perhaps with the right treatment, psychopaths can learn to lead normal lives, one day at a time.
There is no single known cause of psychopathy. Genetics, trauma, brain structure, exposure to violence during childhood, and environmental conditions are possible contributing factors. Research about effective treatments for psychopathy is ongoing.
Most people mellow out with age, but in the case of psychopaths and those suffering from similar antisocial personality disorders such as sociopaths, bad behavior tends to get worse, according to new research from New Zealand's University of Otago.
No medications have been developed specifically to treat psychopathy, so medications initially developed to treat ADHD, mood and anxiety disorders, or thought disorders are used instead. Medications are not a cure. But medications may reduce symptoms of psychopathy.
Although both biological and environmental factors play a role in the development of psychopathy and sociopathy, it is generally agreed that psychopathy is chiefly a genetic or inherited condition, notably related to the underdevelopment of parts of the brain responsible for emotional regulation and impulse control.
Everyone can change
Traits of psychopathy naturally decrease over time for many young people, starting in late adolescence into adulthood.
TO THE BEST of our knowledge, there is no cure for psychopathy. No pill can instill empathy, no vaccine can prevent murder in cold blood, and no amount of talk therapy can change an uncaring mind. For all intents and purposes, psychopaths are lost to the normal social world.
Yes, research shows there are “good” psychopaths. Many people in positively heroic professions have strong psychopathic traits.
We test an alternative explanation: psychopaths have normal understanding of right and wrong, but abnormal regulation of morally appropriate behavior. We presented psychopaths with moral dilemmas, contrasting their judgments with age- and sex-matched (i) healthy subjects and (ii) non-psychopathic, delinquents.
People with psychopathic traits typically get much greater pleasure from psychoactive substances than other people. One brain imaging study found that people who scored high on the psychopathy scale had a massive dopamine response to amphetamines–almost four times that of other participants.
Psychopaths are considered to have a severe form of antisocial personality disorder.
“Sociopath” is an unofficial term to describe a person who has antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), whereas psychopathy describes a set of personality traits. However, ASPD and psychopathy can overlap. ASPD and psychopathy share some similar traits, including aggression and a lack of remorse.
Although sociopathy and psychopathy cannot be diagnosed until someone is 18, one of the hallmarks of both conditions is that they usually begin in childhood or early adolescence. Usually, the symptoms appear before the age of 15, and sometimes they are present early in childhood.
Unlike sadists, psychopaths don't harm the harmless simply because they get pleasure from it (though they may). Psychopaths want things. If harming others helps them get what they want, so be it. They can act this way because they are less likely to feel pity or remorse or fear.
There are some areas where psychopaths may experience normal emotions and grief is one such area. In response to death of a person with whom there is a bond, some psychopaths can experience sadness and this may even bring about feelings of guilt which are otherwise impossible to feel. Crying may be a part of this.
Psychopaths have been found to be capable of feeling love, but their abilities can vary from person to person. In some cases, a psychopath's feelings may grow over time and develop into something that allows them the capacity for empathy towards others.
Like healthy people, many psychopaths love their parents, spouse, children, and pets in their own way, but they have difficulty in loving and trusting the rest of the world.
More recent research has demonstrated that of those with psychopathy scores above 30, 70% had experienced severe multiple relational trauma (e.g. neglect, abuse by relatives) and all had attachment problems in childhood and adulthood (Schimmenti et al., 2014).
That said, psychopaths do appreciate their relationships in their own way. They do suffer pain, feel loneliness, have desires and feel sadness if they do not receive affection.