Cardiac response and anxiety levels in psychopathic murderers.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the emotional response and level of anxiety of psychopathic murderers, non-psychopathic murderers, and nonpsychopathic non-criminals.


METHODS
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.


CONCLUSIONS
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.
Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology Program, Medical School, Institute and Department of Psychiatry, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. apserafim@hcnet.usp.br
Antonio de Pádua
Ade P
Serafim
Daniel Martins de
DM
Barros
André
A
Valim
Clarice
C
Gorenstein
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000145:classification / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D001007:Anxiety / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006708:Homicide / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult