Emotion in criminal offenders with psychopathy and borderline personality disorder

Background: Criminal offenders with a diagnosis of psychopathy or borderlin e personality disorder (BPD) share an impulsive nature but tend to differ i n their style of emotional response. This study aims to use multiple psycho physiologic measures to compare emotional responses to unpleasant and pleas ant stimuli. Methods: Twenty-five psychopaths as defined by the Hare Psychopathy Checkli st and 18 subjects with BPD from 2 high-security forensic treatment facilit ies were included in the study along with 24 control subjects. Electroderma l response was used as an indicator of emotional arousal, modulation of the startle reflex as a measure of valence, and electromyographic activity of the corrugator muscle as an index of emotional expression. Results: Compared with controls, psychopaths were characterized by decrease d electrodermal responsiveness, less facial expression, and the absence of affective startle modulation. A higher percentage of psychopaths showed no startle reflex. Subjects with BPD showed a response pattern very similar to that of controls, ie, they showed comparable autonomic arousal, and their startle responses were strongest to unpleasant slides and weakest to pleasa nt slides. However, corrugator electromyographic activity in subjects with BPD demonstrated little facial modulation when they viewed either pleasant or unpleasant slides. Conclusions: The results support the theory that psychopaths are characteri zed by a pronounced lack of fear in response to aversive events. Furthermor e, the results suggest a general deficit in processing affective informatio n, regardless of whether stimuli are negative or positive. Emotional hypore sponsiveness was specific to psychopaths, since results for offenders with BPD indicate a widely adequate processing of emotional stimuli.