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Antisocial Personality Disorder (or APD as it is sometimes known) is a condition in which people show a persistent disregard for the law and the rights of other people. Sufferers of antisocial personality disorder may tend to lie, steal and have trouble fulfilling job or parenting responsibilities. Society will sometimes use the sociopath and psychopath to describe someone with antisocial personality disorder.

Personality disorders such as APD are not illnesses in a strict sense as they do not disrupt emotional, intellectual, or perceptual functioning. However, those with personality disorders suffer a life that is not positive, proactive, or fulfilling. Not surprisingly, personality disorders are also associated with failures to reach potential.

Early adolescence is a critical time for the development of antisocial personality disorder with people who have grown up in an abusive or neglectful environment thought to be at higher risk of suffering antisocial personality disorder. High levels of antisocial behaviour are considered a clinical disorder. Young children may exhibit hostility towards authority and as a result be diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder. Older children may lie, steal, or engage in violent behaviours leading towards a diagnosis of conduct disorder. A minority of children with conduct disorder whose behaviour doesn’t improve as they mature will go on to develop adult antisocial personality disorder.

Although the diagnosis is limited to those persons over eighteen years of age, adults who suffer from the disorder were usually typically demonstrated behavioural problems as identified above well before the age of 15. The individual often displays a pattern of lying, truancy, delinquency, substance abuse, running away from home and may have difficulty with the law Men are affected by antisocial personality disorder at a rate three times more than women; with the affliction much more prevalent in the prison population than in the general population.
Antisocial personality disorder is a chronic condition.

It represents one of the most difficult personality disorders to treat, however, psychotherapy and some medications may help alleviate symptoms. In many cases, the symptoms of antisocial personality disorder decrease as the person reaches middle age.

SYMPTOMS
The signs and symptoms include:
1. Lack of concern regarding the rules of society and societal expectations.
2. Repeated violations of the rights of others.
3. Unlawful behaviour.
4. Lack of regard for honesty and the truth
5. Neglecting or abusing children.
6. Inability to hold down employment
7. Frequent changes of job through quitting and / or being terminated
8. Tendencies toward physical aggression and extreme irritability.
9. Being deceitful, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure

When diagnosing Antisocial Personality Disorder, it is usual to find that the characteristics of the person themselves don’t regard their behaviour as problematic.
Antisocial personality disorder, demonstrated by adolescents, may be diagnosed by a family physician or paediatrician or school counsellor. As an adult, social workers, psychiatrists or psychologist may diagnose the condition. Diagnosis in a child requires a comprehensive evaluation of the child that will ideally include interviews with the child and parents, a full social and medical history, review of educational records, a cognitive evaluation, and a psychiatric exam.

A variety of methods and techniques are employed to deliver social skills training however effective methods are systemic therapies which address communication skills among the whole family, peer or social groups. These approaches have proven successful best they entail actually developing (or redeveloping) positive relationships between the child or adolescent and other people. Methods used in social skills training include modelling, role-playing, corrective feedback and reinforcement systems.

• Antisocial Personality Disorder: Lack of regard for the moral or legal standards in the local culture, marked inability to get along with others or abide by societal rules. Sometimes called psychopaths or sociopaths.
• Avoidant Personality Disorder: Marked social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and extremely sensitive to criticism.
• Borderline Personality Disorder: Lack of one's own identity, with rapid changes in mood, intense unstable interpersonal relationships, marked impulsively, instability in affect and in self image.
• Dependent Personality Disorder: Extreme need of other people, to a point where the person is unable to make any decisions or take an independent stand on his or her own. Fear of separation and submissive behaviour. Marked lack of decisiveness and self-confidence.
• Histrionic Personality Disorder: Exaggerated and often inappropriate displays of emotional reactions, approaching theatricality, in everyday behaviour. Sudden and rapidly shifting emotion expressions.
• Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Behaviour or a fantasy of grandiosity, a lack of empathy, a need to be admired by others, an inability to see the viewpoints of others, and hypersensitive to the opinions of others.
• Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder: Characterized by perfectionism and inflexibility; preoccupation with uncontrollable patterns of thought and action.
• Paranoid Personality Disorder: Marked distrust of others, including the belief, without reason, that others are exploiting, harming, or trying to deceive him or her; lack of trust; belief of others' betrayal; belief in hidden meanings; unforgiving and grudge holding.
• Schizoid Personality Disorder: Primarily characterized by a very limited range of emotion, both in expression of and experiencing; indifferent to social relationships.
• Schizotypal Personality Disorder: Peculiarities of thinking, odd beliefs, and eccentricities of appearance, behaviour, interpersonal style, and thought (e.g., belief in psychic phenomena and having magical powers).