UNLABELLED: The concept of psychopathy has received many definitions for the first days of psychiatry. Recently, the Hare's Psychopathy Check List Revised has been created. This scale has the advantage to investigate the classically characteristic traits of the syndrome (need of stimulation, lack of culpability, superficial activity, lack of empathy, impassivity) and to point out the early development of behavior disturbances. In the American classification (DSM IV), oppositional and aggressive behavior in child and adolescent is grouped under the Conduct Disorder diagnostic criteria. This trouble appears to be a strong predictive factor of psychopathy in adult. Identifying the high risk factors of evolution to psychopathic personality would allow an earlier intervention and prevention by multisystemic interventions for example. The present study aims to evaluate in what measure characteristic traits of psychopathy in adults are present in severe juvenile offenders and to point out, in a second time, the differences between adolescents meeting the DSM IV criteria for Conduct Disorder and a control population by a dimensional personality inventory. METHOD: The sample consists in 47 severe juvenile offenders referred for at least 3 months by a Youth Court to a Public Institution for Youth Protection (Belgium, Wauthier-Braine, 1999-2001), who have given an oral contentment and completely fulfilled the Temperament and Character Inventory-TCI. We have collected data about: schooling year by year, number of fails, changes of school; antecedents of oppositional defiant disorder with provocation (ODD, DSM IV criteria); antecedent of Conduct Disorder (CD, DSM IV criteria); penal antecedents (Youth Judge, works of general interest, placements); medico-psychological antecedents (consultation to a psychologist or a psychiatrist, hospitalization, illness, surgical intervention); psychoactive drug use or abuse. We used the TCI--Temperament and Character Inventory. This is a dimensional personality inventory. Based on biological, genetic and clinical hypothesis, it describes 2 types of variables defining personality: Variables of temperament (genetically transmitted and biologically controlled), and Variables of character (learned part of the personality reflecting the degree of adaptation and maturity, varying with environment through development). We have chosen this tool because of its dimensional aspect. Adolescence being a time of psychological and personality changes, such a tool is more useful than a categorical one. We also used this tool to verify the existence of the specific triad described by Cloninger and Svrakic. According to these authors, psychopathic personality in adult is characterized by a specific triad in which novelty seeking is high while harm avoidance and reward dependence are low. These observations are highly correlated to Hare's definition of psychopathy. We give the principal scores for the 7 personality dimensions expressed in global scores (total of the items for each dimension) and pondered ones (global scores divided by the number of items of the dimension x 100). RESULTS: Statistical analysis was performed with the Stateview 5.0 t-test program for data analysis. Statistical results show the absence of a statistically significant difference between the 2 groups for TCI 1, 4.5 and 7 but a statistically significant difference for TCI 2, 3 and 6 (p <.0001). DISCUSSION: The first limitation of our study is linked to the sample composed of young adolescents placed in an Institution for Youth Protection who doesn't reflect the whole population of offenders. A second limitation is correlated to the randomization system: randomization for age but not for sex, ethnical and cultural origin and socioeconomic status. Our results with adolescent offenders don't completely meet the Cloninger's psychopathy triad in adults. Moreover, in literature data, aggressive behavior is correlated to high novelty seeking and associated with low harm avoidance, reward dependence and persistence in children, these items are predictive of antisocial behavior in teenage and young adulthood. In our sample where antisocial behaviors are severe, we should be expecting a high novelty seeking but that is not the case. Our results should be explained by the fact that adolescence in itself is a more powerful factor of high novelty seeking than psychopathic trait. Harm avoidance and reward dependence seem to be a real problem in offending population and reflect aggressive behaviors in adolescents (lack of harm perception, sensitivity and empathy). Another interesting element is the cooperation factor that is significantly lower in the study group. This seems to comfort the hypothesis of a lower social maturity in institutionalized adolescents. CONCLUSION: Regarding to a control group subjects from 15 to 25 years old, adolescent offenders observed in an Institution for Youth Protection show a significantly different profile in the TCI for Harm Avoidance, Reward Dependence and Cooperation. Regarding to adult psychopaths, adolescent offenders partially meet the classical diagnostic triad of psychopathy, what should be indicating that such adolescents already show emotional perturbations: lower harm avoidance, reward dependence and cooperation than control population. This third factor is not characteristic of psychopathy but reflects relational difficulties, which are important in adolescent offenders. So, our study point out the complex psychopathology of adolescent offenders and the coexistence in such adolescents of attachment disorder and the difficulty to treat them because of their multiple lacks (cognitive, psychopathological, familial and scholar). We think important to discuss the necessity of approaches based on the development of personal creative abilities and involving all the professionals concerned in the young's universe. Future researches should compare adolescent offenders and controls randomized for age, sex, socioeconomic, ethnical and cultural status. They also should test specifically the diagnostic triad of psychopathology developed by Cloninger, especially the novelty seeking dimension. Moreover, it would be interesting to integrate these results in a wider protocol and to compare them with clinical, forensic and neurocognitive data, individually and within the familial context.

