Is there a link between psychopathy and self-harm?

A review of the literature

Auteurs-es

  • Lisa Campbell School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham
  • Anthony Beech School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham

DOI :

https://doi.org/10.15173/ijrr.v1i2.3475

Mots-clés :

Psychopathy, Psychopaths, Self-harm, Self-injury, Literature review, Systematic review

Résumé

The aim of this review was to examine whether there is a link between psychopathy and self-harm.  A systematic search identified 14 papers which examine this link. A quality appraisal checklist was used to evaluate the quality of each study. The application of the quality appraisal checklist showed that the majority of the studies had good internal validity; however, there were some biases that affected the external validity of some studies. The results indicated that there may be a positive association between total psychopathy score and self-harm; however some studies with smaller sample sizes and low rates of self-harm failed to show this association. The results of most of the studies showed a positive association between Factor 2 of the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R; Hare, 2003) and self-harm. No link was found between Factor 1 and self-harm. The results did not show consistent evidence for a link between any of the four facets and self-harm. Although this review indicates a link between Factor 2 and self-harm, and a possible link between total psychopathy score and self-harm, the small number of studies in this area means that the research is not robust enough to provide strong evidence for these associations.

Références

Dolan M, Doyle M. Violence risk prediction. Clinical and actuarial measures and the role of the Psychopathy Checklist. Br J Psychia-try J Ment Sci 2000;177:303-11.

Harris GT, Rice ME, Cormier CA. Psychopa-thy and violent recidivism. Law Hum Behav 1991;15(6):625-37.

Hemphill JF, Hare RD, Wong S. Psychopa-thy and recidivism: a review. Leg Criminol Psychol 1998;3(1):139-70.

Dhingra K, Boduszek D, Palmer D, Shevlin M. Psychopathy and self-injurious thoughts and behaviour: application of latent class analysis. J Ment Health 2015;24(1):4-8.

Cleckley HM. The mask of sanity: an at-tempt to clarify some issues about the so-called psychopathic personality. 5th ed. St. Louis: Mosby; 1976. 471 p.

Verona E, Patrick CJ, Joiner TE. Psychopa-thy, antisocial personality, and suicide risk. J Abnorm Psychol 2001;110(3):462-70.

Verona E, Hicks BM, Patrick CJ. Psychopa-thy and Suicidality in Female Offenders: Me-diating Influences of Personality and Abuse. J Consult Clin Psychol 2005;73(6):1065-73.

Douglas KS, Herbozo S, Poythress NG, Belfrage H, Edens JF. Psychopathy and sui-cide: a multisample investigation. Psychol Serv 2006; 3(2):97-116.

National Institute of Clinical Excellence. Methods for the development of NICE public health guidance (third edition): Appendix G Quality appraisal checklist- quantitative stud-ies reporting correlations and associations. (accessed on March 2, 2018)

Jackson R. The GATE frame: critical ap-praisal with pictures. Evid Based Med 2006;11(2):35-8.

Verona E, Sprague J, Javdani S. Gender and factor-level interactions in psychopathy: Im-plications for self-directed violence risk and borderline personality disorder symptoms. Personal Disord Theory Res Treat 2012;3(3):247-62.

Gray NS, Hill C, McGleish A, Timmons D, MacCulloch MJ, Snowden RJ. Prediction of violence and self-harm in mentally disordered offenders: a prospective study of the efficacy of HCR-20, PCL-R, and psychiatric symp-tomatology. J Consult Clin Psychol 2003; 71(3):443-51.

Young MH, Justice JV, Erdberg P. Risk of harm: Inmates who harm themselves while in prison psychiatric treatment. J Forensic Sci 2006; 51(1):156-62.

Das J, de Ruiter C, Lodewijks H, Doreleijers T. Predictive validity of the Dutch PCL:YV for institutional disruptive behavior: findings from two samples of male adolescents in a juve-nile justice treatment institution. Behav Sci Law 2007;25(5):739-55.

Semiz UB, Basoglu C, Oner O, Munir KM, Ates A, Algul A, et al. Effects of diagnostic comorbidity and dimensional symptoms of at-tention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder in men with antisocial personality disorder. Aust N Z J Psychiatry 2008;42(5):405-13.

Swogger MT, Conner KR, Meldrum SC, Caine ED. Dimensions of psychopathy in re-lation to suicidal and self-injurious behavior. J Personal Disord 2009;23(2):201-10.

Miller JD, Dir A, Gentile B, Wilson L, Pryor LR, Campbell WK. Searching for a vulnerable dark triad: Comparing factor 2 psychopathy, vulnerable narcissism, and Borderline Per-sonality Disorder: Vulnerable Dark Triad. J Pers 2010;78(5):1529-64.

Witt EA, Hopwood CJ, Morey LC, Markowitz JC, McGlashan TH, Grilo CM, et al. Psy-chometric characteristics and clinical corre-lates of NEO-PI-R fearless dominance and impulsive antisociality in the Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Disorders Study. Psychol Assess 2010; 22(3):559-68.

Alpay Ates M, Algul A, Semiz UB, Gecici O, Basoglu C, Ebrinc S, et al. Clinical character-istics of self-mutilating behavior in Turkish male subjects with Antisocial Personality Disorder: Relationship to psychopathy. Int J Soc Psychiatry 2011;57(3):237-47.

Gunter TD, Chibnall JT, Antoniak SK, Phili-bert RA, Hollenbeck N. Predictors of suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and self-harm without lethal intent in a community correc-tions sample. J Crim Justice 2011;39(3):238-45.

Negredo L, Melis F, Herrero O. [Psychopathy and suicidal behaviour in a sample of mental-ly disordered offenders]. Rev Espanola Sanid Penit 2013;15(1):3-7.

Forouzan E, Nicholls TL. Childhood and ado-lescent characteristics of women with high versus low psychopathy wcores: examining developmental precursors to the Malignant Personality Disorder. J Crim Justice 2015; 43(4):307-20.

Storey JE, Hart SD, Cooke DJ, Michie C. Psychometric properties of the Hare Psy-chopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) in a rep-resentative sample of Canadian federal of-fenders. Law Hum Behav 2016;40(2):136-46.

Hare RD. Hare Psychopathy Checklist* Re-vised (PCL-R). 2nd Ed. Toronto: Multi-Health Systems;2003.

Cover of Volume 1 Issue 2 - July 2018

Téléchargements

Publié-e

2018-06-21

Comment citer

Campbell, L., & Beech, A. (2018). Is there a link between psychopathy and self-harm? A review of the literature. International Journal of Risk and Recovery, 1(2), 4–15. https://doi.org/10.15173/ijrr.v1i2.3475

Numéro

Vol. 1 No. 2 (2018)

Rubrique

Review

Licence

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright of their work and grant the International Journal of Risk and Recovery the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. This allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book) with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their websites) before and during the submission process as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. (See The Effect of Open Access.)