Childhood identification and prophylaxis of antisocial personality disorder.

Physiological and psychological characteristics show considerable similarity between children with attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADDH) and adults with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). Prospective studies of ADDH children, with or without conduct disorder (CD), show a high outcome of ASPD. Recently, other forms of treatment have been added to the traditional psychopharmacological agents used for ADDH. If medication and new treatment modalities are administered for a period of three years, a recent controlled study indicates that the mean number of arrests for felony offenses and the mean number of institutionalizations are reduced at a p less than 0.0001 level (1.32 versus 0.19 and 0.49 versus 0.00, respectively).