Is there a cure for sociopaths?

Sociopathy,also called anti-social personality disorder, is treated in different waysalthough the effects of those therapies are not clear. Therefore, this mental disorder is hard to treat, but combined therapies give promising results. Person whosuffers from anti-social personality disorder is not aware that he or she needs atreatment. The first impression about them is usually very positive, because oftheir manipulative nature. They have extremely high self-esteem and think thatthey are superior to any other person. These persons do not seek helpunless someone forces them to.

Sociopathscan’t establish close relationship with others, which also limits the treatmentbecause of the relation with the doctors. It may seem that they accepted adoctor and have built a relation with the therapist, but it can just be amanipulation, because usually they know what to say in order to prove they are gettingbetter.

Therapy

There is no only one treatment for these patients which is effective. The treatment depends onthe person, general health, age, and other disorders a person might have.Sociopathy can be combined with other illnesses like alcohol abuse, depressionor psychotic disorders. It is very common that these persons are aggressive andviolent. They usually become criminals and even serial killers. Because it isextremely hard to treat them, some facilities don’t want to accept these patients,but there are clinics which work with them and are specialized in sociopathy.

Psychotherapiesthat are effective in the treatment are behavioral and cognitive therapies.More therapies should be used in order to get positive results. Behavioraltherapy is trying to change the anti-social behaviors that were probablylearnt in the early ages. The behavioral change includes learning new, moreconstructive ways of behavior. Behavioral therapy uses different types of learningsuch as classical conditioning and operant learning, and both are very effective.There is also training in social skills, where they learn how to properlyrespond to some frustrating situations. The change of dysfunctional beliefs isconducted by cognitive therapy. When wrong beliefs are changed the behavior ischanging as well. Psychotherapy demands from the therapist to enter intosociopaths feelings and understand them. That way therapist will be able tohelp the patient.

Medications

Neurolepticsare used sometimes to calm violent and aggressive individuals and to help themwith psychotherapy. If there are other psychological conditions present, othermedications such as antidepressants, lithium orantiepileptics can also be used. Shock therapy is used also, and it showed good results in thetreatment, while neurosurgery is only used in rare cases when there is malformationin the brain.

Preventionis the best treatment for sociopathy. If a child shows antisocial behavior,react immediately because it is easier to treat and change that behavior duringchildhood.