Impulsiveness, and trait displaced aggression among drug using female sex traders

HIGHLIGHTS

• Women who traded sex for both drugs and money used crack, powder cocaine, and alcohol more.
• Women trading sex for both were higher on Impulsiveness Scales.
• Women trading for drugs only injected more and were higher on Displaced Aggression.
• Women trading for money only used marijuana more and more likely to use before sex.

OBJECTIVE:

This study compared women who sex trade for drugs, money, or both compared to neither (did not sex trade), and introduced the concept of trait displaced aggression to the literature on sex trading.

METHODS:

Female participants (n=1055) were recruited from a low-income area of southern California. Measures included: the Risk Behavior Assessment (RBA), Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS), Eysenck Impulsiveness Scale (EIS), and the Displaced Aggression Questionnaire (DAQ).

RESULTS:

Women who traded sex for both drugs and money used crack cocaine, powder cocaine, and alcohol significantly more, scored higher on the BIS, and the EIS, and were significantly older. Those who only sex traded for drugs used more amphetamine, heroin, and injected drugs more days. They were also higher on the DAQ and all of the DAQ subscales. Those who traded for money only used marijuana more and were more likely to use marijuana before sex.

CONCLUSIONS:

This study may help address specific issues unique to those who sex trade for different commodities in that the drugs used are different and the underlying personality characteristics are different.

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By:  Clingan SE1, Fisher DG2, Pedersen WC1, Reynolds GL3, Xandre P4.

• 1Psychology Department, California State University, Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Boulevard, Long Beach, CA 90840, USA.
• 2Psychology Department, California State University, Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Boulevard, Long Beach, CA 90840, USA. Electronic address: dennis.fisher@csulb.edu.
• 3Health Care Administration Department, California State University, Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Boulevard, Long Beach, CA 90840, USA.
• 4School of Nursing, California State University, Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Boulevard, Long Beach, CA 90840, USA.
• Addict Behav. 2016 Apr 6;60:24-31. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2016.03.027. 

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Gendered Contexts: Psychopathy and Drug Use in Relation to Sex Work and Exchange

Few scholars have examined psychopathology correlates of sex work. It has been suggested that sex work may reflect manifestations of impulsive-antisocial psychopathic traits (e.g., reckless disregard, delinquency) in women more than men. 

The current work examined relative contributions of drug dependence and distinct psychopathic features in relation to traditional forms of sex work (i.e., prostitution) in women, along with gender differences in psychopathy relationships with casual forms of sex exchange (i.e., trading sex for necessities). 

Study 1 included 171 community-dwelling women offenders, and Study 2 included 319 participants (42.3% women) with histories of drug use and/or violence. Participants completed the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version, prostitution was measured as self-report and/or public record data across studies, and sex exchange in Study 2 was assessed using a questionnaire based on prior research on sexual risk-taking. 

Findings across both studies demonstrated that although psychopathic traits, particularly impulsive-antisocial features, were associated with prostitution in women above the use of drugs, drug dependence did not moderate the relationship between psychopathic traits and prostitution in women. 

Analyses of Study 2 data revealed that impulsive-antisocial traits were associated with sex exchange at low, but not high, levels of interpersonal-affective traits across participants. As well, interpersonal-affective traits were significantly positively related to sex exchange in men and not significantly (and negatively) related in women. 

In sum, impulsive-antisocial traits related to prostitution among women, suggesting that women may manifest these traits within intimate contexts. Moreover, findings indicated gender differences in the manifestation of interpersonal-affective traits within sexual exchange contexts.

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By:  Edwards BG, Verona E. [Vitae]

Department of Psychology, University of South Florida

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Guns, Impulsive Angry Behavior & Mental Disorders: Results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R)

Analyses from the National Comorbidity Study Replication provide the first nationally representative estimates of the co-occurrence of impulsive angry behavior and possessing or carrying a gun among adults with and without certain mental disorders and demographic characteristics. 

The study found that a large number of individuals in the United States self-report patterns of impulsive angry behavior and also possess firearms at home (8.9%) or carry guns outside the home (1.5%). These data document associations of numerous common mental disorders and combinations of angry behavior with gun access. Because only a small proportion of persons with this risky combination have ever been involuntarily hospitalized for a mental health problem, most will not be subject to existing mental health-related legal restrictions on firearms resulting from a history of involuntary commitment. Excluding a large proportion of the general population from gun possession is also not likely to be feasible. 

Behavioral risk-based approaches to firearms restriction, such as expanding the definition of gun-prohibited persons to include those with violent misdemeanor convictions and multiple DUI convictions, could be a more effective public health policy to prevent gun violence in the population.

