Personality Disorders, Psychopathy
Conditions
Keywords
Incarcerated offenders, emotionally reactive, emotionally stable, psychopathy
Brief summary
This is a 2 -year NIDA funded grant (Co-PIs: Joseph P. Newman, John Curtin, and Carl Lejuez) that examines whether recent progress in characterizing the cognitive deficits associated with psychopathic and externalizing offenders may be used to develop better therapeutic interventions to treat their substance abuse and other self-control problems. Inmates with externalizing or psychopathy will receive one of two computer-based interventions to remediate the core cognitive skills that have been linked to self-regulation deficits in the two groups. One intervention (ACC) targets the affective cognitive control deficits associated with externalizing offenders whereas the other intervention (ATC) targets the attention to context deficits associated with psychopathic offenders. The specific components of the project include: selection and randomization of inmates; pre- and post-treatment behavioral and brain-related (ERP and Startle) measures to evaluate the impact and specificity of the ACC and ATC treatments; and 6 sessions of behavioral (e.g. computerized) and verbal training in ACC or ATC.
Interventions
OTHERCognitive Remediation
Computer training on 3 tasks that targets the attention to context deficits associated with psychopathic offenders. Participants complete 6 training sessions, that include the tasks, feedback and real-world translational examples.
Sponsors
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
CROSSOVER
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
MALE
Age
18 Years to 45 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Male, * ages 18-45 years, * elevated scores of psychopathy or externalizing measures
Exclusion criteria
* currently taking psychotropic medication, * below a 4th grade reading level, * history or current learning disability, * history of head trauma with lasting effects, * current diagnosis of PTSD, * Bipolar, or * psychosis
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Psychophysiological change from pre-treatment to post-treatment | 6 weeks after pre-testing | We will measure electrophysiology (EEG), startle responses (EMG measured in microvolts), and behavioral responses on six tasks that measure such processes as affective regulation, distress tolerance, cognitive control, selective attention, and attending to context. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Frequency of Conduct Reports | within 3 months of participation | Assess change in the frequency of institution conduct reports post-treatment. We will compare frequency of these reports pre-treatment and post-treatment. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed