ABSTRACT
People with antisocial personality disorder and antisocial personality traits display characteristics such as irresponsibility, deceitfulness, recklessness, impulsivity, irritability and aggression. They have high rates of offending, including violent offending, social impairment, substance misuse and mental health problems. They are difficult to manage and often reject help. Mental health services are also sometimes reluctant to offer them treatment. Childhood trauma and a history of behavioural problems at school are risk factors for antisocial personality disorder and antisocial personality traits. Given that these risk factors may be detected early, childhood and adolescence could be a focus for early intervention strategies to prevent these conditions and their consequences. This chapter describes a new intervention, ‘neuro-informed psychotherapy”. Neuro-informed psychotherapy assists young people to understand the normal role of anger and distress and their connection to the developing brain, works with individuals to identify early warning signs of release of emotional distress and helps them develop ways of learning and monitoring self-control. This six-session intervention is described briefly in this chapter.
