| 1. |
- Nilsonne, Gustav, et al.
(författare)
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Effects of 25 mg oxazepam on emotional mimicry and empathy for pain : a randomized controlled experiment
- 2017
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Ingår i: Royal Society Open Science. - : The Royal Society. - 2054-5703. ; 4:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Emotional mimicry and empathy are mechanisms underlying social interaction. Benzodiazepines have been proposed to inhibit empathy and promote antisocial behaviour. First, we aimed to investigate the effects of oxazepam on emotional mimicry and empathy for pain, and second, we aimed to investigate the association of personality traits to emotional mimicry and empathy. Participants (n= 76) were randomized to 25mg oxazepam or placebo. Emotional mimicry was examined using video clips with emotional expressions. Empathy was investigated by pain stimulating the participant and a confederate. We recorded self-rated experience, activity in major zygomatic and superciliary corrugator muscles, skin conductance, and heart rate. In the mimicry experiment, oxazepam inhibited corrugator activity. In the empathy experiment, oxazepam caused increased self-rated unpleasantness and skin conductance. However, oxazepam specifically inhibited neither emotional mimicry nor empathy for pain. Responses in both experiments were associated with self-rated empathic, psychopathic and alexithymic traits. The present results do not support a specific effect of 25mg oxazepam on emotional mimicry or empathy.
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| 2. |
- Nilsonne, Gustav, et al.
(författare)
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Oxazepam and cognitive reappraisal : A randomised experiment
- 2021
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 16:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Cognitive reappraisal is a strategy for emotional regulation, important in the context of anxiety disorders. It is not known whether anxiolytic effects of benzodiazepines affect cognitive reappraisal.Aims: We aimed to investigate the effect of 25 mg oxazepam on cognitive reappraisal.Methods: In a preliminary investigation, 33 healthy male volunteers were randomised to oxazepam or placebo, and then underwent an experiment where they were asked to use cognitive reappraisal to upregulate or downregulate their emotional response to images with negative or neutral emotional valence. We recorded unpleasantness ratings, skin conductance, superciliary corrugator muscle activity, and heart rate. Participants completed rating scales measuring empathy (Interpersonal Reactivity Index, IRI), anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, STAI), alexithymia (Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20, TAS-20), and psychopathy (Psychopathy Personality Inventory-Revised, PPI-R).Results: Upregulation to negative-valence images in the cognitive reappraisal task caused increased unpleasantness ratings, corrugator activity, and heart rate compared to downregulation. Upregulation to both negative- and neutral-valence images caused increased skin conductance responses. Oxazepam caused lower unpleasantness ratings to negative-valence stimuli, but did not interact with reappraisal instruction on any outcome. Self-rated trait empathy was associated with stronger responses to negative-valence stimuli, whereas self-rated psychopathic traits were associated with weaker responses to negative-valence stimuli.Conclusions: While 25 mg oxazepam caused lower unpleasantness ratings in response to negative-valence images, we did not observe an effect of 25 mg oxazepam on cognitive reappraisal.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Sörman, Karolina, et al.
(författare)
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Forensic Mental Health Professionals’ Perceptions of Psychopathy : a Prototypicality Analysis of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality in Sweden
- 2014
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Ingår i: Law and human behavior. - : American Psychological Association (APA). - 0147-7307 .- 1573-661X. ; 38:5, s. 405-417
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Assessments of psychopathic traits are used on a routine basis in forensic evaluations across Westernized countries. Despite this, consensus has not yet emerged concerning what exactly are the “core” features of this construct. Moreover, relatively little is known about how practitioners in the field construe this disorder. This study explored perceptions and attitudes regarding psychopathy among individuals working in the forensic mental health system (N = 90) in Sweden. Participants provided prototype ratings of what they considered to be core psychopathy features based on the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP), a model that increasingly is the focus of research in North America and Europe. The study protocol also included questions regarding (a) global perceptions and attitudes about a number of aspects of the psychopathy construct (e.g., personal experience, perceived prevalence), and (b) attitudinal scales that assessed perceived correlates of psychopathic traits across a variety of domains (e.g., violence proneness, treatment amenability) and moral judgments and attitudes concerning how psychopathic offenders should be treated within the legal system. The majority of the 33 individual CAPP items and the six CAPP scales were rated as at least moderately prototypical of psychopathy, with Dominance, Self, and Attachment domains obtaining the highest mean ratings. Participants viewed psychopaths as more likely to commit crimes than the average criminal, without being blatantly “evil” people. We believe our results help to advance our understanding of the psychopathy construct by exploring forensic professionals’ perceptions of this disorder in general and in relation to the CAPP model specifically.
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| 5. |
- Sörman, Karolina, et al.
(författare)
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Perceptions of Mental Health Conditions in Criminal Cases : A Survey Study Involving Swedish Lay Judges
- 2020
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Ingår i: Criminal Justice and Behavior. - : SAGE Publications. - 0093-8548 .- 1552-3594. ; 47:6, s. 688-711
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Perceptions of mental health conditions influence how individuals with psychiatric diagnoses are treated within the community, in the legal system, and at different institutions. We examined perceptions of mental health conditions among lay judges (N = 643), working at district and appellate courts throughout Sweden. Participants read a web-based survey including a crime vignette in which the person charged with a crime was described as having schizophrenia (n = 186), antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) with psychopathic traits (n = 219), or intellectual disability (n = 238). Participants' perceptions of schizophrenia were largely in line with Swedish legislation regarding the medicolegal concept of severe mental disturbance (SMD). Findings were more varied for the other two conditions, however. Perceptions of individuals with ASPD with psychopathic traits were not consistent with the Swedish SMD legislation. The results highlight the complexity of legislation addressing mental illness and criminality.
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| 6. |
- Sörman, Karolina, et al.
(författare)
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Reliability and Construct Validity of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised in a Swedish Non-Criminal Sample : A Multimethod Approach including Psychophysiological Correlates of Empathy for Pain
- 2016
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 11:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cross-cultural investigation of psychopathy measures is important for clarifying the nomological network surrounding the psychopathy construct. The Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R) is one of the most extensively researched self-report measures of psychopathic traits in adults. To date however, it has been examined primarily in North American criminal or student samples. To address this gap in the literature, we examined PPI-R’s reliability, construct validity and factor structure in non-criminal individuals (N = 227) in Sweden, using a multimethod approach including psychophysiological correlates of empathy for pain. PPI-R construct validity was investigated in subgroups of participants by exploring its degree of overlap with (i) the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV), (ii) self-rated empathy and behavioral and physiological responses in an experiment on empathy for pain, and (iii) additional self-report measures of alexithymia and trait anxiety. The PPI-R total score was significantly associated with PCL:SV total and factor scores. The PPI-R Coldheartedness scale demonstrated significant negative associations with all empathy subscales and with rated unpleasantness and skin conductance responses in the empathy experiment. The PPI-R higher order Self-Centered Impulsivity and Fearless Dominance dimensions were associated with trait anxiety in opposite directions (positively and negatively, respectively). Overall, the results demonstrated solid reliability (test-retest and internal consistency) and promising but somewhat mixed construct validity for the Swedish translation of the PPI-R.
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