Adolescent↗

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Harmonisation of rat fetal skeletal terminology and classification. Report of the Third Workshop on the Terminology in Developmental Toxicology. Berlin, 14-16 September 2000.

The initial efforts of the Federal Institute for Health Protection of Consumers and Veterinary Medicine (BgVV) and the Free University of Berlin to standardise terminology in the field of developmental toxicology began in 1995. Procedures were undertaken to harmonise the terminology used by the International Federation of Teratology Societies (IFTS) and the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS). This article reflects these activities and is a report on the Third Workshop on the Terminology in Developmental Toxicology held in September 2000. This Workshop served as a forum to discuss the results of a survey on the classification of skeletal anomalies that had been previously sent to scientists active in the field. Although high agreement was reached among the evaluators for several terms, the use of a number of terms was rather variable. Therefore, the discussions at the workshop among the experts from research institutions, regulatory agencies, and industry were mainly focussed on those terms for which there was disagreement and/or uncertainties and the possible reasons. Pictures provided by the participants for the illustration of "grey zone" anomalies constituted the basis for detailed discussions. In many of the cases with lower agreement, decisions were facilitated by the provision of the corresponding picture. The main reasons for lower agreement were imprecise terms, insufficient knowledge on postnatal consequences, theoretical terms that are unlikely to occur in isolation, and the possibility of observing a range of severity that might be decisive for the classification of either a malformation or variation. The attendees concluded that "grey-zone" anomalies will never disappear completely and that for the assessment, the grade of severity and/or the frequency of the observation can be decisive for the terminology chosen. A Joint IPCS/IFTS Project was proposed to further consensus of terminology and classification and to link these anomalies to pictures at different skeletal sites. In order to support the harmonisation of regulatory decisions, it was proposed to establish a "Clearinghouse" System under the umbrella of the IPCS. The Clearinghouse could be contacted either by the regulatory authorities or by any company to clarify their queries, particularly with regard to registration or authorisation processes. Finally, it was recommended to also carry out a similar survey on "soft tissue anomalies" and "external findings." The results of this survey will be discussed at a Joint IPCS/IFTS Workshop in Berlin in 2002.

Abnormalities, Drug-Induced↗

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[Primary manifestation of hepatocellular carcinoma as osteolytic hand metastasis--a case report].

Osseous metastases to the hand are very rare. Only a single case of osseous metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma to the hand has been reported in the literature to date. We report a case of osteolytic metastasis of the right first metacarpal as first manifestation of unresectable, alpha-fetoprotein-negative hepatocellular carcinoma (pT3, Nx, M1, UICC stage IVB, Okuda's stage I). The therapy consisted of R0-resection and hormonal therapy with tamoxifen 2 x 10 mg/d orally. Generally patients with metastatic cancer to the bones of the hand have a very poor prognosis.

Bone Neoplasms↗

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[Secondary combined suicide viewed by the wife].

A 47-year-old man was found dead at the bottom of a wall outward the door of the cellar of his house. Preliminary physical examination at the scene of the death revealed a laceration of the scalp, an incised wound in front of the neck and several stab wounds in the left chest penetrating through the clothing. Questioned by the police his wife told that her husband who suffered from severe depression had inflicted the incised and the stab wounds himself, had made an unsuccessful attempt at self-strangulation and had finally jumped down from the wall beside the stairs declining to the cellar of their house. As the circumstances of the scenario were suspicious and as the pattern of injuries arose doubts concerning self-infliction homicide was taken into consideration as well. Autopsy showed additional hesitation marks adjacent to the left end of the incised wound in front of the neck. The stab wounds of the chest were restricted to the region of the heart and displayed only minimal penetration of the chest-wall, findings characteristic of self-infliction. As a consequence the manner of death could be determined as prolonged suicide, and exact reconstruction was possible with the help of the wife's testimony.

Cause of Death↗

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[Therapeutic community: a critical evaluation from the nursing staff's viewpoint. (concl) Nursing staff problems in a therapeutic community].

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Communication Barriers↗