Below: Estimated number per 100,000 population with gun violence risk indicator and percent ever hospitalized for a mental health problem

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/o1kv77

By:  Swanson JW1, Sampson NA2, Petukhova MV2, Zaslavsky AM2, Appelbaum PS3, Swartz MS1, Kessler RC2.

• 1Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC.
• 2Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
• 3Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, New York, NY. 
• Behav Sci Law. 2015 Jun;33(2-3):199-212. doi: 10.1002/bsl.2172. Epub 2015 Apr 8.

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Individual Differences in Men's Misperception of Women's Sexual Intent: Application and Extension of the Confluence Model

Men are more likely than women to misperceive a cross-sex companion's degree of sexual interest. The current study extends previous research by using the confluence model (Malamuth et al., 1991) to examine how narcissism and impulsive sensation-seeking are directly and indirectly associated with men's misperception of women's sexual interest. 

A community sample of young, single men (N = 470) completed audio computer-assisted self-interviews. Using path analyses, hostile masculinity and impersonal sexual orientation were proximal predictors of men's misperception of women's sexual intent. 

Additionally, narcissism was indirectly related to men's misperception through hostile masculinity. Impulsive sensation-seeking was directly and indirectly related to men's misperceptions through impersonal sexual orientation. Although there was a bivariate relationship between alcohol consumption and misperception, this relationship was not significant in the path model. 

Overall, these findings demonstrate the importance of considering how personality traits increase the risk for misperception.

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By:  Wegner R1, Abbey A1.

• 1Wayne State University. 
• Pers Individ Dif. 2016 May 1;94:16-20.

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Two Clusters of Child Molesters Based on Impulsiveness

OBJECTIVE:

High impulsiveness is a general problem that affects most criminal offenders and is associated with greater recidivism risk. A cluster analysis of impulsiveness measured by the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale - Version 11 (BIS-11) was performed on a sample of hands-on child molesters.

METHODS:

The sample consisted of 208 child molesters enrolled in two different sectional studies carried out in São Paulo, Brazil. Using three factors from the BIS-11, a k-means cluster analysis was performed using the average silhouette width to determine cluster number. Direct logistic regression was performed to analyze the association of criminological and clinical features with the resulting clusters.

RESULTS:

Two clusters were delineated. The cluster characterized by higher impulsiveness showed higher scores on the Sexual Screening for Pedophilic Interests (SSPI), Static-99, and Sexual Addiction Screening Test.

CONCLUSIONS:

Given that child molesters are an extremely heterogeneous population, the "number of victims" item of the SSPI should call attention to those offenders with the highest motor, attentional, and non-planning impulsiveness. Our findings could have implications in terms of differences in therapeutic management for these two groups, with the most impulsive cluster benefitting from psychosocial strategies combined with pharmacological interventions.

...Nevertheless, our study confirmed our initial hypothesis that a child molester subgroup with the highest impulsiveness levels had the highest SSPI mean score; this was mainly due to individuals in this group having a greater number of victims. Certainly, the BIS-11 does not replace the usefulness of the SSPI, given that these instruments evaluate different constructs. However, the BIS-11 can be used as an adjunctive instrument in research on child molesters. Additionally, given that child molesters are an extremely heterogeneous population, the “number of victims” item of the SSPI should call attention to those offenders with the highest motor, attentional, and non-planning impulsiveness. As the SSPI is an instrument used to evaluate risk of recidivism, higher BIS-11 mean scores may indicate a higher risk of recidivist child molestation.

Impulsiveness may reflect a characteristically impulsive cognitive style or even a personality trait. This could predict vulnerability toward diverse behavioral problems.¹² Likewise, impulsiveness involves multiple components, including rapid responding without thinking, lack of concern for consequences, preference for immediate reinforcement, disregard for rules, proneness to boredom, and failure to inhibit responses. Due to these myriad factors that compose impulsiveness, several existing measures of impulsiveness do not correlate significantly with one another, or show differences in content and convergence. This suggests that each measure is likely investigating different aspects of a multifaceted construct.³⁰Additionally, studies using comparable designs have failed to find correspondence between questionnaire and behavioral measures of impulsiveness.³¹Despite the importance of the concept of impulsiveness to sexual offenses, there have been remarkably few studies on impulsiveness among child molesters as measured by the BIS-11. In addition, when impulsiveness has been studied among pedophilic child molesters, findings have been contradictory; this might be due to different instruments investigating different facets of the same construct. Therefore, more than one instrument is likely necessary to measure impulsiveness in this population...³² 

Full article at:  http://goo.gl/kAWpHw

By:  Baltieri DA1, Boer DP2.

