Clinical and behavioral correlates in adult methamphetamine users with childhood exposure to household drug and alcohol use

Aims: To describe and compare methamphetamine (MA) users with and without a family history of alcohol or drug () use in the household. Design: A total of 1144 Thai-speaking MA users in Thailand were recruited for a cohort study. Cross-sectional baseline data were analyzed according to their exposure to FAOD use (FAOD+/FAOD-). The Semi-Structured Assessment for Drug Dependence and Alcoholism (SSADDA) was utilized to collect baseline socio-demographic information and variables known to be associated with the impact of FAOD use. Findings: FAOD+ participants had lower average years of education (p<0.01), fewer average months of employment in the past year (p<0.01) and reported higher rates of self-harm experience (p<0.001), gambling (p=0.018) and antisocial personality disorder (p=0.015). FAOD+ participants had more severe clinical, adverse consequences. FAOD+ significantly predicted episodes of lifetime MA use (R2 =0.004, p=0.032), the largest number of drinks ever had in a 24-hour period (R2 =0.01, p=0.001), paranoid experiences ([OR]=1.090, p=0.004), alcohol dependence ([OR]=1.112, p=0.001) and antisocial personality disorder ([OR]=1.139, p=0.015). FAOD+ participants who were exposed to alcohol only were more likely to report a significantly higher number of drinks ever had in a 24-hour periods (p<0.005). Similarly, FAOD+ participants who were exposed to MA use only were significantly more likely to report more frequent use of MA (p<0.005). Conclusions: FAOD+ participants were characterized by a generally more severe clinical presentation than FAOD- participants. Moreover, we show the specificity of drug type mattered, with family exposure of alcohol and MA associated with greater subsequent use of the respective drugs.

Psychopathy as a Modus of Human Destructiveness in the Literary and Philosophical Reflection of Postmodernity (Based on the Novels "A Clockwork Orange" by A. Burgess and "The Wasp Factory" by I. Banks)

The sociopolitical circumstances of people's lives are constantly changing, which is studied by science, philosophy and art. The twentieth century is a time of great upheavals that changed the approach to the concept of man and the field of his existence. Philosophers of the second half of the twentieth century pay attention to the destructive nature of state power, its institutions are interpreted as suppressing freedom and consolidating violence as an ideology (the Frankfurt School, J. Baudrillard, S. Zizek, etc.). Another important concept is the interpretation of destructive impulses as a normal component of a person (J. Bataille, Z. Freud, E. Fromm, J. Deleuze, etc.). This idea creates a pattern of behavior that is considered psychopathic in the article. Psychopathy is a genetically determined type of antisocial personality. The phenomenon of psychopathy is a subject not only of scientific study, but also of art: the psychopath became a central character in many works of literature and cinema in the second half of the twentieth century. The article analyzes the novels "A Clockwork Orange" by E. Burgess (1962) and "The Wasp Factory" by I. Banks (1984), where the main characters are teenage psychopaths. The article concludes that these works complement each other, exploring two main areas of human life (the world of the state and the world of the family). It is suggested that by referring to the psychopathic hero, writers describe the changes that take place in society, these changes are also analyzed by philosophers. The fact that psychopathic traits in novels are concentrated in the images of teenagers indicates the possibility of psychopathy developing and spreading in the future.

The Differentiation of Narrative Styles in Individuals with High Psychopathic Deviate

The current study was designed to show the differentiation of narrative styles in individuals with high scores in Psychopathic deviate (Pd) scale and develop a method enabling identification of psychopathic personality traits based on linguistic indicators. 600 spontaneous narrations related to emotional topics have been examined for grammar, syntactic, and lexical indicators. The indicators have been selected based on a review related to language of psychopaths. The narrations were written by 200 persons who were also tested for psychopathic deviate and intelligence level, including prisoners diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. Independent judges identified the linguistic indicators which were then counted for each person with the use of computer software. The configuration profiles of the linguistic indicators/narrative styles were established using k-mean clustering method. Then, ANOVA was performed to show which clusters differentiate the levels of psychopathic deviate. The findings show there are two configurations of language features (important: single features were not examined) associated with high levels of psychopathic deviate patterns. Two narrative styles were identified, labelled demonstrative-digressive-egocentric-emotional-dogmatic and reserved-focused on the topic-repetitive, which indicate high psychopathic deviate traits. The ROC curves were applied to establish the prediction of the narrative styles for high psychopathic deviate scores.

ECODI-27 Dissocial Behavior Scale in Peruvian Adolescents: A Psychometric Analysis

Dissocial behaviors precede antisocial personality disorder, which can generate great difficulties for every society, which is why it is important to establish identification mechanisms for this phenomenon to propose prevention mechanisms in educational settings. This study sought to explore the psychometric benefits of the Disocial Behavior Scale in Peruvian adolescents of secondary education, working with a sample of 1000 students aged 15 to 18 years old. A new model of 23 items is proposed with a distribution of three factors, which shows adequate adjustment indices obtained through the confirmatory factor analysis χ2 / gl = 3.36, CFI = 0.94, TLI = 0.93, SRMR = 0.04, RMSEA = 0.05 [95% CI 0.04-0.05], AIC = 69248. The reliability values for the three proposed factors are optimal, Factor 1 (ω =.884), Factor 2 (ω =.845), Factor 3 (ω =.787). It is concluded that the Dissocial Behavior Scale in the proposed version of 23 items with three factors presents adequate psychometric indices.