title: Antisocial personality disorder in DSM-5: missteps and missed opportunities.
abstract: This paper evaluates the proposal for antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-fifth edition (DSM-5). Some aspects of the proposal are appealing: personality disorders will be assessed using trait criteria, and these criteria are similar to trait descriptions of DSM-IV ASPD. Other aspects of the proposal are less appealing. First, the DSM-5 will depend on a newly constructed personality trait system rather than relying on a well validated, widely studied one. Second, the trait profile of ASPD is incomplete; although this profile reflects the traits included in DSM-IV, it maps poorly onto the full personality profile of ASPD. Third, the DSM Workgroup missed an opportunity to finally unify ASPD and psychopathy; history and research suggest that these disorders have diverged mistakenly. Fourth, the newly proposed criteria of impairments in self- and interpersonal functioning are of questionable derivation and utility.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA. dlynam@purdue.edu
authors.forename: Donald R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Lynam
authors.forename: David D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Vachon
mesh_terms: D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D006801:Humans; D010551:Personality; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000592:standards; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*