Neuropsychological investigations of the impulsive personality disorders

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There has been revived interest within the last few years in neuropsychological investigations of personality disorders (PDs) associated with impulsive and/or anti-social behaviour. Neuropsychological studies of such PDs offer two potential benefits: (i) an improving characterization of the cognitive and emotional difficulties experienced by individuals diagnosed with these disorders and, in particular, borderline PD and anti-social PD; (ii) the development of more precise hypotheses about the role of brain dysfunction in the aetiology and behavioural problems associated with these conditions. The most recent neuropsychological studies of impulsive PD have been interpreted against a background of accumulating evidence for structural (Driessen et al. 2000; Raine et al. 2000; Dolan et al. 2001), neurochemical (Coccaro & Siever, 1995; Steinberg et al. 1997; Leyton et al. 2001) and functional brain abnormalities (Donegan et al. 2003). Future studies of impulsive PDs will be able to exploit advances in structural imaging (e.g. diffusion tensor imaging/tract mapping, e.g. Hoptman et al. 2002), as well as pharmacological and behavioural genetics (McGuffin & Thapar, 1992; Lesch et al. 1996; Skodol et al. 2002).