Cardiac response and anxiety levels in psychopathic murderers

Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria

Antonio De Pádua Serafim²  Daniel Martins De Barros²  André Valim²  Clarice Gorenstein¹ 

[1] ,Universidade de São Paulo Institute and Department of Psychiatry Medical SchoolSão Paulo SP ,Brazil

关键词: Multiple personality disorder;    Heart rate;    Anxiety;    Murder;    Violence;    Transtorno de personalidade múltipla;    Frequência cardíaca;    Ansiedade;    Homicídio;    Violência;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S1516-44462009000300006

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

OBJECTIVE: To compare the emotional response and level of anxiety of psychopathic murderers, non-psychopathic murderers, and nonpsychopathic non-criminals. METHOD: 110 male individuals aged over 18 years were divided into three groups: psychopathic murderers (n = 38); non-psychopathic murderers (n = 37) serving sentences for murder convictions in Maximum Security Prisons in the State of Sao Paulo; and non-criminal, non-psychopathic individuals (n = 35) according to the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. The emotional response of subjects was assessed by heart rate variation and anxiety level (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) after viewing standardized pictures depicting pleasant, unpleasant and neutral content from the International Affective Picture System. RESULTS: Psychopathic murderers presented lower anxiety levels and smaller heart rate variations when exposed to pleasant and unpleasant stimuli than nonpsychopathic murderers or non-psychopathic non-criminals. The results also demonstrated that the higher the score for factor 1 on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, the lower the heart rate variation and anxiety level. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that psychopathic murderers do not present variation in emotional response to different visual stimuli. Although the non-psychopathic murderers had committed the same type of crime as the psychopathic murderers, the former tended to respond with a higher level of anxiety and heart rate variation.

【 授权许可】

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