The appropriateness of treating psychopathic disorders

Abstract

The received wisdom is that there is no known effective treatment for psychopathic disorders. Although outcome studies have not identified an effective programmatic treatment for psychopathic disorders, such studies tend to leave the question open. If behavioral science has not established that psychopathic disorders respond to a particular programmatic approach, neither are psychopathic disorders convincingly proven to be absolutely resistant to treatment. If no treatment is known to be effective in psychopathic disorders, then any treatment seems to squander resources. What is often missing from the discussion is effective therapeutic measures to treat other behaviors that often co-occur, if they do not represent a domain of pathology of psychopathic disorders, such as impulsive aggression. After a brief summary of results of programmatic treatment of psychopathic offenders, this review focuses on the pharmacotherapy of impulsive aggression in psychopathic disorders. If the impulsive aggression that occurs with psychopathic disorders can be better controlled, treatment can have substantial benefits and would be most appropriate.