• 1Sexual Disorders Outpatient Clinic, Department of Neurosciences, Faculdade de Medicina do ABC, Santo André, SP, Brazil.
• 2Centre for Applied Psychology, University of Canberra, Australia. 
• Rev Bras Psiquiatr. 2015 Apr-Jun;37(2):139-45. doi: 10.1590/1516-4446-2014-1568. Epub 2015 May 1.

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Two Decades of Adolescent Suicides Assessed at Milan University's Medicolegal Unit

Highlights

• Seventy-eight autopsy cases of adolescents suicide in 20 years were analyzed.
• Epidemiology, forensic pathology and psychopathological data were discussed.
• Adolescents were involved in 2.23% of all suicides committed in the Milan area.
• In the majority of cases there were no premonitory signs or particular motives.

Aim

to analyze the cases of suicide committed by adolescents in and around the city of Milan over a 20-year period (1993–2012).

Materials and methods

cases of suicide involving individuals between 10 and 19 years of age were drawn from 20,757 autopsies performed by the Medico-legal Unit at Milan University. Seventy-eight cases were considered (20 females and 58 males, with the ratio of 1:2.9), and their clinical and circumstantial histories, epidemiology, forensic pathology and psychopathological issues were analyzed.

Result

Adolescents were involved in 2.23% of all suicides committed in Milan during the period examined. The “mean” victim is a male without psychiatric disease, aged between 16 and 19, that commits suicide outdoors.

Conclusions

In the majority of cases, there were no premonitory signs, nor any particular contingent or remote reason that might explain these violent deaths, which therefore remain “impulsive”.

Below:  Graphical representation of the annual distribution of the suicides

Below:  Graphical representation of the monthly distribution of the suicides

Below:  Distribution of the sample of adolescents by method chosen to commit suicide

Full article at:  http://goo.gl/F6rnkQ 

By:  Clerici CA1, Gentile G2, Marchesi M3, Muccino E2, Veneroni L1, Zoja R4.

• 1Sezione di Psicologia, Dipartimento di Fisiopatologia Medico Chirurgica e dei Trapianti, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Fratelli Cervi 93, 20090 Segrate MI, Italy.
• 2Sezione di Medicina Legale e delle Assicurazioni, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Luigi Mangiagalli 37, 20133 Milano, Italy.
• 3Azienda Ospedaliera Papa Giovanni XXIII, Piazza OMS 1, 24127 Bergamo, Italy.
• 4Sezione di Medicina Legale e delle Assicurazioni, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Luigi Mangiagalli 37, 20133 Milano, Italy. Electronic address: riccardo.zoia@unimi.it.
• J Forensic Leg Med. 2016 Jan;37:15-21. doi: 10.1016/j.jflm.2015.09.016. Epub 2015 Oct 3. 

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Impulsive Aggression as a Comorbidity of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Children and Adolescents

OBJECTIVE:

This article examines the characteristics of impulsive aggression (IA) as a comorbidity in children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), focusing on its incidence, impact on ADHD outcomes, need for timely intervention, and limitations of current treatment practices.

METHODS:

Relevant literature was retrieved with electronic searches in PubMed and PsycINFO using the search strategy of "ADHD OR attention deficit hyperactivity disorder" AND "impulsive aggression OR reactive aggression OR hostile aggression OR overt aggression" AND "pediatric OR childhood OR children OR pre-adolescent OR adolescent" with separate searches using review OR clinical trial as search limits. Key articles published before the 2007 Expert Consensus Report on IA were identified using citation analysis.

RESULTS:

More than 50% of preadolescents with ADHD combined subtype reportedly display clinically significant aggression, with impulsive aggression being the predominant subtype. Impulsive aggression is strongly predictive of a highly unfavorable developmental trajectory characterized by the potential for persistent ADHD, increasing psychosocial burden, accumulating comorbidities, serious lifelong functional deficits across a broad range of domains, delinquency/criminality, and adult antisocial behavior. Impulsive aggression, which triggers peer rejection and a vicious cycle of escalating dysfunction, may be a key factor in unfavorable psychosocial outcomes attributed to ADHD. Because severe aggressive behavior does not remit in many children when treated with primary ADHD therapy (i.e., stimulants and behavioral therapy), a common practice is to add medication of a different class to specifically target aggressive behavior.

CONCLUSIONS:

Impulsive aggression in children and adolescents with ADHD is a serious clinical and public health problem. Although adjunctive therapy with an aggression-targeted agent is widely recommended when aggressive behaviors do not remit with primary ADHD therapy, empirical evidence does not currently support the use of any specific agent. Randomized controlled trials are needed to identify aggression-targeted agents with favorable benefit-risk profiles.

