Adult antisocial behaviour without conduct disorder: demographic characteristics and risk for cooccurring psychopathology.

OBJECTIVE

Several studies note people who demonstrate adult antisocial behaviour (AAB) in the absence of conduct disorder (CD) before age 15 years. Perhaps because they do not meet diagnostic criteria for antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), this group of people exhibiting late-onset AAB has been underrecognized and understudied. Thus the goal of this study was to examine the demographic features and patterns of cooccurring psychopathology of people exhibiting late-onset antisocial behaviour (AB; AAB but not CD), compared with people suffering from ASPD (CD and AAB), people suffering from CD but not AAB, and members of a nonantisocial control group.

METHOD

This study used the population-based sample of the National Comorbidity Survey (NCS). The demographic features examined were sex, percentage living in poverty, annual income, and years of formal education. The possibly cooccurring diagnoses examined were alcohol abuse and dependence, drug abuse and dependence, major depressive disorder, dysthymia, generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, simple phobia, panic disorder, agoraphobia, and posttraumatic stress disorder.

RESULTS

About 2.3% of participants exhibited AAB but not CD. These individuals had patterns of demographic characteristics and cooccurring psychiatric disorders quite similar to those of people diagnosed with full ASPD.

CONCLUSION

Individuals who demonstrate this pattern of late-onset AB are at levels of risk comparable to those of individuals suffering from ASPD; therefore, they are equally in need of research and clinical attention.