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By:  Saylor KE1, Amann BH2.

• 1 NeuroScience, Inc. , Herndon, Virginia.
• 2 Behavioral Medical Center , Troy, Michigan. 

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Suicidal Ideation among Rural Immigrant Daughters-in-Law with Multi-Roles as Females, Farmers and Immigrants in China

Suicide is a major public health issue in China, and suicidal ideation is an important step in the suicidal process. The purpose of this study was to understand the prevalence and correlates of suicidal ideation among rural immigrant daughters-in-law with multi-role of female, farmer and immigrant in China. 

A total of 939 participants including 474 local daughters-in-law and 465 immigrant daughters-in-law were surveyed using the self-rating questionnaire. Demographic characteristics, depression, anxiety, impulsivity and suicidal ideation were assessed. Results indicated that the lifetime prevalence of suicidal ideation among rural immigrant daughters-in-law was 9.68%. Physical disability, domestic violence and negative events demonstrated statistical significance by suicidal ideation (p < .05), and participants with suicidal ideation had higher scores of depression, anxiety and impulsiveness in the univariate analysis. 

Multivariate logistic regression showed that physical disability, domestic violence, depression, impulsiveness and motor impulsiveness were significantly associated with suicidal ideation. Suicidal ideation is an issue that can't be ignored among rural immigrant daughters-in-law. And the findings should be considered for the intervention of the suicide among the rural immigrant daughters-in-law.

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By:  Qin Q1, Jin Y2, Zhan S1, Yu X3, Huang F2.

• 1 Ma'anshan Center for Disease Control and Prevention , Ma'anshan , China.
• 2 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics , School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University , Hefei , China.
• 3 Bowang Center for Disease Control and Prevention , Ma'anshan , China. 

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Gender Differences in Psychopathy Links to Drug Use

Although the relationship between psychopathic personality traits and substance use has received some attention (Hart & Hare, 1989; Smith & Newman, 1990), gender differences have not been thoroughly assessed. 

The current study examined whether gender modified the relationship between 2 criminally relevant constructs, (a) psychopathy and its factors and (b) drug use. A sample of 318 participants with criminal histories and recent substance use was assessed for psychopathy using the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version and for illicit drug use using the Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 

As expected, the impulsive-antisocial traits (Factor 2) of psychopathy were positively related to a number of drug use characteristics (symptoms, age of drug initiation, extent of drug experimentation), whereas the interpersonal-affective traits (Factor 1) showed a negative relationship with drug abuse symptoms and a positive relationship with age of first use. 

In terms of gender differences, analyses revealed that women showed a stronger association between Factor 1 traits and later age of initiation compared to men, and that Factor 2, and the antisocial facet in particular, were more strongly related to drug abuse in women than men. 

These findings suggest that psychopathic traits serve as both protective (Factor 1) and risk (Factor 2) correlates of illicit drug use, and Factor 1 may be especially protective in terms of initiation of drug use among women. 

These conclusions add to the growing literature on potential routes to substance use and incarceration in women.

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By:  Schulz N, Murphy B, Verona E.

 

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Reward, Attention & HIV-Related Risk in HIV+ Individuals

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is often contracted through engaging in risky reward-motivated behaviors such as needle sharing and unprotected sex. Understanding the factors that make an individual more vulnerable to succumbing to the temptation to engage in these risky behaviors is important to limiting the spread of HIV. 

One potential source of this vulnerability concerns the degree to which an individual is able to resist paying attention to irrelevant reward information. In the present study, we examine this possible link by characterizing individual differences in value-based attentional bias in a sample of HIV+ individuals with varying histories of risk-taking behavior. 

Participants learned associations between experimental stimuli and monetary reward outcome. The degree of attentional bias for these reward-associated stimuli, reflected in their ability to capture attention when presented as task-irrelevant distractors, was then assessed both immediately and six months following reward learning. Value-driven attentional capture was related to substance abuse history and non-planning impulsiveness during the time leading up to contraction of HIV as measured via self-report. 

These findings suggest a link between the ability to ignore reward-associated information and prior HIV-related risk-taking behavior. Additionally, particular aspects of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders were related to attentional bias, including motor deficits commonly associated with HIV-induced damage to the basal ganglia.

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By: Anderson BA1, Kronemer SI2, Rilee JJ2, Sacktor N2, Marvel CL3.

• 1Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, United States. Electronic address: bander33@jhu.edu.
• 2Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States.
• 3Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States.  

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